The pattern of modern foppery

[imomus]

Fopling Flutter is a character in George Etherege's 1676 comedy of manners The Man of Mode. But it's also the name of my favourite Berlin clothes shop, on the Lausitzer Platz in Kreuzberg.

Here -- to show you what manner of personage Sir Fopling is -- I reproduce the dialogue introducing him in Act 1 of Etherege's play:

Young Bellair No man in town has a better fancy in his clothes than you have.
Dorimant You will make me have an opinion of my genius.
Medley There is a great critic, I hear, in these matters lately arrived piping hot from Paris.
Young Bellair Sir Fopling Flutter, you mean.
Medley The same.
Young Bellair He thinks himself the pattern of modern gallantry.
Dorimant He is indeed the pattern of modern foppery
Medley He was yesterday at the play, with a pair of gloves up to his elbows and a periwig more exactly curled than a lady's head newly dressed for a ball.
Young Bellair What a pretty lisp he has!
Dorimant Ho, that he affects in imitation of the people of quality in France.
Medley His head stands for the most part on one side, and his looks are more languishing than a lady's when she lolls at stretch in her coach or leans her head carelessly against the side of a box i' the playhouse.
Dorimant He is a person indeed of great acquired follies.
Medley He is like many others, beholding to his education for making him so eminent a coxcomb. Many a fool had been lost to the world had their indulgent parents wisely bestowed neither learning nor good breeding on 'em.
Young Bellair He has been, as the sparkish word is, brisk upon the ladies already. He was yesterday at my Aunt Townley's, and gave Mrs. Loveit a catalogue of his good qualities under the character of a complete gentleman, who (according to Sir Fopling) ought to dress well, dance well, fence well, have a genius for love-letters, an agreeable voice for a chamber, be very amorous, something discreet, but not overconstant.
Medley Pretty ingredients to make an accomplished person!

The shop Fopling Flutter tries -- almost heartbreakingly hard -- to take the basic grammatical elements of contemporary garb (the stuff we tend to buy; hooded tops, hats, t-shirts) and push them, through invention, over the top into mannerism. Dull pragmatic hoods become enormous and decorative, sleeves are tied together at the wrist, straitjacket-style, hats sprout ears. Despite this restless energy (the workshop at the back is full of sewing women chatting and laughing as they corrupt the practical with the fantastic), the shop is always empty when I look in. In contrast to the age of periwigs and powder, ours is apparently a time terrified of all mannerism in its apparel. We seem to agree with Flutter's rival Dorimant: "I would not have a woman have the least good thought of me that can think well of Fopling."

Comments

[microworlds.livejournal.com]

I'm so, so sorry, but my mind is going all kinds of crazy reading this post. I thought the title said "The pottern of modern fappery", and it didn't help with "I reproduce the dialogue". I don't think I will be able to read this seriously when all I can think about is masturbation at every line. :(

[microworlds.livejournal.com]

And by "seriously" I mean "read it out of its true comedic context".

Lisppp

[(Anonymous)]

Interesting - This may not be a popular statement to make, but in todays western society, where homosexuality is commonplace and widely acceptable at all levels i think most people will agree that the line,

"He is a person indeed of great acquired follies."

Could be brandished to a great deal of todays over zealous gays. Not in a derogatory way, but it is certainly successful in describing the mannerisms many of them use - i've added it to my mental dictionary. Thanks Momus.

wewillbecome.com

Re: Lisppp

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Well, Sir Fopling is, despite his lisp, his flamboyance, his preening, thoroughly hetero. I think the line about "acquired follies" is more about English mistrust of the French than anything to do with homosexuality -- which, we now know, is innate, not acquired.

Re: Lisppp

[(Anonymous)]

I never questioned his sexuality, i just think the phrase fits the homosexuals of today. I realise it is "innate" but the mannerisms adopted by them are, in my eyes, follies. Holding your hands a certain way, speaking a certain way and walking a certain way are follies when it comes to sexuality, as the gay man who goes to football games and works on the site is just as gay as those with all these mannerisms, therefore they are follies, ie have no purpose.

wewillbecome.com

Re: Lisppp

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I think you're using "folly" in the architectural sense when you say "have no purpose". A folly is a building with no purpose, but folly in general means wrongness:

"lack of good sense or normal prudence and foresight
criminally or tragically foolish actions or conduct
(obsolete) : evil, wickedness; especially : lewd behavior
a foolish act or idea" (Merriam Webster)

It's hard to use "folly" in that sense without sounding very judgemental.

I also think that you're wrong about homosexuality being both affected and tolerated in the West. We're seeing a black man and a woman vying for US president, for instance, but could we seriously imagine an openly gay man running for the office? Hell will freeze over before that happens, I fear.

And the main trend I see in today's gay world is a meek imitation of hetero modes -- the right of gays to marry, for instance -- and a downplaying of difference. I think we're living in a world where difference from majority norms is stigmatized. That's why people aren't buying Fopling Flutter's beautiful clothes: they start with mass templates like the hooded top, but take them too far from "normality". People are willing to go as far as American Apparel (ie the usual forms in some extra colours), but not as far as Fopling Flutter. To survive, they'll either have to tone down what they do, or take it up-market.

Re: Lisppp

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, you're right, i was using it in the architectural sense, but surely that can be used? Rhetorical. And yes i agree hell would freeze over, but when the likes of Graham Norton are on prime time BBC1 and his sexuality is something he celebrates i think it a little less so. You're older and wiser then I, so i dare not enter into an ongoing argument, i commented on what first came to mind, that is all.

wewillbecome.com

Re: Lisppp

[(Anonymous)]

oh and the up market sewn together with string overs sized hoody has been around for a few seasons, michiko koshino brought one out - i own it - i may post a picture.

foppery etc

[psalamone.livejournal.com]

I am wracking my brain to come up with some contemporaries of Fopling Flutter, and all I come up with is... Prince? Andre 3000? I think you're right, and the problem is especially acute in Berlin, where H&M may as well be the Haupstadt Ministry of Uniform Dress. But I do wonder if this is about more than risk-averse consumption: don't males normally prefer to do the Observing, rather than to be the one Observed?

"And the main trend I see in today's gay world is a meek imitation of hetero modes -- the right of gays to marry, for instance -- and a downplaying of difference."

Great statement. Reminds me of what K-Punk says in his analysis of Edelmen's "Queer Theory" (http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/005071.html):

"Although Edelman has little to say about capitalism, it is surely not accidental that the production of 'gay' identity over the last twenty five years has coincided with the collapse of effective political alternatives to capitalism."

Re: foppery etc

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Well, I was brought up with the convictions expressed in "My Conviction" in Hair:

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaactually, [male flamboyance] is the way things are in most species!

[scarletgeryon.livejournal.com]

this post resonates with some thoughts i've had lately on the degree to which subcultural/niche fashions must rigidly adhere to a predetermined aesthetic; perhaps they do so even more than "mainstream fashion" in order to protect themselves from less than chic infiltrators, "performers" of the fashion. i participate in a lot of gothic lolita-themed web communities of various natures, and the most common and most derisive criticism of a poster's clothing is "you look cosplayish" or "your dress looks like a costume". it's not enough to don a ruffled skirt and petticoat; participating in the fashion is about naturalizing the style, however silly that might seem...making the performative elements as invisible as possible.

that's why it's so interesting whenever people do this sort of thing to clothes that mimic the aesthetic of "functional" daywear. it's so clearly performative for the sake of being performative because it strives only to contradict its own aesthetic.

ha, i feel really exposed even writing about this.

[(Anonymous)]

Cant wait for the coming out party. I got my diamante hoodie and Diana Ross wig at the ready.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

3cj4w\nyfsez0ED2J3WRY78ESDZ ETHEREDGE

Why will nobody write me Earl of Rochester/George Etheredge slash??! IHU world.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I fail to understand why effeminacy always comes up when discussing the peacock aspects of male dress. Are there none among you who have seen the middle-aged black man strutting the streets in radioactive colors? What of the sapeurs of Paris? The swenkas (http://www.filmforum.org/films/swenkas.html) of South Africa? Do none of us remember the plumes worn by the Ojibwa, (http://www.si.edu/ahhp/cbking/Caatousee.jpg) Seminole (http://www.floridamemory.com/OnlineClassroom/seminoles/Rc0-471.cfm) or the Creek? (http://www.si.edu/ahhp/cbking/Selocta.jpg) What of the flamboyant and reckless Confederate generals (http://www.womacknet.net/features/jsmosby/portrait.gif) ("Company Darling" in Mosby's rangers, Morgan's Raiders, etc) who were born of the southern agrarian cavalier tradition? One must back up those feathers, you know.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

Because there is nothing worse than there being a perfectly cliched, ordinary man underneath all that beauty.

funny coincidence

[brokenjunior.livejournal.com]

just checked out the shop on my way back home from smartdeli (http://www.smartdeli.de/jp), and found out that a friend of mine is working there.
Linda is an artist/designer, studying at udk and head behind realfakewatches (http://www.realfakewatches.com/).
One can meet her there thursdays and on saturdays (or, on other times, her knitting mother instead).

Re: foppery etc

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Well, it's all performance and role play--there's no escape from that. Even dressing drably or anonymously sends a message.

What it comes down to is which form of narcissism we prefer: the kind that takes itself too seriously and plays it safe, or the more social, generous kind that invites others to play along.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

...Other than perhaps a man too timid, unimaginative, or unable to laugh at himself to risk looking slightly ridiculous to the Normals.

(Not a fan of punk or glam then, I take it? For shame, E!)

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

...and besides: normal men, if they do diverge from the norm, will almost always do so in predictable ways, so your point is moot from the start.

Re: Lisppp

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Most young gay men today are a timid, conformist lot: they usually won't vary from three or so preset templates, the most common being that godawful jeans and jacket with open collar uniform. I go to AIDS charity fund raisers, and I can barely tell one from another. I usually just hang out with the older queers, who are far more outwardly "incorrect" and interesting.

Re: foppery etc

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I am wracking my brain to come up with some contemporaries of Fopling Flutter

They're everywhere.

Re: foppery etc

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

H&M (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v250/lord_whimsy/Whimsy/DSCN8669-1.jpg)

H&M (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v250/lord_whimsy/Whimsy/DSCN1504.jpg)

H&M (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v250/lord_whimsy/Whimsy/Pic-007.jpg)

It ain't always the what, but the how.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I'm really getting impatient with the kids: They'll idolize the movements of the past, yet in general seem unwilling to pay the dues necessary to make exciting new scenes happen. They seem far too conventional, comfortable, and above all else fretful and worried about what others think of them. "Someone snickered at my shoes. Oh boo hoo!"

Blaze a goddamn trail of your own, and stop being such cowards! Why the hell is anyone under the age of twenty-five even here? It shouldn't be up to old freaks like Nick and I to provide your fodder--we should be written off as irrelevant, marginal old farts, just like we did to the generation that preceded us. Grow a pair and pull your own cultural weight! A youth culture in which you cannot get beaten up for being an open member isn't one worth joining.

Now go out there and make spectacles of yourselves--and don't forget your helmet!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

we should be written off as irrelevant, marginal old farts, just like we did to the generation that preceded us

I sort of agree with what you're saying here, but since you're speaking for me too I should say that I never wrote off the preceding generation. I've never called anyone an "old fart". I was never "punk" in that stereotypical sense. I still think the 1960s is full of the most amazing achievements, and when I was 18 I certainly put people like Ivor Cutler and Viv Stanshall -- or Edith Sitwell, for that matter -- above people like Rat Scabies and Johnny Thunders. Or, you know, old men like Gainsbourg, Brassens, Brel, Cohen, or old ladies like Brigitte Fontaine and Joni Mitchell and Nico. You have to be a pretty amazing young person to be fit to touch the hem of their garments -- probably Afghan coats, by the way.

[microworlds.livejournal.com]

You should have seen what I wore to church every Sunday! I showed all of the other youth that it was okay to look totally flamboyant! Right now I'm wearing a nice little vintage sailor themed dress which makes me look like a little girl, but I like it so that's all that matters! Fuck the haters!