What's a ダンディ?

[languagehacker]

ダンディ means "dandy" in English. This word is not used anymore. If I go to Wikipedia I see old pictures of men from 100 years ago.

Yet Japanese still use the word ダンディ. I saw someone say he is going to dress like one. What does this look like? It doesn't look like those pictures I saw in Wikipedia, right?

Someone said that Clint Eastwood was a dandy and 高倉健 was one, but why? They wear different kinds of clothes depending on what character they're playing. Does dandy have to do just with what clothes a person wears? Is there more to being a dandy then just what kind of clothes a person is wearing?

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by languagehacker

ダンディ means "dandy" in English. This word is not used anymore. If I go to Wikipedia I see old pictures of men from 100 years ago.

Yet Japanese still use the word ダンディ. I saw someone say he is going to dress like one. What does this look like? It doesn't look like those pictures I saw in Wikipedia, right?

Someone said that Clint Eastwood was a dandy and 高倉健 was one, but why? They wear different kinds of clothes depending on what character they're playing. Does dandy have to do just with what clothes a person wears? Is there more to being a dandy then just what kind of clothes a person is wearing?

That's a tough thing to answer. In general, yes, it does mean "dandy," and people (even in the US in some circles) still dress like that. But you're right: we hardly ever use the word "dandy" anymore. I think the last time I encountered the word was reading Dorian Grey, written a century ago.

The Wikipedia-JA article for ダンディ mentions that as of the 1900s it's a ladies' fashion that uses the "mannish" dandy style.

As far as these two people being dandies, it's not about the roles—it's about them when they were just being themselves. And maybe a modern equivalent is "pretty boy" or "prep" or something, but I'm not sure. Also, in English anyway, dandyism was not just a fashion choice, but a way of life. Pick up a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. One of the major characters is a real hardcore dandy.

As for the technical fashionista meaning of ダンディ, perhaps you'll have to check on a fashion board or something. I sure don't know!

[evanny]

maybe they still use it as a part of the expression.
how do you fell?
"fine and dandy"

[languagehacker]

Originally Posted by evanny

maybe they still use it as a part of the expression.
how do you fell?
"fine and dandy"

No, no one really talks like that anymore That's only in old movies.

[languagehacker]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

That's a tough thing to answer. In general, yes, it does mean "dandy," and people (even in the US in some circles) still dress like that. But you're right: we hardly ever use the word "dandy" anymore. I think the last time I encountered the word was reading Dorian Grey, written a century ago.

The Wikipedia-JA article for ダンディ mentions that as of the 1900s it's a ladies' fashion that uses the "mannish" dandy style.

As far as these two people being dandies, it's not about the roles—it's about them when they were just being themselves. And maybe a modern equivalent is "pretty boy" or "prep" or something, but I'm not sure. Also, in English anyway, dandyism was not just a fashion choice, but a way of life. Pick up a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. One of the major characters is a real hardcore dandy.

As for the technical fashionista meaning of ダンディ, perhaps you'll have to check on a fashion board or something. I sure don't know!

I think you came close when you said, "prep." What do you think about "metrosexual?"

It's used for guys who are dressed like in GQ magazine, am I correct?

[jesselt]

We don't use the word dandy in English anymore? Whoops, I guess I didn't get that memo. I've been using it to describe a style of fashion for a long time now.

Next someone will tell me we don't use words like "lolita" or "aristocrat" anymore either.

[languagehacker]

Originally Posted by jesselt

We don't use the word dandy in English anymore? Whoops, I guess I didn't get that memo. I've been using it to describe a style of fashion for a long time now.

Next someone will tell me we don't use words like "lolita" or "aristocrat" anymore either.

No native English speaker in America uses that word anymore in daily conversation, at least not in the same sense that the Japanese use it.

I can already tell by what you wrote that English is not your native language. It's like a Japanese trying to sound American.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by languagehacker

I can already tell by what you wrote that English is not your native language. It's like a Japanese trying to sound American.

I'm pretty sure jesselt is an American.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by languagehacker

I think you came close when you said, "prep." What do you think about "metrosexual?"

It's used for guys who are dressed like in GQ magazine, am I correct?

No. "Metrosexual" is not synonymous with the fashion in GQ. GQ is how gentlemen should dress. Not to sound too elitist, but any lawyer or businessman ought to dress like the men in GQ. I would not describe this as metrosexual or dandy, but "dandy" is closer than "metrosexual" to the GQ style.

To my native ear, "metrosexual" involves more than just clothing (which is often quite tight and has a style typically associated with either gay culture or female culture). GQ is about looking traditionally manly (good, "normal" haircut; nice suits, ties, etc.). It's called the Gentlemen's Quarterly for a reason!

I think maybe "dandy" might be the 19th and early 20th centuries' equivalent of "metrosexual." Well, analogue. Not equivalent.

[languagehacker]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

No. "Metrosexual" is not synonymous with the fashion in GQ. GQ is how gentlemen should dress. Not to sound too elitist, but any lawyer or businessman ought to dress like the men in GQ. I would not describe this as metrosexual or dandy, but "dandy" is closer than "metrosexual" to the GQ style.

To my native ear, "metrosexual" involves more than just clothing (which is often quite tight and has a style typically associated with either gay culture or female culture). GQ is about looking traditionally manly (good, "normal" haircut; nice suits, ties, etc.). It's called the Gentlemen's Quarterly for a reason!

I think maybe "dandy" might be the 19th and early 20th centuries' equivalent of "metrosexual." Well, analogue. Not equivalent.

I used to subscribe to GQ, and when I think of metrosexual I think of those images that I see in it.

The promotion of metrosexuality was left to the men's style press, magazines such as The Face, GQ, Esquire, Arena and FHM, the new media which took off in the Eighties and is still growing (GQ gains 10,000 new readers every month). They filled their magazines with images of narcissistic young men sporting fashionable clothes and accessories. And they persuaded other young men to study them with a mixture of envy and desire.

Some people said unkind things. American GQ, for example, was popularly dubbed ''Gay Quarterly''. Little wonder that all these magazines — with the possible exception of The Face — address their metrosexual readership as if none of them were homosexual or even bisexual.
—Mark Simpson, "Here come the mirror men," The Independent, November 15, 1994

Word Spy - metrosexual

I think the only people who make a connection between metrosexual and gay are those kinds of people that don't really understand fashion or can't afford to dress well. There's no need for you to defend what you see in GQ as not being metrosexual.

I invite you to post a link to a picture of something that you think is metrosexual but would not be seen in GQ.