An exploration of British male fashion of the late eighteenth century

A brilliant account of a controversial moment in mens self-fashioning.Valerie Steele, director and chief curator, Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology

The term macaroni was once as familiar a label as punk or hipster is today. In this handsomelyillustrated book devoted to notable eighteenth-century British male fashion, award-winning author and fashion historian Peter McNeil brings together dress, biography, and historical events with the broader visual and material culture of the late eighteenth century.

For thirty years, macaroni was a highly topical word, yielding a complex set of social, sexual, and cultural associations. Pretty Gentlemen is grounded in surviving dress, archival documents, and art spanning hierarchies and genres, from scurrilous caricature to respectful portrait painting. Celebrities hailed and mocked as macaroni include politician Charles James Fox, painter Richard Cosway, freed slave Julius Soubise, and criminal parson Reverend Dodd. The style also rapidly spread to neighboring countries in cross-cultural exchange, while Horace Walpole, George III, and Queen Charlotte were active critics and observers of these foppish men.