But throughout history, women have also embraced flamboyant, traditionally male dressing.
Of course, there is not an incredibly dense record of female dandies.
Youre not necessarily going to know what other people in your community are doing because you cant see them.
Stormé DeLarverié, 1956
But that doesnt mean the historical record is totally blank.
Still, she is an earlyand rareexample of a woman who openly dressed as a man.
In time, women who embodied the spirit of dandyism earned their own terminologyquaintrelles and dandizettes.
Christina, Queen of Sweden
But they didnt necessarily embody the masculine qualities that dandies embraced, rather the eccentricity and dedication to aesthetics.
In the thick of the Harlem Renaissance, blues singers like Gladys Bentley and Ma Rainey exemplified dandyism.
It’s true I wear a collar and a tie, she sang in Prove It on Me Blues.
Photo: Getty Images
Wear my clothes just like a fan / Talk to the gals just like any old man.
Radclyffe Hall with Lady Una Trowbridge
Across the pond, the writer Radclyffe Hall was also embracing dandyism.
Thanks to a substantial inheritance, Hall was afforded greater independence than many other women of the time.
Gladys Bentley
She chose not to marry or wear feminine clothing, often pictured in a suit and a necktie.
Gluck
Radclyffe Hall
Storme DeLarveriecarried the tradition into the civil rights era.
DeLarverie performed in the legendary Jewel Box Revue as a drag king, tending toward black-tie and outsized suiting.
Radclyffe Hall with Lady Una Trowbridge
It was very easy.
It never changed me.
I was still a woman.
Gluck
The female dandy, although largely unrepresented, remains culturally resonant to this day.
The suit-wearing British painter Gluck inspiredS.S.
Nowadays, womens suiting doesnt carry as direct correlations to queerness, but its dandy roots arent lost.
Radclyffe Hall
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Stormé DeLarverié (center), surrounded by three female impersonators at Roberts Show Club, Chicago, Illinois. 1958
Stormé DeLarverié, 1956
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