Dandizettes defined by history
The terms Dandizette & Dandy were initially terms of mockery. Dandizettes were a manifestation of the growing power of female intellectuals using sexual allure & wit to leverage power.
The Dandy’s were Cavaliers who allied themselves to the Royal Court – largely Catholic in the 1640’s. In flamboyant lace-trimmed velvets, jewels & feather-plumed hats they were making a sartorial statement on their aesthetic philosophy as well as attesting their loyalty to the artistic court of the Stuart King Charles I & Queen Henrietta (nee De Medici)
In 1642 Puritan cartoons mocked the Dandy as cartoon fools in boots & hats garnished with bells such as those worn by court jesters. The Dandizette was similarly lampooned as intellectual aristocratic ladies, ostentatiously attired in expensive fripperies, their long noses – disfigured warts – immersed in reading books.
To the fury of the Puritans, the Cavaliers appropriated the insults as badges of honour & their ostentatious dress flourished even after their Stuart King Charles II was restored to the throne.
The Civil War 1642 to 1651 was triggered by greed & justified by religion but at its heart the 17th Century Civil War was a bloody battle over the morality of art & beauty. Protestant-Puritan Parliamentarians stridently opposed any & all expressions of Beauty & Art perceived as gateways to sin & Satan. The Royalists Cavaliers believed Art & Beauty were the gateways to grace & God. The death toll of the Civil War was enormous & Britain was bankrupted.
Upon the Catholic Stuart King Charles II restoration May 29th 1660 fountains flowed with champagne, there was dancing on the streets & people threw rose petals at the procession of Dandies & Dandizettes rode through the streets of London.
From the ashes of the Civil War & Cromwell’s brutal oppressive regime came the uniquely British Characters; the Dandy and Dandizette & the British Eccentrics became part of the warp and woof of British Society, as tea, tweed, and tolerance.