![Via Natasha, I give you, ladies and gentlemen, Evander Berry Wall, KING OF THE DUDES!
From Wikipedia (for maximum enjoyment, read aloud):
Evander Berry Wall (1860 – May 13, 1940), was a New York dude who became famous in the 1880s for his extravagantly refined look. […]
He is credited for having been the first person in the United States to have worn during a ball, at a time when the tailcoat was still the rule, a white dinner jacket, sent to him by the London tailor Henry Poole & Co. “to be worn for a quiet dinner at home or at an evening’s entertainment at a summer resort”. He was immediately ordered off the floor.
A journalist of the New York American, Blakely Hall, made Wall famous, proclaiming him in 1888, “King of the Dudes,” for having won the “Battle of the Dudes” against Robert “Bob” Hilliard, another sartorial dude when, during the blizzard of 1888, he strode into a bar clad in gleaming boots of patent leather that went to his hips. Nevertheless, some historians still consider it was Hilliard who won that dude battle.
Wall won another contest in Saratoga Springs, New York against John “Bet a Million” Gates, for having changed clothes 40 times between breakfast and dinner, appearing on the race track “in one flashy ensemble after the other until, exhausted but victorious he at last entered the ballroom of the United States Hotel in faultless evening attire”
After an ill-conceived stock-broking career and additional failures as a stable owner which ended in a 1899 bankruptcy, Wall decided that “New York had become fit only for businessmen” and left for Paris in 1912.
Wall and his wife […] lived with their chow dog Chi-Chi in the Hotel Meurice, near Charvet, where he had his signature “spread eagle” collar shirts and cravats custom-made for himself and his dog: Wall always dined at the Ritz with his dog, whose collars and ties were made by Charvet in the same style and fabric as his master’s.
Wall ascribed his longevity to the fact he never saw physicians and never drank water, claiming: “There are more old drunkards than there are old doctors”. […]
When he died, he left only $12,608, having “squandered nearly every cent on pleasure”.
ALL HAIL KING OF THE DUDES.
PARTY ON, KING OF THE DUDES.](http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxohfdjEN11qzt0gko1_250.jpg)
Via Natasha, I give you, ladies and gentlemen, Evander Berry Wall, KING OF THE DUDES!
From Wikipedia (for maximum enjoyment, read aloud):
Evander Berry Wall (1860 – May 13, 1940), was a New York dude who became famous in the 1880s for his extravagantly refined look. […]
He is credited for having been the first person in the United States to have worn during a ball, at a time when the tailcoat was still the rule, a white dinner jacket, sent to him by the London tailor Henry Poole & Co. “to be worn for a quiet dinner at home or at an evening’s entertainment at a summer resort”. He was immediately ordered off the floor.
A journalist of the New York American, Blakely Hall, made Wall famous, proclaiming him in 1888, “King of the Dudes,” for having won the “Battle of the Dudes” against Robert “Bob” Hilliard, another sartorial dude when, during the blizzard of 1888, he strode into a bar clad in gleaming boots of patent leather that went to his hips. Nevertheless, some historians still consider it was Hilliard who won that dude battle.
Wall won another contest in Saratoga Springs, New York against John “Bet a Million” Gates, for having changed clothes 40 times between breakfast and dinner, appearing on the race track “in one flashy ensemble after the other until, exhausted but victorious he at last entered the ballroom of the United States Hotel in faultless evening attire”
After an ill-conceived stock-broking career and additional failures as a stable owner which ended in a 1899 bankruptcy, Wall decided that “New York had become fit only for businessmen” and left for Paris in 1912.
Wall and his wife […] lived with their chow dog Chi-Chi in the Hotel Meurice, near Charvet, where he had his signature “spread eagle” collar shirts and cravats custom-made for himself and his dog: Wall always dined at the Ritz with his dog, whose collars and ties were made by Charvet in the same style and fabric as his master’s.
Wall ascribed his longevity to the fact he never saw physicians and never drank water, claiming: “There are more old drunkards than there are old doctors”. […]
When he died, he left only $12,608, having “squandered nearly every cent on pleasure”.
ALL HAIL KING OF THE DUDES.
PARTY ON, KING OF THE DUDES.
