“No man in modern times has dared to dress as he pleased, except Oscar Wilde…”
The commentary below appeared in a fashion issue of Life magazine in 1916. It is styled as the “manly confession” of a sentiment still so unmanly that its exemplar was Oscar Wilde, sixteen years after his death.
Unsurprisingly, it appeared above an amusingly transparent pseudonym in keeping with the light-hearted tone of the magazine.
And yet, given its reference to the “craven hisses” that greeted Wilde’s demise and the condemnation of cowardice, I suspect a little earnest belief lay hidden in plain sight.
© John Cooper, 2025.
Related:
Forthcoming book:
Oscar Wilde On Dress (2025)
Life magazine (relevant issue):
https://archive.org/details/sim_life_1916-03-02_67_1740/page/378/mode/2up?view=theater