This is a statue of Beau (George) Brummell, the Regency buck, the man who invented the suit, which is worn today by millions of men (and women) around the world. Brummell was the favourite of Prince Regent, later George IV, and the equivalent of an IT-boy of Regency London. The Brummell craze at its height had people crowding at Beau's bedroom door to watch him dress and do his morning toilette. Brummell reinvented the male ideal and brought it back from the depths of the powdered wig and garish clothes of a Regency fop into the heights of what we now know as the quintessential male attire - the two piece suit.
Brummell ended up dying of syphilis while exiled in France for non-payment of gambling debts. He was without his adoring crowd but his influence on male fashion has been remained with this beautiful statue in Jermyn Street - the traditional home of the finest shirtmakers in England. Beau, who used to change his shirt three times a day, would be very proud!
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