OverDressed for Life

This is a re-post from 2014.

Yankee Doodle went to town a-riding on a pony. He stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni. Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle Dandy …

– British nursery rhyme, circa 1750.

Actually, it’s a lot more than that. This is part of a little ditty the Brits sung around the American colonials to insult them. There’s a lot of history to this song and many different versions but the use of the word “macaroni” is specific.

A Macaroni.

In England during the mid-1700s there was a certain type of gentleman commonly and disdainfully referred to as a Macaroni. These young fellas were influenced by their European travels, particularly Italy, and they were known for overdoing the fop look – super high wigs, face makeup, tightly cut trousers and jackets, bows on their garters, etc.

So, singing the Yankee Doodle song was a double dis – the Yanks were Macaronies and they didn’t even do that right. Ha!

Happy Fourth of July, dear readers.

Keep it fashionable in your red, white, and blue … and keep it safe, too.