The History of The Chap Magazine

It is one of the stranger quirks of British publishing that a magazine devoted to pipe-smoking, cravat-tying, and firm opposition to modernity should have not only come into existence in the 21st century but thrived. The Chap magazine—founded in 1999 by a splendidly unmodern fellow named Gustav Temple and Vic Darkwood. It is exactly what might happen if P.G. Wodehouse and Monty Python opened a newsstand.

The magazine began, as many great British endeavours do, as something of a joke, a sort of tweedy counterattack against the denim-clad tyranny of casual wear. Its early issues, reportedly typed on a vintage Olivetti and edited over large gins, promoted what they called “anarcho-dandyism”—the radical idea that men should dress properly, speak politely, and generally behave as if it were still 1936. The result was a publication that somehow managed to combine satire, social critique, and fashion advice into a single cocktail of delightful absurdity.

What’s remarkable is how far The Chap has gone with its joke. Over the years, it has organized protests against modern vulgarities, including one memorable demonstration outside a high-street chain for selling trousers without pleats. (They carried umbrellas. For effect. And possibly rain.) It also runs the annual Chap Olympiad, in which contestants compete at events such as “Not Playing Tennis” and “Umbrella Jousting.”

Reading The Chap is rather like stumbling upon a secret club where everyone still knows how to mix a proper martini and would never, under any circumstances, be seen without a pocket square. And yet, behind the moustaches and mock-seriousness, there is something oddly touching—an affection for civility, eccentricity, and the quietly defiant belief that the world would be a better place if we all just made a bit more effort.

It is, in short, gloriously British. And in a world of clickbait and fast fashion, The Chap remains a reminder that sometimes the best way forward is backward. Preferably in a velvet smoking jacket.