As I have been recently researching menswear and the characteristics of narcissism in men's fashion, the person from the past who represents the narcissistic "new man" not only by a well maintained appearance, but also with a well established presence of self-absorption is George Bryan Brummel, the very first dandy of the early 19th century.
"Brummel would spend hour after hour discarding the lightly-starched strips of muslin or cambric that his servants held out - ”our failures” he called them - until he found just the right arrangement that constituted ”a cravat”... His Eton stockings were impeccable, his boots were free of the tiniest spot, his mirrors were said to be cleaned with Champagne, his linen washed with country water and dried in country air... Brummel consciously presented himself to the studying glances, and played his role of fashion doll with professional pleasure. He shared this passion of being seen and with many of his contemporaries. One of the dandy characters in the novel The Exclusives confesses, for instance, that he comes to Hyde Park to see the ladies, but, even more, to show himself, to be admired."
A History of Men’s Fashion, Farid Chenoune, Flammarion, 1993
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