When they weren’t riding bucking broncos, gun-slinging at the saloon, herding cattle and exploring the Wild West, it’s hard to picture that some American cowboys might also have been nurturing a talent for writing rhythmic verse. For more than a century however, cowboys have been … | Continue reading
Ask any millennial with a heartbeat for fashion about the 90s cult-classic film, Clueless, and watch their eyes light up as they recall Cher Horowitz (played by Alicia Silverstone) and her “way normal” morning routine of mixing and matching pieces on her desktop computer to pick … | Continue reading
In 1924, a truck accidentally sank into a backlot in Washington DC, opening a sinkhole and revealing a labyrinth of tunnels. People were aghast at what had been found; there was talk of bootleggers and spies that would later make the front page of the Healdsburg Tribune, but no o … | Continue reading
The story has everything a good drama needs: religion, sex, and murder. Judith was a beautiful young widow who saved Israel when the town of Bethulia was under siege by the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar. After a long prayer, Judith entered the Assyrian camp with her maid and gaine … | Continue reading
Beauty is only skin deep. But what if it’s actually even shallower than you think, only a few microns of spray tan thick? The global cosmetics conglomerate L’Oréal has devoted over a 100 years to the titivation of our precious bodies and telling us ‘we’re worth it’ from billboard … | Continue reading
1. Reading in Paris A themed compilation of 1950s photographs found on Live Journal. 2. Fabulous Vintage Bulgarian lottery tickets More found on Present & Correct. 3. A Peculiar Measuring instrument This circular slide rule describes the effects of a nuclear explosion on people. … | Continue reading
You only need to have a gander at the armour that Henry VIII used to wear to see how proud he was of his nether regions. Indeed, during his reign, one of the most important fashion items in a gentleman’s ensemble was a designated pouch that protruded from the crotch of men’s trou … | Continue reading
Despite being a daughter of St. Louis, MO, for many years Josephine Baker was a virtually unknown name to the average American. These days, as we have come to learn more about Black history and its figures, Ms. Baker has come to be regarded as one of the most dynamic and influent … | Continue reading
When we hear the name Fabergé, we instantly think of those exquisite Imperial eggs; the mystery and intrigue surrounding their loss and rediscovery following the Russian revolution. But in truth, the goldsmith’s real and most potent love affair of the 20th century was one with fl … | Continue reading
It feels like a lifetime ago that were spying on the film set for The French Dispatch, desperate for a glimpse of the movie magic that Wes and his team of talented elves were busy creating in the French town of Angoulême. Alas, nearly two years later, the much-anticipated film ha … | Continue reading
She was legendary, and she was a legendary drunk, though she claimed her family’s stout was undrinkable. Perhaps you know her as the heiress to the Guinness fortune, or for her high-profile marriages, first to the artist Lucian Freud, who painted her famous 1952 portrait, “Girl i … | Continue reading
This incredible historic home has been sitting on the market for a little longer than we’re comfortable with. Fairview Manor is the sort of place that’s pretty much straight out of Tim Burton’s imagination, so it’ll take a special sort of owner to take it on. But of course, pairi … | Continue reading
That unapologetic unibrow, the halo-crown of jet-black centre-parted flower-adorned plaits, rouged cheekbones and russet lips frame a fearless stare. Her Mexican torzal necklaces, silver filigree earrings and onyx beads you and I could only hope to collect over a lifetime of scou … | Continue reading
1. The Autumn Leaf Keepers of Paris 1930s – 1950s. Photographer unknown. Found on Life Journal. 2. A Glass Hideaway for Sale in Paris’ Latin Quarter Former stables, asking 2.6M Euros, found on Espaces Atypiques. 3. A Marfa Studio Visit with Camp Bosworth 4. A Persian Astronomical … | Continue reading
When you think of the photographers that captured the humans of Paris, masters of the lens like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassaï and Robert Doisneau come to mind. Their iconic black and white photographs are often as familiar as the monuments of Paris themselves. Today, we’re turni … | Continue reading
Buried by the elitist art establishment, hers must be the art world’s best kept secret this century. This is the story of a possessed, prodigious painter who prolifically created art that looks so modern it looks more at home in the 21st century; the story of a spiritually-minded … | Continue reading
It’s amazing to see how our minds can wander in different ways; how imaginations can wander from a single picture. We recently proposed a new challenge for our readers to become the storyteller, prompted by a historical found photograph with very little information about its auth … | Continue reading
Secret college societies have lurked in the shadows of the Ivy League since the 19th century, and the rumours and whispers about what happens behind closed doors only adds to the mystery and allure, but there was one secret faction in particular which managed to keep itself hidde … | Continue reading
1. Human nature, or, Men and Women Exposed, 1901 A forgotten book, found and digitised on Archive.org. 2. A Life Magazine illustration predicting the fashion of the future, 1914 Found on Reddit. 3. Airline reservations before computers, 1945 (And apparently before we changed the … | Continue reading
As much as we moan about holiday decorations going up too early every year, there’s something about perusing those eye-catching window displays that somehow manages to yank us back to childhood as we stand before them in our wooly hats, like moths to a flame. So maybe you thought … | Continue reading
In 1929, Grete Stern and Ellen Auerbach opened the first women-owned commercial photo studio in Berlin. Calling it ringl + pit, a cheeky name that effectively disguised their gender, they proceeded to produce work as experimental as their polyamorous queer love life. Their jazz a … | Continue reading
Fashion has always had the uncanny ability to mimic the drama of life, there’s no doubt social norms, political shifts and cultural changes are reflected in what we wear. Die-hard fashionistas, sociologists and anthropologists alike tell us clothes are our social armour, they mir … | Continue reading
For hundreds of years, the term “computer” was a job title for a human before machines took over the job, and in the late 19th century, computers weren’t just human, they were mostly women. An English Countess and Victorian mathematician, Ada Lovelace, is regarded as the first co … | Continue reading
1. The world’s first publicly accessible art museum storage facility Offering an entirely new type of experience for museum-goers and art lovers in the Netherlands, the art storage facility in Rotterdam’s Museumpark, which will open to the public in autumn 2021, has been built to … | Continue reading
2020 was called “the year of Karen”. The meme undoubtedly reached its height during the pandemic, but the concept itself is arguably nothing new. In the antebellum era, there was “Miss Ann”, widely used amongst the African-American community to refer to European-American women (o … | Continue reading
Today we’re escaping a gloomy fall afternoon with a visit to the colourful, extravagant world of Józef Mehoffer. Care to join us in our virtual art gallery? Born in 1946 in what was then Austro-Hungary, Mehoffer studied art in Krakow, Vienna, and Paris. He led the Young Poland mo … | Continue reading
There’s a famous American song “Yankee Doodle” – you might’ve heard of it – the lyrics go like this: “Yankee Doodle went to town, A-riding on a pony, Stuck a feather in his cap, And called it macaroni.” The familiar patriotic tune was in fact created by the British to mock the Am … | Continue reading
“Art Nouveau – but make it spooky.” That’s Karl Alexander Wilke (1879-1954) in a nutshell. When first we found the Austrian-German illustrator, who carved out his own delightfully eerie corner of Art Nouveau artworks through clever magazines covers and adverts, we were suitably j … | Continue reading
Silver screen icon Anna May Wong is likely the only Asian-American actress from the Golden Age of Hollywood that any of us have heard of. From the dearth of information on any other Asian-American actress, it may seem as if Wong was all alone. But contrary to what mainstream narr … | Continue reading
1. This Alpine Shelter in the Italian Dolomites, built during World War I at a height of 2760 meters Today, the mountain range is part of the “Natural Park of the Ampezzo Dolomites,” but back during WWI it was a scene of intense warfare between Italy and Austria-Hungary. The warr … | Continue reading
Every year, nearly a million people flock to Romania’s famous Bran Castle, a medieval fortress in Transylvania often referred to as the home of Dracula. Us mere mortals have a morbid fascination with the seductively taboo tales of vampires from deepest Transylvania and the immort … | Continue reading
With the lights of Broadway and the West End lit once again, live theatre fans are dazzled anew by crashing chandeliers, green-skinned witches and rapping revolutionaries. But for all their glitter and grandeur, no modern musical can approach the absolute spectacle of the royal c … | Continue reading
In the dappled light coming through the trees, a jovial bohemian crowd have gathered to dance and dally at the Moulin de la Galette, one of the many windmills that originally stood at the northern tip of Paris. By the time Renoir’s famous painting had captured the scene in 1876, … | Continue reading
‘Objectification’ simply doesn’t sit well with our emancipated, liberal 21st century selves; in its simplest form it suggests the degrading of someone to the status of a mere object. Throughout history, the objectification of women, going hand in hand with gender discrimination, … | Continue reading
1. Take a peek around this Georgian style home for sale “The Hargrove Bellamy House is a prominent Market Street mansion in the heart of historic Wilmington with an impressive historic pedigree. Built in 1928, by Hargrove Bellamy, a descendant of Wilmington’s famed Bellamy family … | Continue reading
Name a post-Impressionist woman painter and most people would draw a blank. Or they would cast their mind back to Mary Cassat or Berthe Morisot and their pastel domestic scenes. Few know of Suzanne Valadon, who shocked the turn-of-the-century art world with her boldly outlined nu … | Continue reading
We often try to avoid death. Sweep it under the rug, pretend it doesn’t exist and live in comfortable denial. But we weren’t always this way. In fact, many past societies have been completely obsessed with death, as seen in their art, literature, and philosophy. It can all be exa … | Continue reading
The air is getting colder, the kids are back in school, and the sidewalks are strewn with leaves. It’s autumn in Paris, and we’re back with our seasonal guide! So whether you live in Paris or will just be passing through, read on for our recommandations of what do do, eat, and se … | Continue reading
The Fool left its mark all over the 1960s, but few can match the name to the art today. The Dutch collective of artists and designers who named themselves after a Tarot card that’s often numbered as zero in the deck – as in the first – were unquestionable pioneers of the psychede … | Continue reading
1. A Live-In Museum/ Gallery Space in Provence for Sale Situated in the heart of beautiful Bonnieux Village in the Luberon region, asking 420,000 euros. More details found on Espaces Atypiques. 2. England’s oldest inn, Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem (dating to 1189) Nottingham, Englan … | Continue reading
If modern art has taught us anything, it is that anything can be considered art. Picasso’s and Braque’s curious peeling newspaper collages of the 1910s spring to mind as the opening act for the ‘Modern Art’ movement. It was at this point in time, in the early 20th century where ‘ … | Continue reading
There are places in New York and the northeastern coast of America, where a pleasurable trip to the seaside can take a turn for the peculiar. You may be wandering along a bucolic beach only to stumble across the abandoned ruins of brutalist concrete structures lying half buried i … | Continue reading
You may or may not be aware that Gustave Eiffel used his iconic Eiffel Tower as a personal start-up lab for scientific innovation (hint: you probably heard it from us). But did you know that there’s also a “secret” military bunker still buried beneath, with an entrance near the s … | Continue reading
1. A historic spiritual sanctuary of miniature shrines on KauaiOriginally the site of an ancient heiau, or Hawaiian temple, the 32-acre valley on Kauai’s southern shore later became host to iconography of another religion: 88 Buddhist shrines. Measuring no larger than a dollhouse … | Continue reading
Bryant Park and the Main Branch of the New York Public Library todayBryant Park is one of Manhattan’s most popular public spaces. Basking in the shadow of the main branch of the New York Public Library, there you will find a bustling leafy oasis within touching distance of Times … | Continue reading
African American artist Lois Mailou Jones, "Paris le soir"After the Great War, a new kind of music began to waft through the winding streets of lower Montmartre. Unrestrained, audacious, with a potent syncopated rhythm unlike anything ever heard in Europe. It was the music of Bla … | Continue reading