1. This Fabulous CoupleThe most elegant viral sensation to emerge in the Berlin fashion scene, found on Instagram.2. Ella Slack, the Queen's Stand-inQueen Elizabeth II has had the same body-double for 30 years. Before the monarch appears at large events, E | Continue reading
It ticks once a year, the century hand advances once every 100 years, the cuckoo comes out on the millennium, and it will keep time for the next 10,000 years. In the belly of a Texas mountain, picture a huge clock, hundreds of feet tall, and as you read this, it's quietly ticking … | Continue reading
Pack cozy sweaters, a waterproof jacket or barbour, some wellies and a sailor’s cap. Indulge in the simple pleasures of a fisherman’s weekend off. Eat plenty of fresh seafood and buttery crêpes. Immerse yourself in the proud and unchanged culture of the Bretons. Bounce between ce … | Continue reading
WPA workers cleaning artifacts from an archaeology project in Alabama, ca. 1935-1943. Photo courtesy of the National ArchivesEveryone was thinking it. Maria Franklin just said it. "Why are there so few Black American archeologists?" asked Maria Franklin in response to a landmark … | Continue reading
Okay, this probably sounds creepier than it really is. In Japan's Iya Valley, considered one of the country's most beautiful but unexplored regions, a remote elementary school was abandoned for nearly a decade, before Yohei Aoki came along and made it his home. Since 2017, the fo … | Continue reading
"A Dream" by Murat YıldırımTraditionally, Surrealism is born from confrontation. Confrontation of war, gender norms, existentialism – you name it, Salvador Dali probably addressed it with a melting clock. Given that the 20th century movement emerged from this unflinching dive int … | Continue reading
1. The "Witch’s House" in its original location on a Hollywood studio lot. Moved to Beverly Hills in the 1930s, now a private home.CNN has a great tour inside the house with the current owner. 2. How Wes Anderson Is So Good At "Stealing" Scenes From Other Moviesh | Continue reading
"I thought we were past this. I thought we'd moved on from Blair Waldorf's Gossip Girl-era fantasies of Paris." A link to the trailer of Netflix's upcoming show, Emily in Paris, had just been pasted into a long-running group text amongst my circle of well-seasoned, apéro-loving t … | Continue reading
Now I know. Did you? There's an official name for all those kitschy roadside buildings shaped like the merchandise they're selling. Most popular in the 1920s and 30s, giant coffee pots, hot dogs, ice cream cones, beer barrels, farm animals and other eye-catching buildings sprang … | Continue reading
What do house cats, Euro pop, and ingenious tax savvy have in common? Owe Sandström, that's who. As the flamenco-dancing-zoologist-designer behind the costumes of ABBA, Sandström certainly played his part in helping the Swedish supergroup reach fame in the 1970s – where they have … | Continue reading
1. A 350 year old pocket watch carved from a single Colombian emerald, found hidden in a London CellarFor almost 300 years a buried treasure lay undisturbed below one of London's busiest streets. Discovered by workmen in 1912, the Cheapside Hoard is the greatest single collection … | Continue reading
Prints by New York or NowhereNo matter the circumstance, "life finds a way" in New York City, to quote the wise words of Jurassic Park. This city always had an almost reptilian talent for regeneration, from the Great Depression to the rough 'n tumble 1980s to that fateful day on … | Continue reading
September, which Parisians call La Rentrée, is in our opinion, one of the best months of the year. It’s when Paris comes alive again after the summer drought, everyone’s back from their holidays with a golden glow and eager to mingle. It's more important than ever to get out into … | Continue reading
A pair of clandestine, gender-bending lovers are about to embrace at la brasserie. A fashionable young woman in a barely-there dress is partying the night away in the cabarets of Paris without a care (or a man) in the world to ruin her fun. A curious eye would be intrigued by the … | Continue reading
When you think of Indian cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Jaipur, you might think of the impossibly intricate architecture, ancient folklore, explosions of colour and unstoppable energy; a welcome deluge of the senses. But there is one place that is not like the others. In the north … | Continue reading
1. This statue hanging in the cellar of an abandoned castle in ItalyFound & photographed by urban explorer Romeo Battini. No further information available on the location (trust me, I've looked). 2. Roscigno Vecchia, the Italian ghost town with only one inhabitant, Giuseppe Spagn | Continue reading
@ La Maison RayesIt seems all we've seen of beautiful Beirut lately are images of devastation. Not so long ago, it wasn’t hard to convince people to take a glamorous vacation in Lebanon. It was a playground for movie stars like Brigitte Bardot, Omar Sharif and Peter O’Toole. The … | Continue reading
August is summer's final hurrah. The moment when sun-baked Parisians pour back in to the city from vacation, and maybe, just maybe, plan one more summer escape. Something pastoral, but close to home. Something "cottagecore." Don't know the term? It's rising internet slang for al … | Continue reading
Bedazzled drag queens, mobsters, and Errol Flynn playing a piano with his errr ... manhood? It was just another Saturday night at NYC's "82 Club," c. 1955. Tucked inside a nondescript door at 82 East 4th Street in Manhattan, "82" declared itself the "gayest rendez-vous"on the tow … | Continue reading
1. There's a pyramid hidden in the Scottish HighlandsHidden away in woodland on the Balmoral Estate in Royal Deeside is an incredible pyramid structure which rises above the trees... Erected by Queen Victoria, it was created in memory of her husband Prince Albert after his death … | Continue reading
Going into this, I don't think I was prepared at all for how un-unique the story of Florida's Sugar Hill neighbourhood really was. In the 1950s and 60s, the once upper class and prestigious Black community of Sugar Hill in Jacksonville, was chosen by city officials to be levelled … | Continue reading
We do love a good plunge into worlds apart – filled with utopian goat herding, secret society conspiracies and hippies living off-grid on the fringes of society. Of course, the line between commune and cult is famously slippery and plagued with crackpot messiah tendencies. The mo … | Continue reading
For a brief moment, why not forget all the troubles of the big ol' world out there and downsize in this tiny haven built for mice. Sweden has its own kind of Banksy you see; an anonymous artists collective which has been quietly installing miniature mouse-themed urban infrastruct … | Continue reading
Self portrait © Nadia Lee CohenWe'll have what she's having. Pour equal parts Hitchcock, Kubrick and David Lynch, throw in a shot of Tim Burton's Mars Attacks, add a sprinkle of John Waters, a generous scoop of Cindy Sherman and you'll start to feel more at ease in Nadia's world. … | Continue reading
1. The Uncertain Future of America’s most beautiful soda fountainThis summer, the 93-year-old Long Island Mom & Pop shop announced that it was going out of business. The statement said the cause was not COVID, but that the landlord is selling the building housing Hildebrandt's an … | Continue reading
1. There's a 1000 year-old lost city beneath the St Louis suburbsArtist's recreation of downtown Cahokia, with Monk's Mound at its center.Cahokia was the largest pre-Columbia city in what is now the United States. Its pyramids and earthen mounds stood near present-day East St. Lo … | Continue reading
We don't really need a reminder of just how bad smoking is for us. Bad for our physical health, the environment, and cringe-worthy on so many social justice levels. Why is it then, that women always looked so damn cool smoking their cigarettes in vintage photographs? There's a co … | Continue reading
La Vie Parisienne 1922Books, songs and movies have long-romanticised what it’s like to travel overnight on a sleeper train. Julie Garland took us on a musical ride along the Santa Fe Railway in The Harvey Girls, while Bing Crosby and company whisked us across the American plains … | Continue reading
1. Prostitution in Paris of YoreFrom the Eugene Atget collection and photographs by Ed Clark from the Life Archives. 2. Meet Yvette, 95, The Fierce Concierge Who Hasn't Left Her Parisian Apartment in 6 YearsView this post on | Continue reading
Ah, to have planned for a comet apocalypse in the Belle Epoque! Looks like a wild time, according to all the 19th and 20th century postcards with folks soaring through the skies, bum over noggin, towards a starry death. Out of all the (ultimately) anti-climactic close comet calls … | Continue reading
Imagine a millionaire's resort; one to rival St. Tropez, Italy's Portofino, or Miami's South Beach – abandoned overnight. Imagine the luxury hotels suddenly emptied of their guests and left to slowly decay, the boutiques, bars and nightclubs reclaimed by nature, sunbathers replac … | Continue reading
When Hollywood needs to shoot unspoilt locations in the South of France; hidden turquoise bays and an old world Mediterranean that some might argue no longer exists; they find it in Croatia. The Romans vacationed here, leaving marks of their Empire along the Adriatic coast. More … | Continue reading
Kansai Yamamoto fits David Bowie in one of his designsEvery once in a while, pop culture gives us a duo whose legacies feel almost magnetically intertwined. David Bowie and the Japanese designer Kasai Yamamoto created some of the most iconic, gender-bending stage outfits during t … | Continue reading
1. Grandparents model other people’s forgotten laundryChang Wan-ji and Hsu Sho-er have become Instagram-famous for wearing outfits curated from the hundreds of items left behind by absent-minded customers at their laundromat in central Taiwan. Their 31-year-old grandson and unof … | Continue reading
Chateaux hunting is a veritable mood right now – the idea of quitting urban life, recruiting your best friends to go all in on the adventure and living out the rest of your days fixing up your French fortress with an endless supply of wine & cheese. There is certainly no shortage … | Continue reading
"Rose Encaged" by Daniel Cervantes, incarcerated on San Quentin death rowNicola White didn’t leave her heart in San Francisco, she left it in the San Quentin State Prison, just over the Golden Gate Bridge. “It’s funny,” she tells us by phone from her native England, “I never set … | Continue reading
Let's be honest. Stepping out with an elegant sun parasol in western society today is almost like stepping out in cosplay. You might as well be wearing a corset too. Not since our grandparent's generation has carrying a parasol been commonplace, but akin to the disappearance of m … | Continue reading
A young Creole woman in a tignon of her own creation. Painting from the Historic New Orleans Collection.There are many reasons it’s not “just hair” for Black women. Before the "Black is Beautiful" and natural hair movement emerged during the 1960s, anti-Black hair sentiment in We … | Continue reading
1. Grandparents model other people’s forgotten laundryChang Wan-ji and Hsu Sho-er have become Instagram-famous for wearing outfits curated from the hundreds of items left behind by absent-minded customers at their laundromat in central Taiwan. Their 31-year-old grandson and unof … | Continue reading
1. Barbie's Real-Life California Dream House (For Sale)Asking $5,999,000, found on Sotheby's Realty. 2. Detail from The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1490 - 1510Found on Tumblr. 3. Pages from the sexual and existential cookbook of Dor | Continue reading
There's a "Battle of Versailles" they don't teach you about in history class; the event that transformed the world's most iconic château into a star-studded battle royale between French and American fashion designers in the fall of 1973. The guest list was legendary, with Josephi … | Continue reading
At the start of the pandemic, we looked at some people-repelling fashion statements of yore and wondered whether the surreal measures of a socially-distanced world might impact the future of fashion. Fast-forward several months and an article in the New Yorker this week has decla … | Continue reading
Who doesn't love a good B-movie monster? Step into the world of tokusatsu (特撮), or "special effect filming" in Japanese. The term is shorthand for a genre of live action films bursting with heavy handed special effects, and a slew of freaky, giant creatures known as kaiju (monste … | Continue reading
1. This Restaurant in Nice, Then & NowOccupying an iconic location in Nice, hovering above the sea on the famous pillar of rock and the base of the diving boards themselves, the restaurant welcomes you in this most unusual setting, steeped in history.Le Plongeoir. | Continue reading
Paris was destined to be a city enjoyed from great heights; the Arc de Triomphe a mere pedestal for a mini city in the sky and the gothic bell towers of Notre Dame a convenient launching pad for fish-like dirigibles to whizz around town in. That is, according to fantastical world … | Continue reading
Palacio de Hierro - Mexico 1989It's a weird time to be a consumer. Emerging from lockdown, folks around the world are gauging the risks of doing something as seemingly simple as stepping outside, let alone step inside a shopping mall – an aspect of American culture in particular … | Continue reading
I'm not scared, you're scared! We were casually scrolling through Reddit the other day when we stumbled upon the most interesting if not creepiest thing we've ever seen posted on the platform...© Mr_Griff / Reddit © Mr_Griff / RedditA Redditor who goes by the username "Mr Griff" … | Continue reading
Indy Srinath / @indyofficinalisAlmost a decade ago, Indy Srinath made herself a pretty ambitious promise. “It was like having a sudden awakening,” she tells Messy Nessy Chic about her decision to learn the name of every single plant she discovered, “where you feel like you’ve bee … | Continue reading