The Manifesto Dedicated to all those B*tches Out There

“Whom callest thou ‘slut’, scabbed bitch,” was supposedly the first recorded reference of anyone ever getting called a bitch, it was of course not the last. It might have been uttered in Middle English, but the message was clear, it was an insult. We’re in the 1400s and the Chest … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Clubhouse Envy with the Red Rose Girls

“The chief obstacle to a woman’s success is that she can never have a wife.” Anna Lea Merritt (19th Century Artist), Lipincott’s Magazine. Virginia Woolf may have nailed the formula to becoming an independent, creative woman in her 1929 essay A Room of One’s Own, but groups of ar … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

The Ghost Bath Houses of Paris

I was researching old Parisian advertisements from the 19th century (as you do) when I came across this one for a palatial Turkish bath house near the opera house. Behind its vaulted arches, magnificent mosaics were lit by stars of coloured glass and according to a 19th century ‘ … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Why Hollywood Should Revisit a Disastrous 1970s Transgender Film Ahead of its Time

At first glance, the surreal plot of what has been called one of the worst films ever made seems like a reiteration of harmful tropes: a transgender woman pretends to be her own widow to con her rich uncle out of his money and ultimately use her power to destroy gender norms – in … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

What about Mrs* Eames?

“What works good is better than what looks good, because what works good lasts,” once said Ray Eames, the artist, designer, and wife of Charles Eames. The Eames partnership revolutionised our concept of modern furniture and quite literally shaped the way we live. Although their c … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

The Pictures that Redefined Photography as a Fine Art

It would take most people a moment to figure out that the images above aren’t charcoal sketches by Degas or some other Impressionist artist. These are in fact photographs from the late 19th century, artfully manipulated to look like paintings. They were made at a time when it had … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Forget the Scenic Route, Take a Detour Down a Corpse Road

Walk with us, as we follow ancient trails where the living once carried the dead. We’ll be traversing Europe’s rural landscapes via a network of so-called “corpse roads”, occasionally marked with crucifixes and low stone benches, cutting across windswept hills, overgrown pastures … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

The Enchanting (and sometimes macabre) World of Ex-Voto

It should come as no surprise that some of the world’s most fascinating collections are found in churches. But today we’re not talking about Florence’s abundance of Renaissance murals or the Baroque masterpieces in Rome. Arguably the most intriguing religious collections are the … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Templar Secrets of Sintra’s Mysterious Initiation Well

Hidden behind a cluster of moss-covered boulders in a Portuguese garden lies a well. It’s no ordinary well, as you’ll see when you push the stone slab that leads you to the top of an inverted tower that plunges into an underworld. With curving arches flanked by ionic columns, lic … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

America’s Last Juke Joints

Before the Juke Box, there was the Juke Joint, a reverberating sanctum of the Mississippi Delta and the indefinable heartbeat of southern African American culture. The traditional Juke Joint seems to have grown out of the landscape more than it was constructed. A ramshackle colle … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Who was the 1920s Moulin Rouge Drag Queen that inspired Man Ray and Cocteau?

If you had lived in 1920s Paris, you would know who Barbette was. She was an icon of the night. A muse to the greats. A pioneer of queer. She might have built a career as a trapeze and high-rope performer in the United States, but made a name for themself in a very different… | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

A Brief Compendium of Tramp Art

What shall we keep a keen eye out for at our next expedition to the flea market? Tramp Art! No I haven’t just insulted you, I’m talking about the little-known and often misunderstood branch of outsider art; curiously whittled wood works intricately carved from discarded cigar box … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

The Mysterious Viscountess who Photographed the Unseen Sensuality of Victorians

She is one of the most prolific photographers of the Victorian era, but much of her life remains a mystery. Clementina Maude, also known as Lady Clementina Hawarden, took up photography in 1857 and in seven years shot more than 800 images, mostly sun-drenched portraits of her dau … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

The Ruin and Revival of the City that Built America

Some American companies are such a part of our everyday lives, they’re taken for granted, the likes of Apple, Microsoft and Google for example. But there is another company that although it can be seen everywhere, no-one notices. Even more mysteriously, the company no longer exis … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Is this History’s Most Underrated Dress? 

A couturier-friend of mine once wryly remarked (as she meticulously contemplated the exact landing spot of another rose-gold sequin destined for the bust of a ballgown) that her life effectively was a fashionable road-map signposted by all the memorable gowns she’s made for bride … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

The Twisted Tale of the Real (and first) Mickey Mouse 

Once upon a time, in 1927, Walt Disney created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Universal. This bunny had a round white face, a button nose, and floppy black ears. After Disney sold a series of shorts to Universal, he returned in 1928 to offer his services to create more cartoons feat … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

No, the Other Naomi: An American Supermodel’s Overlooked Legacy

There is much debate on who was the first Black supermodel. Several Black models have accumulated a series of firsts between them throughout history; Helen Williams became one of the most familiar faces in Black advertising in the 1950s, Donyale Luna was the first African-America … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

A Brief Compendium of Preserved Pieces of Cake

Ever since humanity invented cake, we’ve been trying to have it and eat it, too. And while we haven’t yet figured out how to do both, we have been saving slices of this most celebratory of desserts for several millenia now. The Egyptians gave us the world’s oldest known cake–and … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Hollywood's own Dark Angel was an Indian Actress Playing the Biggest Role of her Life

Merle Oberon, the Hollywood actress who to this day remains the only Asian actress to be nominated for a Best Actress award at the Oscars, was born in Bombay, India in 1911. Merle however, would have you believe that she hailed from Tasmania, Australia and was born to Caucasian p … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Muse du Jour: France’s Legendary Surrealist Stripper

Let’s catapult straight into the centre of Paris’ exotic dancing universe, the Crazy Horse Saloon, temple of burlesque. This glamorous establishment has had the pleasure of seeing a stellar selection of glamorous women strut and strip their stuff over the decades since opening in … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

New York’s Forgotten Radio Island

As far as islands go, Manhattan is one of the most famous and instantly recognisable. But if you were to charter a boat and sail around its coastline and through New York’s natural harbour you’d come across many more islands so small that hardly anyone knows are there. There are … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Historical Candidates for the Real-Life Carmen San Diego

The nefarious world of conning has long been considered a boy’s club. Even when you google “biggest con artists in the world,” men’s names overwhelmingly dominate the search. Historically, women were thought to have lacked the social capital needed to shrug off the moral trapping … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

The Dismantling of Belleville: A Parisian Village Lost to the Wrecking Ball

The history of Belleville, the Parisian neighbourhood where legendary French singer Edith Piaf lived and called home, is a dazzling mix of folklore and fact, like all the best places to visit. There will always be an air of rebellion up in Belleville, the wine-making village buil … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

She Dressed Kate Bush, Need We Say More?

There is a grande dame of Dutch fashion you’ve probably never heard of (if you live outside of The Netherlands). We hadn’t. But then when found a series of photos taken in the 1970s of legendary musician Kate Bush, dressed more exquisitely that we’d ever seen her. Who was she wea … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Making Art with Robots: 13 Questions with the AI Artist Behind a Glam Rock Alternate Universe

 Artificial intelligence is well and truly here. In the past few months, we’ve seen the release of revolutionary software that puts the technology in the hands of the general public as a creative tool, both for generating art and written content. Whether your experience with AI-p … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

The First Parisian Skyscrapers were also a Notorious World War II Jewish Camp

A relatively austere low-income housing complex in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, the Cité de la Muette is not a remarkable collection of buildings. At first glance, it’s a council estate like any other, where residents go about their daily business seemingly unfazed by the h … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

We Can’t Pronounce His Name, but He Was Basically Austria’s Gaudí

If the Emerald City of Oz had ever been in need of a new architect, he would have been just the man for the job. In his fight against the “godless line”, Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s buildings swirl into the sky with undulating curves in a kaleidoscope of colours, pierced by tre … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Oh Séraphine, this world was never meant for someone as beautiful as you

There is a line in Don McLean’s Vincent, the poignant folk song released in 1971, that always stuck with me. It goes, “but I could have told you, Vincent, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.” The bittersweet lyrics are a tribute to the great Post-Impressionist … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Vita, the Insatiable Muse of Virginia Woolf

The antics of those with blue blood don’t shock us, in fact we covet their blatant flaunting of taboos and we (albeit secretly and with much envy) gag at what seems like their infinite potential and unlimited opportunities for fornication, frolicking and cavorting. Having said th … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Forget Louboutin, Step into the World of André Perugia, the True Icon behind Modern Shoe Design

You name an avant-garde brand of note – Saint Laurent, Rick Owens, Moschino, Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto, Jacquemus – and chances are they’ve been overtly influenced by a shoe designer extraordinaire, André Perugia. Cage heels, no heels, disappearing heels, under-slung heel … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

The Modernist Maharajas

Theirs is a fairy tale with all the elements that titillate and intrigue us mere mortals no end: a glamorous royal couple living in the lap of luxury, a marriage at an unimaginably young age, the flamboyant holidays on the Côte d’Azur in the company of Man Ray, a jaw-droppingly a … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DCXXIX)

1. A giant snowman measuring 17 ft., made by two girls in Aberdeen, Scotland, Jan. 3, 1963 From the collection of Paul Popper found via The Folk Archive. 2. The Man Who Invented More Than 800 Iconic Toys 3. AI generated renderings of Gaudi-inspired Architecture Made with Mid Jour … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

The Modernist Maharajas

Theirs is a fairy tale with all the elements that titillate and intrigue us mere mortals no end: a glamorous royal couple living in the lap of luxury, a marriage at an unimaginably young age, the flamboyant holidays on the Côte d’Azur in the company of Man Ray, a jaw-droppingly a … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Signed, Sealed, But Not Always Delivered: The Lost Art of Letterlocking

“I am to be executed like a criminal at eight in the morning” is a heartbreakingly frank line taken from the final letter written by Mary Queen of Scots, on 8th February 1587, the morning of her execution at the command of her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. This brutally honest letter … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

What David Bowie Learned from the Gugging Psychiatric Institution

By 1994 David Bowie’s musical career was in a bit of a quiet phase, let’s say. He hadn’t managed to recreate the massive success of his 1983 album Lets Dance. Ziggy Stardust had long since departed back to the cosmos, The Thin White Duke had been retired, and Bowie’s latest incar … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DCXXVIII)

1. Retro Paper Architecture View this post on Instagram A post shared by Charles Young (@paperholm_) Paper art and architecture (available in glass domes) by Charles Young. Shop the art here. Found via Present & Correct. 2. Tracing the tracks of Paris chimneys Once one knows what … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

The Fantastical World of Mingering Mike, the Imaginary Legend of Soul

When you were young, what did you want to be? An astronaut, a princess, maybe a superhero or president of the world. Mike Stevens dreamt of being a soul super star, he wanted to tour the world, to write and produce award-winning albums and run his own record label. He would star … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Hollywood’s own Dark Angel was an Indian Actress Playing the Biggest Role of her Life

Merle Oberon, the Hollywood actress who to this day remains the only Asian actress to be nominated for a Best Actress award at the Oscars, was born in Bombay, India in 1911. Merle however, would have you believe that she hailed from Tasmania, Australia and was born to Caucasian p … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Check Out When You Die: Varanasi’s Death Hotel

Where is the best place in the world to die? According to Hindus, dying in the sacred city of Varanasi brings liberation –mukti– no matter your faith or religious denomination. If someone needs a place to stay before embarking on their final journey, they’ll find it in Mukti Bhaw … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DCXXVII)

1. Photographed by Man Ray in the 1930s (not the 1970s) Helen Tamris photographed by Man Ray, found here. 2. Her shoe game Hand coloured photograph of a Jewish girl in Damascus, Syria (1865). Found on the Institut du Monde Arabe. 3. Jackie O Jackie Kennedy (1968). Photograph by H … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

When Parisian Brasseries Became Daylight Brothels

That inimitable bedrock of Parisian social fabric, the traditional French brasserie has been synonymous with French lifestyle since the second half of the 19th century, but during a little-known a moment in history, one could indulge in a whole lot more than a good ol’ steak-frit … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Why Did this Celebrated Surrealist Talent Get Cancelled?

In 1943, the New York art world was abuzz about a new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The esteemed institution was hosting a show featuring one Morris Hirshfield, an immigrant who had found success as a tailor and then shoe designer before becoming a self-taught artis … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

An Ode to Floating Lighthouses

Sure, we’ve all admired picturesque lighthouses on rocky shores, or with waves crashing over them at the edge of a harbor, but…what about floating lighthouses? Like something out a Wes Anderson movie, these fascinating vessels did exactly what their name suggests: they were light … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

A Messy Nessy Curated Gift Guide

“Remember, the big stores don’t do ‘a little Jig’ when they make a sale. Make someone ‘jig’ this year.” I’ve always put a lot of thought into finding unique gifts at the holidays and if you’re a long-time reader, chances are we probably share similar tastes. So without further ad … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DCXXVI)

1. Shell Glasses By Centa, Lisbon. 2. Inside Jeremy Irons’ Incredible Rescued & Restored a 15th-Century Irish Castle In the midst of a creative crisis, the British actor impulsively purchased Kilcoe Castle, a long-abandoned fortress near the water. David Kamp learns how a magical … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

Secret Tourism: Travelling with Europe’s Nomadic Shepherds

It will probably sound out of character if we told you that to discover Europe’s most secret corners, you should follow the herd and keep to the beaten path, quite literally. But hear us out and grab your hiking boots because today we’re taking notes from a very small group of fo … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

A Brief History of Skinny Eyebrows

Our eyebrows are arguably our most expressive, and some would even go as far as to say, dominant, facial features: they frame our faces, their expressions speak louder than words and what these non-identical twins say about the windows to our soul can be, well, rather telling, wi … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago

History’s Quietest Icon: The Many Faces Pierrot

“I’m Pierrot,” once said the late, great David Bowie: “I’m Everyman”. We all know his face: white like the moon, his only friend, with sad black lines drawn around the eyes, smudged by a teardrop or two. He’s dressed in an oversized white shirt with ruffles and pompoms and a litt … | Continue reading


@messynessychic.com | 1 year ago