The Paris of the Belle Époque saw the emergence of a certain type of street outcasts; a subculture that combined killer style with the criminal underworld. They were known as, les Apaches. They lived in secret dens in the city outskirts, shunned the idea of honest labor and took … | Continue reading
1. Zorita, the 1940s “Half and Half” Snake-wielding Burlesque Dancer She was an American burlesque dancer. She was best known for a twenty-minute dance which she performed with two boa constrictors called ‘Elmer and Oscar’ Some of her other unique and subversive numbers: In anoth … | Continue reading
In many ways, the history of the Louvre is the history of France, from the era of monarchs and the temples they built to their power to the radical ambitions of the French Revolution and Paris Commune. While many of the millions of tourists now flocking back to Paris will gawk at … | Continue reading
Celebrities from Judy Garland to Madonna to Lady Gaga have been granted the title “gay icon,” but there’s one often-forgotten figure who deserves a spot on this list: Bugs Bunny. The Warner Bros. Cartoon character not only experimented with gender presentation but also married a … | Continue reading
1. A Treehouse in Tuscia La Piantata, a B&B, found here. 2. Gucci arrives in Detroit Gucci has opened a permanent 3,500 sq ft store in a Renaissance Revival landmark in the downtown. The Italian heritage brand has been eying Detroit since 2019 when it launched its Gucci North Am … | Continue reading
If you follow MessyNessyChic on Instagram, you’ll probably have stumbled upon a series I came to name as “Style Spy“, which to my bemusement, has probably become the most watched form of content on that social media platform, but more on that later. Today, I stumbled upon a kindr … | Continue reading
Hollywood has a thing for origin stories at the moment, and one origin story in particular begins in Los Angeles, in an unassuming building on Gower Street, just off Melrose Avenue. This is not the origin story of a Marvel Comics character, or even of a Hollywood bigwig getting t … | Continue reading
Europe is filled with scores of enchanting abandoned and underused historic structures that have survived war and ageing. Only now, they’re offering shelter to those in immediate need: refugees. Cathedrals and churches, halls and barns have successfully sheltered armies, citizens … | Continue reading
The Seine river flows through the heart of the northern region of France, including Paris, bringing life, business, and recreation to the city alongside an overflow of stories and events. It’s Paris’ ancient highway of activity and certainly the source of many people-watching spe … | Continue reading
1. Reviving 17 Original Orient Express Carriages, Forgotten in Poland Now destined for a comeback on the storied Paris-Istanbul route, the 17 carriages discovered in Poland (12 sleeping cars, a restaurant car, three lounge cars, and a van) are being restored in France and will hi … | Continue reading
It may not have sold wands or grimoires, but this subterranean shopping alley remained just as hidden as J K Rowling’s, until it was accidentally stumbled upon in 2002 by builders renovating the Edwardian Royal Arcade, in Keighley, West Yorkshire, situated above it. Believed to h … | Continue reading
If you’re not subscribed to the Messy Nessy Chic newsletter (hint hint), you may be wondering why we’ve gone a little quiet these past few weeks. The fact that the MNC HQ is based in Paris may give you a clue. You see, Parisians close up shop for August to chase the last rays of… | Continue reading
In the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century, spectating at the races was a glamorous event beyond comparison. Paris’ Hippodrome de Longchamp racecourse was the place to see and be seen; it was a stage where the bold and the beautiful would strut their perfectly … | Continue reading
It’s a little before 11 PM on April 12th, 1888 in downtown Washington DC. President Grover Cleveland has just finished up a speech on what will become American Somoa, his wife Frances is already asleep, and, four blocks east, at the intersection of F and 12th Street, thirty Black … | Continue reading
Shopping in Belle Epoque Paris wasn’t exactly … well, convenient. General stores and grocery stores were still a very novel concept in the latter half of the 19th century, and the few that existed were only catering to the wealthy elite. There was also a French law that restricte … | Continue reading
Check out Le Petit Journal’s recap of lavish and loving Bastille Day street parties in 1914: “In none of the innumerable balls which were held in Paris during these festive evenings was a single serious incident reported. Few arguments, no fights. The people of Paris have proven … | Continue reading
If you knew that “Satine”, Baz Luhrmann’s lead character in his 2001 movie musical Moulin Rouge! was in fact based on a real-life French can-can dancer called Jane Avril, the decision to cast Nicole Kidman might make even more sense. Avril, with her flaming red hair, thin lips an … | Continue reading
A cigarette-smoking, pants-wearing, animal-dissecting painter, Bonheur spent her life doing exactly as she pleased. 2022 marks the bicentenary of the birth of Rosa Bonheur, an artist who opened countless doors for female creatives both in her home country of France and abroad. Bo … | Continue reading
1. With Tennis in the Brain, check out the Wilson Tennis Ball Factory in Thailand Photos by Amanda Mustard found via Present & Correct. 2. This tiny Cor-beurre-sier chair From Instagram’s @suea 3. The picturesque Paris of Czech Artist Tavík František Šimon TavíTavik Frantisek Šim … | Continue reading
They go large in the States – even when it comes to the small stuff. And perhaps nowhere is that more true than with a particularly kitsch specimen of American vernacular architecture, the miniature golf course. A period of history defined by the automobile and the ease of travel … | Continue reading
Before the advent of the speakeasy, the ramshackle bar that sprung up and vanished as was required during the Prohibition era (and now turned a trendy locale for your friendly neighbourhood hipster), there was another hangout fast becoming everyone’s new favourite local in the mi … | Continue reading
Just look at the details on that dress. Seriously, zoom in! Fashion trends have always been cyclical, and the latest inspiration may be coming from the ‘90s, the 1590s that is. The Tutor period marked not only a time of economic prosperity but also developments in the arts, notab … | Continue reading
1. A Prolific Female Pioneer Photographer Lora Webb Nichols left behind 24,000 images, 65 years of diaries (plus an unfinished memoir) providing “an intimate window into life on the Wyoming frontier in the early 20th century”, where she had lived up on a homestead since the late … | Continue reading
Look, it wasn’t enough to have flawless skin, a great wig, and a plump derrière in 16th century France, you needed to have a spotless colon too. Luckily, there were a great abundance of people ready and willing to administer as many “clysters”, aka enemas, as your heart desired. … | Continue reading
Once upon a time, the pharmaceutical industry was entirely in the hands of monks and nuns, and monasteries were at the cutting edge of intellectual learning and medicinal practice. Medieval medicine in Western Europe was composed of a mixture of pseudoscientific ideas from antiqu … | Continue reading
“Women are like teabags. We don’t know our true strength until we are in hot water.” – Eleanor Roosevelt Today’s 13 Things is dedicated to women. 1. Tradeswomen, magazine for blue collar workingwomen in the ‘80s & ’90s it became an integral tool for organizing in a landscape of s … | Continue reading
Italian cinema is synonymous with hauntingly special silver screen moments, the stuff that flashbulb memories are made of. Who could possibly forget the larger than life screen goddess Anita Ekberg – all platinum locks, bare shoulders and curvaceous black dress in Federico Fellin … | Continue reading
On the morning of January 30, 1889, three friends of Rudolf, the Crown Prince of Austria, broke down the bedroom door at his hunting lodge to find him dead, sitting by the naked corpse of his teenage mistress. For more than a hundred years, people have speculated wildly at the ev … | Continue reading
When Francoise Gilot split from Picasso, he prevented galleries from buying her work. Camille Claudel’s lover, Augustin Rodin, signed a number of her sculptures as his own, and after their romance ended badly, it’s rumored he told the Ministry of Fine Arts to stop commissioning h … | Continue reading
There was a brief time in winter Olympic history when athletes would zip into their snow suites, strap on their skis, cue the music, and dance to victory. Ski ballet is like the love child of figure skating and skiing. Routines lasted for two minutes, and athletes competed alone … | Continue reading
1. This Abandoned French Chateau, on sale for €150,000 How it was: The castle dates back to the 15th century, located in the Loire-et-Cher region of France, 2.5 hours southwest of Paris. The castle was last the property of art dealer and collector Sylvain Durand (1928-2018) who … | Continue reading
Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Rue de Rivoli, Avenue Montaigne, each year millions of tourists follow the tired and testing formula of ‘been there, done that, bought the Eiffel Tower keyring’, and often leave the city with an unfortunate case of ‘Paris Syndrome’. As you may already k … | Continue reading
Women have undeniably had a roller-coaster ride throughout the ages. Forever pawns in a power game, the role and image of women have been in constant flux, from being portrayed as the virginal, divine, untouchable ‘Mary Mother of God’ to ‘The Whore of Babylon’. The all-male regim … | Continue reading
What we know as the famous Roman “Colosseum” might have been paid for with pee, more specifically poor people’s pee. Built under the rule of Emperor Vespasian of the Flavian dynasty, he is one of the only known rulers in history to have imposed a urine tax on the sale and distrib … | Continue reading
The daughter of an American family whose name means “filthy rich” in common parlance, was also the center of a vicious custody battle, a muse, a mother, and a wife several times over. She endured unimaginable tragedy. She left her mark in the arts, and fashion, and today her famo … | Continue reading
1. This book of colour shades depicted with feathers Check out the full book on Science History 2. Culture in Crips: Lays Flavours from Around the World Found on Lay’s Around the World, via Present & Correct. 3. Childhood Nostalgia (they just don’t make kids movies like they used … | Continue reading
In today’s atypical real estate news, we head to Warsaw, Missouri, where a 20-cabin pioneer style settlement, including two original 1830’s cabins, is up for grabs. The whole 20 acres plot of land with everything on it is asking $295,000. Let’s take a look around…. Located betwee … | Continue reading
When American President Harry S. Truman took office, there were many signs that the White House needed some construction updates. The literal breaking point came in June 1948, when the leg of First Daughter Margaret Truman’s piano fell through her second-floor sitting room’s rott … | Continue reading
Folding fans have been long associated with feminine hands and wiles, whether they were used to pass clandestine messages to a lover, be rhythmically twisted by a flamenco dancer, or simply held close to keep a church lady’s neck cool. It was only a matter of time before someone … | Continue reading
Anne Lister has recently crept out of the shadows of what was her own gothic novel, penned almost two centuries ago. Like all things of the neo-Gothic late 18th century, hers was also a world of shadows, veils, intrigues and most of all, it concealed her obsessional love for othe … | Continue reading
1. The Coffee Machine Museum The Coffee Machine Museum found via Present and correct) 2. This French Bath House for Sale Located in Amiens, asking 340K euros, found on Espaces Atypiques. 3. A Forgotten Chinese Bathhouse of Paris Built in 1787 at 29 boulevard des Italiens, they w … | Continue reading
The dynasty of the lemon has fallen from the aristocratic tree and now occupies the common ground of contemporary cuisine. Lost to us are its exotic cousins, the strange fruits of all sizes, colours and shapes with the family name Citron, not lemon. Together with olives and garli … | Continue reading
Is it a bus? Is it a hotel? Is it a mirage? Why, it’s the Rotel, of course! That’s a rolling hotel, to you and I. The brainchild of Georg Holtl, German entrepreneur and one-time actor, Rotel had its first passengers in 1945, taking them on the short journey from Tittling to Passa … | Continue reading
The phrase ‘femme fatale’ must have been invented for ‘La Doña’ – diva of the golden age of Mexican cinema, María Félix. Strong-willed, outspoken, controversial and drop-dead gorgeous, her life story is that of a movie script, an escapee from desperate and humble beginnings, teen … | Continue reading
These are the the face of stylish young African American women and men at the dawn of the 20th century. At the time, only 37 years after the end of slavery in the United States, Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-Black laws, it was a way of life in America. But across… | Continue reading
1. Paper Moon photos from the late 19th to early 20th centuries Connecticut College professor Chris Steiner went deep with his collection of over 1,500 “Paper Moon” photos from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. These photos, taken by professionals at carnivals and tourist at … | Continue reading
The 18th century saw a decadent sexual revolution for the privileged, where the old-world pressures of church and state behaviour waned and the floodgates to libertine perversity opened. And Rococo art was this era’s erotic entertainment. Sexually charged painting and erotic lite … | Continue reading
“Sweetie, no matter what anyone says, I love you better than anybody in the whole world,” whispered Jean King over the nation’s airwaves. She was the virtual girlfriend to everyman during the golden age of radio in the late 1940s and developed a cult following as a sultry-voiced … | Continue reading