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 1951 on the Avenue George-V: Dita Von Teese, Pamela Anderson and…

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 that, within the ranks of nobility there are those who…

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 heels, corkscrew heels, float-in-the-air heels, needle-thin fetish heels – you name it, if they’re…

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 avant-garde palace, her tragic, untimely…

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-frites. For once upon a time in France’s Second Empire,…

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, without us having to utter a word. How…

An Off-the-Curriculum Introduction to BDSM & Fetish Art History

A little slap and tickle – kinky or otherwise – has been good medicine for us down the ages. Public consumption of the practice of BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadochism and Masochism) really came into its own during a ‘golden age’ of fetish art in the mid 20th century. Fetish art has…

In 1920s Berlin She Was the Pioneer of Punk

Thought punk was an invention of the 70s? Think again. A diminutive ravenette bombshell with animated eye-brows, brash blue eyeshadow, chalk-white skin and red lips was eons ahead of the curve and had laid the foundations of the punk movement w-a-y back in the 1920s already. Dance performance artist, cabaret queen, pantomimist, big & small…

Musidora: A Forgotten French Icon Returns

It could well be the heavily kohled black eyes staring straight at you from under that black balaclava and the slinky catsuit that jog the memory. Mind you, we’re talking well over a century ago here, and eons before the Kardashians or Catwoman began flexing their feline curves in skin-tight lycra all-in-ones. Musidora, aka Jeanne…

This Forgotten 1980s Style Movement Explains A Lot About Fashion Today

When we think of the fashion industry’s most influential movers & shakers and icon-makers of the last 50 years, familiar names like Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld, Grace Coddington or Patricia Field (Sex & the City) come to mind. But there’s another name that got left down the back of fashion history’s sofa – Buffalo –…