Not Old World Europe, this is India’s Ghostly Town of Sidhpur

With their exquisite facades in pastel shades, replete with balconies, pointed gables and elaborate monograms, the Vohrawad mansions are a wonder to behold. One could easily be forgiven for assuming these grand dames stand somewhere in Europe, but today, we’re taking you to Sidhpur, in the Indian state of Gujarat. Almost deserted today, their decadent…

The Mystery of History’s Only Female Pope

According to popular legend, there was once a female Pope – Pope Joan, who reigned for two years between 855 and 857 before coming to a very sticky end. If you’ve never heard of her, it’s hardly surprising as her existence has been questioned for centuries and her name wiped from official history. It seems…

Parisians Getting Buck Wild at their Absolutely Bonkers Bohemian Arts Ball

If you ever wondered whether the “Années Folles” really were ‘that crazy’ – we’re here to confirm that it was. Drunkenness, debauchery, drama and nudes, the bal des Quat’z’Arts (four arts ball) had it all; it’s little wonder then, that from its inception at the turn of the century, an invitation rapidly became the hottest…

Here’s What We Know About the Hundred Mile-Long Linear City they’re Building in the Desert

The opportunity to design and build an entire city from scratch sounds like the dream of every child (and child at heart) in possession of a Lego set and an imagination, and this is exactly what NEOM, the team behind The Line, a new sci-fi city currently underway in Saudi Arabia and set to be…

A Lesson in True Bohemianism with the Witch of Positano

Every so often, an original is born; timeless, defying genre and completely of themself. Vali Myers, artist, dancer, environmentalist, bohemian and muse, was as original as they come, inspiring writers, artists and musicians from the streets of a post Second World War Paris to her bohemian coven in the wild canyons above Positano. Forming friendships…

Wig Holes and Other Mysteries of Powdered Hair History Explained

There was a time when a visit to the powder room involved more than a quick tinkle and a dab of powder on the nose. Taking its name from the noble courts of Europe, the powder room was a designated space, in aristocratic houses, for the powdering of wigs that were a little worse for…

Clubhouse Goals 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 artistic women had been testing this formula…

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, addressed to her brother-in-law,…

An Ode to the Lonely Bandstand

‘A bandstand is, merely an empty shell unless music is played upon it,’ so laments Pavilions for Music, a website dedicated to the humble bandstand. Indeed, these empty shells with their elaborate ironwork and faded glamour, rushed past by commuters, utilised as climbing frames by children, smoked upon by teens and generally taken for granted…

So What’s the Deal with those Ceramic Sicilian Heads?

Anyone fortunate enough to visit Sicily, could not fail to notice the beguiling ceramic Moor heads, brimming with foliage, adorning gardens and balconies all over the island. Sicily is famous for its ceramics, designed in classical maiolica, but what may be lesser known, is that it was the Arabs who introduced this craft to the…