Vintage Angelina Jolie Doppelganger tries to sell you Bathroom Gadgets

I‘ll be the first one to admit there isn’t much to this post besides a lovely but forgotten starlet I found buried in the LIFE archives with a striking resemblance to Angelina Jolie, peddling some pretty bizarre bathroom gadgets in the 1950s. But boy, what I wouldn’t give to know her name and track down her story……

The Kneeling Boutiques of Bulgaria

Blink –or hold your head high– and you’ll miss it. Hiding below your eye-level on the streets of Sofia, Bulgaria, these secret little window shops called ‘klek‘ (kneel) are as common as the average newsagent. The name itself derives quite simply from the fact that customers are brought to their knees in order to shop there. The concept arrived…

Architecture on Steroids in a Post-Soviet World

We wrote about Frank Herfort and his Russian Fairytales photo series earlier this month, but we just can’t get enough of his stuff and wanted to share another one of his visual stories called “Imperial Pomp”. Essentially an ode to architecture on steroids, whilst Frank was on his travels in some of the most remote areas in Russia, he…

Forgotten Splendour of Victorian Spa Shuttered for Decades

“We all stink. No one smells,” were the alleged words of patron Saint Bernard when speaking of Europe’s general hygiene in the Middle Ages. For about four or five centuries, the Western world suffered a hiatus in cleanliness following the great plagues, when people believed that it was actually dangerous to bathe. Water was thought to carry…

The Ultimate Gypsy Wonderland Motel

Paradise comes in many shapes and forms for different people, but give us a country ranch with 18th century barns, vintage neon signs, Frida Kahlo-influenced folk art and outdoor porches decorated with salvaged antiques and string lights? Let’s just say, we’d be making ourselves quite comfortable… Behold Rancho Pillow, a 20 acre compound that rests near the…

The Tin Can School ‘Buses’ of India

You may be used to seeing the big yellow buses that bring kids back and forth before & after school everyday, but in India the daily commute to school has its own unique little mode of transport. Each day primary school children, from as young 4 years old cram into these makeshift school buses composed of not much…

Forgotten Glamour at Mermaid City

Girls would come from as far as Tokyo to audition for the chance to be a Weeki Wachee mermaid in the 1960s. They performed to sold-out crowds; half a million people a year came to watch their dazzling underwater shows, including the King himself, Elvis Presley. They took etiquette and ballet lessons and they were treated…

Flying Water Taxis are coming to Paris this Summer

Lo and behold, flying machines straight out of a Jetsons cartoon are set to become a reality. Think Uber but as a boat which hovers above the water– so basically, a flying boat taxi, right here along the Paris Seine River.. Alain Thébault and Anders Bringdal, who together broke the record for speed on a flying sailboat that…

Mumbai’s Time Capsule Cafés

Peeling walls, chipped ceilings and old, kitschy furniture, Mumbai’s grand old Parsi cafés haven’t changed much in over 100 years. Parsi, means Persian, a once thriving community in Mumbai that emigrated to India in the 19th century to avoid religious persecution in their homeland. Many of the settlers opened Iranian cafés, family-run businesses which became a symbol…

Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs Fairytale House for Sale

I feel like I have honestly jumped into my childhood storybook as the image of Snow White first coming across the little house that belongs to a group of seven dwarfs, from the Nineteenth-Century German Fairy Tale, waves through my imagination. With no one at home, she can’t help but nosey around this enchanting building with…