15 49.0138 8.38624 both 0 bullet 0 4000 1 0 horizontal https://www.messynessychic.com 300 4000

Category / Editor’s Picks

Her Severed Head was Kept in a Paris Museum. Then it Disappeared.

There are many reasons to tell the story of Mata Hari – an extravagant icon of femininity, famous burlesque performer, World War I spy, and “collector” of high one standing lovers – her life reads like a harlequin novel. But arguably one of the most curious (and morbid) anecdotes of her life occurred after her…

He Made the Most Beautiful Films of All Time and They Put Him in Prison For It

It was a pretty epic Round Table, albeit one held in vain. Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Yves-Saint Laurent and other creative power-houses had joined forces with one impossible goal: to save Sergei Parajanov. “In the temple of cinema, there are images, light and reality,” said Godard, “Sergei Parajanov was the master of that temple.” Locked up…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 692)

1. Springtime Autochromes, 1900s Found on Société française de photographie. More about the surprising art of autochromes here. 2. How to get people to come to your art show Found on This isn’t Happiness. 3. Royal Neighbors of America, one of the largest women-led life insurers in the USA The early members of the Society…

Her Legs Should’ve been Registered as Deadly Weapons

The first time I saw this Cyd Charisse dancing was on a VHS copy of Singing in the Rain that I’d been gleefully gifted by my parents. With a total of just seven minutes airtime and not a single line of dialogue spoken, she stole the show as Debbie Reynold’s mysterious stand-in; a nameless leading…

Time Machine Art Show: Surrealist Exhibition of Paris, 1938

The 30’s was a booming, sensational time for the bizarre and avant garde – a high time for the flashing waves of surrealism before the dawn of the Second World War. Dali and Miro were still painting, Duchamp was on the scene, and Man Ray was producing photographs like the world had never seen before.…

Who were the Fasting Girls?

Mollie Fancher spent half a century in her bed. They called her “The Brooklyn Enigma,” but she was born your average, middle class New York gal. That all changed in 1865, when she gained fame from a freak accident in which she fell out of a horse-drawn trolley, and was dragged behind by her scarf.…

Django’s Journey: The Making of the Nomadic King of French Swing

Django Reinhardt was a legendary jazz musician and considered by some the greatest guitarist who ever lived, even more so when you find out he did it all with two fingers. He began as a nomadic busker before becoming a virtuoso and then a romanticised Parisian sepia memory, who still calls out in rolling arpeggios…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 691)

1. Ron’s Place: England’s secret Outsider Art palace Behind the facade of this unassuming Victorian villa in the heart of Birkenhead, Merseyside, lies a hidden treasure trove of creativity and passion that was hidden for decades. This is Ron’s Place, a conventional flat transformed by Ron Gittins into a dazzling shrine of art, drawing from the wellsprings of ancient…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 690)

1. Rococo and Baroque Pools Prompts by @tomislavmarcijus & @marcijusaivision (Midjourney V6 + Magnific AI) 2. Loft Law: The Last of New York City’s Original Artist Lofts The new book by Joshua Charow is available here. 3. Antique Ribbon Swatches Browse this 19th century book in the Winterthur library archives and this one from the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition.…

Keeping up with Kitty, the First Woman to be Famous for Being Famous

The sex industry was one of 18th century Britain’s most lucrative enterprises, and the women and girls at the centre of this trade enraptured the nation, endlessly feeding society with tantalising tales from behind closed doors. But all too often, their voices have been left down the back of history’s sofa, largely due to the…

NEWER POSTS 1 … 9 10 11 … 189 OLDER POSTS