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Category / Editor’s Picks

Meet Lilli, the High-end German Call Girl Who Became Barbie

So it turns out Barbie’s original design was based on a German adult gag-gift escort doll named Lilli. That’s right, she wasn’t a dentist or a surgeon, an Olympian gymnast, a pet stylist or an ambassador for world peace. And she certainly wasn’t a toy for little girls… Lilli on display at the Barbie Museum in Prague Unbeknownst…

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,…

India’s Overlooked Concrete City of Oz

When you think of Indian cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Jaipur, you might think of the impossibly intricate architecture, ancient folklore, explosions of colour and unstoppable energy; a welcome deluge of the senses. But there is one place that is not like the others. In the north of India, on the foothills of the Himalayan…

Miami of India: The Forgotten Capital of Art Deco

Mumbai; the gateway to India, home of Bollywood cinema, infamous for its slumdogs and shanty towns. But did anyone know the city also has the second largest number of surviving Art Deco buildings in the world after Miami? Flickr Photos (c) Sandra Cohen Rose and Colin Rose While visitors to the Indian capital of entertainment…

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…

What David Bowie Learned from the Gugging Psychiatric Institution

By 1994 David Bowie’s musical career was in a bit of a quiet phase, let’s say. He hadn’t managed to recreate the massive success of his 1983 album Lets Dance. Ziggy Stardust had long since departed back to the cosmos, The Thin White Duke had been retired, and Bowie’s latest incarnation, Tin Machine, had disbanded.…

The Secrets of Esoteric Paris: A Spiritualist Guide

Like a moth to a très spooky flame, esoteric figures have always flocked to Paris in pursuit of deeper, mystical truths about the universe; from medieval alchemists to cult tarot card readers; mystic bent Surrealists to a long running society of Freemasons – it’s not just the way that this city protects its esoteric heritage,…

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

1. Retro Paper Architecture View this post on Instagram A post shared by Charles Young (@paperholm_) Paper art and architecture (available in glass domes) by Charles Young. Shop the art here. Found via Present & Correct. 2. Tracing the tracks of Paris chimneys Once one knows what to look for, one finds that Paris is filled…

The Fantastical World of Mingering Mike, the Imaginary Legend of Soul

When you were young, what did you want to be? An astronaut, a princess, maybe a superhero or president of the world. Mike Stevens dreamt of being a soul super star, he wanted to tour the world, to write and produce award-winning albums and run his own record label. He would star in, write and…

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

1. Photographed by Man Ray in the 1930s (not the 1970s) Helen Tamris photographed by Man Ray, found here. 2. Her shoe game Hand coloured photograph of a Jewish girl in Damascus, Syria (1865). Found on the Institut du Monde Arabe. 3. Jackie O Jackie Kennedy (1968). Photograph by Harry Benson, found on Art Net.…

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