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Category / Inspiration Vault

Girl Gangs of New York and the Godmother of Gotham Crime

If you were a late 19th century sex worker, shoplifter, gangster, confidence artist, or petty thief, chances are your path would have crossed with the high priestess of misdemeanour, Old Mother (‘Marm’) AKA the ‘Queen of Fences’ Mandelbaum and her curated network of wickedly skilled criminal hostesses. Each of these crafty operators had carved out…

How to Make an American Anti-Hero

They crusaded with horns sprouting from their heads, and rifles slung across their backs. Legend has it they decreed the virtues of the Holy Bible in one hand, and a torch in the other. They were known as the “Bald Knobbers,” and for a period of time in the lawless Ozark Mountains of a post-Civil…

She was the Queen of the Cakewalk and the Most Famous Black Woman of the Gilded Age

In 1912, Aida Overton Walker stood at the top of the stairs at the Victoria Theater about to make her entrance as the titular role in the play Salomé. By then, the Salomé craze was mostly over, but the role still had plenty of allure. At a time when women had few rights and little…

Meet the Artist Who Pivoted from Kids’ Books to Erotica

Most artists go through eras of experimentation in their work. Be it a phase of personal discovery, a new chapter in their life, or the result of keeping up with or combatting the latest trends. Flick through the back catalogues of the greats, you might find their spooky era, or sell out era. But you…

The Guy That Built His House in a Sports Stadium

Even the most expensive VIP box seat at the Superbowl has nothing on this. Rewind to 1968 and we’re at the gilded Astrodome stadium in Houston, Texas. This luxurious and flamboyant stadium was the brainchild of Roy Hofheinz, a former mayor of Houston and sports super fan who spent $6 million (around $41 million today)…

You know Josephine Baker, but what about the Forgotten Senegalese Star of the Parisian Stage?

François ‘Féral’ Benga glances at us from black-and-white photographs, immortalised in a sculptural pose, large soulful eyes turned skywards as if to say, I am indeed a celestial creature. Hard to believe, but this lithe of limb and cacao-butter-sleek heavenly vision of a man was in fact an earthling from Dakar, Senegal, who used his…

Tracing the Real Betty Boop back to a Notorious Bootlegger’s Club in 1920s Harlem

The 1920’s in Paris may have been roaring, but over in Harlem, they were stomping. New York’s playground was not short of an underground boozer, but there was one place in particular that dominated the scene; The Cotton Club. Patron Saint of jazz, notorious bootlegging and the home of the original Black Betty Boop. It…

Credit is Due for America’s Black Couturiers

Not a month seems to go by without a new cultural insensitivity courtesy of the biggest names in fashion. The good news is, we’re finally entering an era that just doesn’t let it slide. As brands begin to learn from their mistakes and respond to demands for change and corporate diversity, we hear the call…

A Sapphic Sartorial Study of Lady Troubridge

Rest assured, the roots of fashion have never really been straight. Weaving in and out of contemporary culture, lesbians have been creating sapphic waves of influence on the mainstream style codes for generations; quietly, but surely. You know Una “Lady Troubridge” Vincenzo, even if you don’t think you do; her unmistakably sleek bob, the tux, the…

The Enchanting Genius of a Quietly Forgotten Midcentury Maximalist

Let us take a look inside the classical grandeur and neo-romanticism that flows through the oeuvre of Emilio Terry. A maximalist from the school of more is most definitely more; Terry was an artist, architect, interior decorator, and darling of French society. Parisian born, he would mix in the elite circles of artists and aristocrats,…

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