Being Henri Matisse’s Assistant: The Story of Madame Lydia

The saying is that behind every great man there is a woman. In the case of Henri Matisse, that woman was not considered to be his wife of 40 years, but a penniless refugee who was barely surviving in 1932, when she found temporary work with the French modern master. Her name was Lydia Delectorskaya,…

15 Fabulous Frida Kahlo Moments in Rarely Seen Photographs

As a huge Frida Kahlo fan myself, I thought I’d seen just about all the best photographs of the iconic artist, but today I stumbled upon an enormous archive of personal snaps on the Casa Azul tumblr site. It may not be her estate’s official Tumblr, but it sure feels like I’ve been flicking through…

It’s about Time we Reinvented the Autochrome

Show me an Instagram filter that can do this and I’ll personally take you out to dinner so that we can become lifelong friends. Autochrome is a dead art – a secret recipe – if you will, that has been long lost to the modern world, left uncharted by 21st century technology and yet to be…

Marge Simpson, the Style Icon

With that towering head of blue hair, we tend to forget that Marge Simpson has a killer body – for a bright yellow cartoon character, that is. So what better way to show off those famous Simpson curves than have her recreate some of the most memorable moments in fashion history? Italian illustrator, AleXsandro Palombo,…

Famous Movie Scenes you probably didn’t realise were Borrowed from Paintings

I do love a good side by side comparison. It must go back to those “spot the difference” puzzles we used to do as kids. Filmmaker and photographer, Vugar Efendi, makes a much more grown-up version of those puzzles in his series Film Meets Art, using his trained eye to spot some iconic movie scenes that…

The Adorable, Squishable Soho Sex Shop

Do you remember the girl who revived an abandoned corner shop last year in East London and filled it with hand-sewn “products” made of felt– over 4,000 fuzzy creations to be precise, from Mars bars to newspapers and even the shop’s till? Well the hugely talented artist Lucy Sparrow has struck again, this time, transforming a…

How One Woman’s Lock of Hair could Become the World’s Most Precious Diamond

Like us, you might have assumed that a perfect diamond can only come from deep under the Earth’s crust, made from molten rock and metals, consisting of pure carbon which has been subject to immense and temperature for millions of years. But here’s a fun fact: hair and diamonds are both made out of carbon. And with…

The Vault

Interview with a Parisian Burlesque Dancer

I was at a masked party one evening in Paris when Marie Antoinette showed up in nothing but her underwear, albeit very pretty underwear indeed. She prowled sumptuously about the room until she found a stage and proceeded to perform the most hypnotising dance with two giant feather fans. Who is that woman behind the feathers? What is…

Pssst! You've stumbled across content that is exclusive to Nessy's Keyholders.

There’s a new way to access the really special stuff from Messy Nessy Chic …

Hidden beneath the surface layers of the internet, there’s a place where we keep our most secret addresses, untapped archives, creator’s inspiration, collector’s guides, explorer’s manuals, obscure research and much more… And it’s made for our keyholders only!

Apply now to unlock the Vault

Keyholder Login

The Forgotten LGBT Queen of Paris and Her Secret Masonic Temple

She was the kind of woman who never belonged to anyone but herself. At least, when it came to love. But for Natalie Clifford Barney, life overflowed with colour, creativity, and passion in Paris’ Left Bank during one of city’s most romantic periods. Think of her as a lesser-known Gertrude Stein, albeit one who curated…

A Photographer’s Forgotten Muse on the French Riviera

There was definitely something about Renée. When the legendary French photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue met her while strolling the streets of Paris in 1930, he fell in love instantly. Tall, chic and hiding coquettishly under a wide elegant hat, he nicknamed her the ‘parasol’. Together they embarked on what Lartigue remembers as an “eternal vacation”, a dreamlike two-year holiday in the…