That Rock and Roll Baptist Preacher Who Turned out to Be an Artistic Genius

They just don’t make ’em like the Reverend anymore. The Elvis-loving, banjo plucking, gecko-wearing Howard Finster was one of the 21st century’s most inimitable, yet misunderstood Outsider Artists— a mere novelty for art critics, who wrote him off as a mad preacher with a paintbrush, and a man to be avoided by prying neighbours in…

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House of a 1920s Lady Gaga

“Eccentricity exists particularly in the English, and partly, I think, because of that peculiar and satisfactory knowledge of infallibility that is the hallmark and birthright of the British nation.“. ― Dame Edith Sitwell of Renishaw Hall Renishaw Hall may look like a very traditional English estate, but for the last four centuries it has been the ancestral…

Who Was the Man That Almost Stole Frida’s Heart through his Lens?

Muses. Can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em. That is, not without a fair degree of drama, and especially if you happened to fall into a romantic tornado with miss Frida Kahlo. For a lover to pull Frida out of orbit from Diego – the heartbeat of her world – he or she had…

Hiding Homosexuality on the Cover of America’s Magazines a Century Ago

One of the first things you’ll start to notice about Joe Christian Leyendecker’s work is that his women were never quite as good-looking as his men, who were devastatingly handsome. He gave us the elegance of Gatsby 20 years before F. Scott Fitzgerald had even invented him. Take a moment to observe the dashing man on the stairs,…

Interview with the Vintage Guru of Namibia

This is why I love the internet. Today I got to chat with Loux the Vintage Guru based in Namibia, Africa, whose Tumblr site I recently discovered and fell instantly under its spell. The budding fashion designer and all-round exquisitely-dressed dude is making waves with a collective of twenty-something like-minded style innovators to promote the…

French Art Deco Dream Girls

Pochoir was a damn delicate practice, and it was inextricably bound to the star of Paris’ Golden Age of Illustration, André E. Marty. The Frenchman and his stencil-centric drawing or pochoir method defined the aesthetics of a generation, especially for the high fashion set. There was “an outpouring of luxury fashion publications that used pochoir” at the…

Meet Russia’s Gravity-Defying Answer to the Rockettes

On a dimly lit stage, dozens of cloaked figures rise in unison under a somber, blue glow. As the spotlight grows brighter, the dancers are revealed; all unshakeable smiles and sparkles in their conical gowns that seemingly glide – no, float – across the stage like a life-sized music box. It’s enchanting, it’s eerie, and…

She Played the World’s Most Unappreciated Music, but looked Fabulous Doing it

First things first: it’s not like we hate the accordion. We like it on the occasional metro platform, and we love to hear it in a distant summer breeze by the Seine. Few things are as effective at stirring up good ‘ole Parisian nostalgia, even after all these years. It’s just, well, a lot. It…

The Secret NYC Gallery that brought Picasso & the Avant-garde to America

Did they ever tell you about the nice Jersey boy who brought Modern Art to America’s shores? It wasn’t a Rockefeller, or a Guggenheim – just a kid from Hoboken, New Jersey with an eye for talent. Behind the doors of a little 5th floor attic-level apartment on 291 Fifth Avenue, he displayed raunchy Rodins,…

Pink Satin Romance at Elvis and Priscilla’s Honeymoon Hideaway

This is a mandatory visit when passing through Palm Springs. You can bounce on Elvis’ pink satin marital bed for heaven’s sake. Sleep in the damn thing if you so desire. They’ll even let you pose for photos inside his honeymoon tub…and UPDATE! It’s now for sale. In May 1967, Elvis returned from Las Vegas on…