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Category / People / Icons / Muses

Uncovering the Ghost of an Iconic Department Store, the “Bloomingdales” of Paris

For ten years, one of the world’s most iconic and historic department stores sat empty along the banks of the Seine in Paris; an imposing ghostly shell of former retail splendour, a giant sleeping elephant in the room occupying prime real estate in the heart of the city. When I heard that renovation works were…

Conscience Letters from the Cursed Thieves of Triassic Park

In the archives of a small museum in the middle of nowhere, there are piles and piles of letters from remorseful senders dating as far back as 1938. These letters were accompanied in the mail by returned pieces of petrified wood, stolen from Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. Believing they are cursed and condemned by the karma of ancient…

You’ve Never Seen 1930s & 40s America Like This

I like to think of myself as rather familiar with the archives at the Library of Congress, but somehow I skipped over this album of 1,600+ colour slides from the 1930s and 40s, a time in history we’re so used to seeing only in black & white. These photographs are so vivid, they feel as…

Preserved Moments of Historical Sass (Vol. 5)

sassy: adjective \ˈsa-sē\ impudent, lively, spirited, vigorous, distinctively smart and stylish, showing no respect for people in authority, saucy, pert, confident, chic. “Maggie in snorkeling gear”, October 1958, Montego bay, Jamaica. From the third of three small “ektachrome transparencies” boxes, this set (labeled “personal fair great / our wedding” Photograph by Nick Dewolf “Advance Denied” Failing…

Forgotten Vintage Style Icon du Jour: Nina Rindt

Ask a boyfriend or husband about Nina Rindt and chances are, they’re more likely to have heard of her than us girls. A face better recognised trackside at Formula One races than in the fashion world, the Finnish model and wife of the late racing driver Jochen Rindt is an unsung style heroine who more than…

Bohemian Grove: The Secret Society Summer Camp

I just spent the morning finding out everything I can on the Bohemian Grove. For two weeks every summer, the 2,700 acre secured private camp in the Ancient Redwood Forest of Northern California, plays host to some of the most powerful men in the world. Every republican U.S. president since 1923 has been a member of club, including…

Into the Woodstock Crowd, 1969

Forty seven years ago today, nearly half a million music lovers descended upon a dairy farm in the Catskills for three days of peace, love and rock’n’roll. The year was 1969 and a total of 32 bands performed at the event that would make music history. But today, we’re veering away from the stages that Hendrix and Joplin immortalised…

Floating Utopia: An Artist’s Remote Waterworld

Some people might just be a little bit more creative than others when it comes to breaking away from mainstream society. Wayne Adams and his wife Catherine King decided to make their own utopia a floating one, tucked into an inlet of the Clayoqout Sound off Vancouver Island, an hour upstream from the closest town. And as…

Inside the Castle in the Middle of the Death Valley Desert

On my first California road trip a few years ago, one of our stops I was looking forward to the most was Death Valley’s mysterious Scotty’s Castle, a sprawling Spanish style manor built in the middle of nowhere in the roaring twenties. We were dangerously low on gas but determined to find this isolated oasis, and to my…

Who Knew Bill Cunningham Made Haute Couture Hats?

“Who the hell is that tourist in the blue jacket with the fancy camera?” I wondered. It was my first Fashion Week experience: I was shadowing photographer Eddie Newton, holding up a reflector as he shot passing fashionistas outside of the Chloé show. While the hoards were running left to capture Anna Wintour, then right to catch Kanye West,…

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