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Category / People / Icons / Muses

The Cave-Dwelling Flamenco Dancers of Andalucia

“Gypsy” conjures up all kinds of stereotypical images of a wandering foreign community that live in caravans and vardos on the outskirts of cities. But today I fished a rare photo story out of the LIFE archives that gives us a fascinating glimpse into their lesser-known heritage. Shot by Dmitri Kessel in 1949, we’re taken inside a mid-century…

The Violin Maker

‘The Violin Maker’ – a beautiful short film on New York violin maker, Sam Zygmuntowicz. The film was shot and directed by Dustin Cohen as the first part of the promising ‘Made in Brooklyn’ series.

The Man who Shot the Sixties (and burned most of his work)

“That’s the sort of turd David Bailey is”, says Duffy remembering David Bailey being ‘absolutely useless’ as they watched Duffy burning most of his life’s work in the back yard of his family home. If you want a candid, no-frills account of the legendary 1960s photography scene, revisit it through the eyes and words of…

Grace Kelly on JFK

On the 50th anniversary of John F Kennedy’s untimely and tragic death, our thoughtful interview archivists over at Blank on Blank have put together another touching animated video interview reflecting on the president’s life and legacy. Starring the regal voice of Grace Kelly, the short clip brings us into a world where two icons meet…

Offbeat Museum Tales: The Matron of Morbidity

“A true collector, a born collector, is an addict,” believes 80 year-old, Elinor Wrobel. The Syndey-based collector and art curator is head of the Morbid Anatomy Museum, a small and eccentric corner of the Sydney Hospital dedicated to preserving hundreds of human body parts collected from the hospital’s morgue over generations. “A former nurse, art…

Dinner with Dali

Surely you didn’t expect a dinner with surrealist artist Salvador Dali to be about actually eating anything. In this old footage, the mad hatter himself Dali hosts a fundraising dinner in 1941 California to help European artists displaced by the war. Unicorns and live frogs included.

Up Close & Personal with Coco Chanel in her Apartment at the Ritz

The most controversial years in Coco Chanel’s life were spent living at the Hotel Ritz in Paris. While most of Paris was being booted out of their homes during the German occupation, Coco lived in luxury throughout most of World War II– thanks to a highly questionable relationship with her lover, a German Aristocrat and Nazi…

Coco Chanel was Definitely a Nazi

That’s quite a statement isn’t it? You may have heard rumblings about this back in August 2011 when author Hal Vaughan released his book Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel’s Secret War. But I don’t think we’ve really heard enough about it. I don’t really think we got a firm grip on the fact that today’s most…

The Prima Ballerina who had the Real Swan Lake

She was one of the greatest ballerinas of all time, the first to ever tour around the world with her own company, making it her mission to bring ballet to audiences who had never heard of it, in small towns and faraway countries with very different traditions. Most recognised for her famous performance of The Dying Swan,…

Style Queens of 1960s Saigon

I was going through a giant archive of old photographs (yes another one), mostly taken by Westerners over in Vietnam during the war, when I started to develop a very unexpected style crush. Who knew Mod fashion made it to 1960s Vietnam? As it turns out, until the early 1970s, before the fall of Saigon, street fashion in South Vietnam adopted elements of…

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