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Category / People / Icons / Muses

The Original Hilton Sisters

Before Paris and Niki graced the tabloid headlines, it was the siamese sisters of Vaudeville – Daisy and Violet Hilton – who were the talk of the town. Are you in for some glamour? Deception? Love scandals? Intrigue? The original Hilton sisters had it all… Daisy and Violet were born in Brighton, England, in 1908. Their…

Frida Kahlo’s Greenhouse Garden Party

Margaritas in hand amongst a sea of succulents, fresh tacos devoured under string lights while the mariachi band plays, flora headbands against terracotta blues, reds and yellows of the beloved Casa Azul, reimagined inside a domed glass forest. Sound like your kinda night out? Well thank God it’s Frida. She’s throwing a Frida Al Fresco party at the New York…

That time Picasso might have stolen the Mona Lisa

Piccasso is probably most famous for his affairs, his extravagant bohemian lifestyle, oh and his art too, but he’s probably less remembered as the guy who was suspected of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. On August 22nd of 1911, Parisian artist Louis Béroud, famous for painting and selling his copies of…

What Children Think of Models in Fashion Campaigns

Trust kids to tell it like it is— and the unapologetic artist Yolanda Domingues to help them tell it. The Spanish artist’s new project, Niños vs. Moda called upon a group of 8 year-old school children to describe their impressions of real multi-million dollar campaigns created by some of the world’s leading fashion houses. An astute…

Hollywood’s Original “Bad Girl”: The Tragic Muse of Kurt Cobain

Even before she was famous, Frances Farmer had a bad girl reputation. In high school, she won a writing contest for her essay, “God Dies”, and was awarded a trip abroad to the Soviet Union in college, which she earned by selling subscriptions for a left-wing paper. She was a force to be reckoned with, heading straight…

What they Wore to the Vanderbilt Ball: Inside the Photo Album

Like they do at prom, the guests of the 1883 Vanderbilt fancy dress ball each had the opportunity to have their photo taken at the event of the year, or perhaps the century. All of New York’s elite society turned up at the Fifth Avenue mega mansion dressed as pirates, goths, animals, gypsies and other inventive…

Congo High, Class of ’72

I still cringe when I look back (usually against my will) at my high school yearbook pictures. It’s probably because I can see how utterly lost I was at that age, in every sense of the word. But these school portraits, taken at a Protestant secondary school in Mbandaka, Congo in 1972, are in another league from your…

American Girl in Italy: Behind the Iconic Photo

“It’s not a symbol of harassment. It’s a symbol of a woman having an absolutely wonderful time! I clutched my shawl to me because that sheaths the body. It was my protection, my shield. I was walking through a sea of men. I was enjoying every minute of it.” In fact, the American girl, Ninalee “Jinx” Allen…

The Floating Straw Islands of Uros: An Ancient Tribe Surviving in a Tourist Hub

Once again, today the internet has taken me to a place no geography or history ever did. Floating out into the middle of the Lake Titicaca between Peru and Bolivia, figures are seemingly drifting amongst the reeds and mythical creatures guarding what look like islands made of straw on the water… (c) Suzanne Preston (c) KeelyNYC On my internet wanderings,…

Muscle Beach Girl, 1954

She was dubbed the “strongest seventh grader” in the world. In the mid-1950s, April Atkins was a regular at California’s muscle beach and routinely blew spectators away with her unbelievable strength and generally kicking strongmen’s butts. If you’re looking for a little motivation to tone up for summer, these photographs I dug up in the LIFE…

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