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Category / How to start a subculture

Mucha and his Muse (Pioneers of a little movement called Art Nouveau)

During the late winter of 1894, a struggling Czech artist was working in an illustrator workshop, correcting proofs for a friend. It was the holidays in Paris and most other artists were out of town. All of a sudden, a woman rushes into the workshop demanding a poster for a theatre production called Gismonda. The production is set…

India’s Utopian “Star Wars” City

Her words rang out for 5,000 to hear, and in 16 languages, on a winter’s day in 1968. It was the inauguration of Auroville, the futuristic utopia in India led by guru Mirra Alfassa, who declared her mission to make “a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace…

London’s Lost Department Store of the Swinging Sixties

If you thought that Harvey Nichols or Harrods were the epitome of a London fashion department store, it’s time to re-introduce you to Big Biba, a fallen icon of the Swinging Sixties that redefined the High Street shopping experience… It all started in 1964, when a small-time mail order business called Biba’s Postal Boutique advertised…

Why Hollywood Should Revisit a Disastrous 1970s Transgender Film Ahead of its Time

At first glance, the surreal plot of what has been called “one of the worst films ever made” seems like a reiteration of harmful tropes: an ambitious transgender woman cons her way into a position of power and ultimately uses it in an attempt to destroy gender norms (in a nutshell). But believe it or…

The Ghost Bath Houses of Paris

I was researching old Parisian advertisements from the 19th century (as you do) when I came across this one for a palatial Turkish bath house near the opera house. Behind its vaulted arches, magnificent mosaics were lit by stars of coloured glass and according to a 19th century ‘Bather’s Guide’ to Paris, the establishment boasted Roman-Turkish hammams,…

The Kids Who Burned New York

The club kids burned bright and fast. They were the society misfits. The ‘freaks’. A sharp cocktail of young drag queens who built a community out of their craft, and a cast of constantly rotating nightlife characters with one common mantra: be whatever you want, but just don’t be boring. We’re headed back to a…

We Just Walked into America’s Strangest Egyptian-UFO Cult

Not long ago in Georgia, black and gold pyramids stood proudly on the 476-acre compound of Tama-Rey. It was the holy “Land of the Sun,” a place where the self-declared God, Dr. Malachi Z. York, manipulated thousands of nationwide followers in the “Nuwaubian Nation of Moors” to believe they were cosmic purveyors of an extraterrestrial…

The French Sex Cult from Outer Space

One of France’s most fascinating imports of late is also one of its most controversial: the world’s largest UFO religion of Raëlism, which decrees that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials. Founded in 1974, a reported 70,000 members reportedly follow the order today, which enjoys tax-exempt status in the US while…

LOVE: Lost and Found on Craigslist

No matter how much I like to deny it, I’m a sucker for romantic stuff like this. Sophie Blackall is an Australian artist living in New York who found the perfect inspiration for her drawings– the Craigslist Missed Connections page. Having never really been a user of Craigslist (which apparently means I’ve been living on…

The Chelsea Arts Ball, 1947: The Most Scandalous Party of New Year’s Eve

Some of you might have understandably sworn off parties this New Year’s Eve and plan to slink away for a low-key night in, but before the countdown begins, I thought I might tempt you to join me on my time machine to take a tour of the most scandalous New Year’s party of them all, the Chelsea Arts…

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