15 49.0138 8.38624 both 0 bullet 0 4000 1 0 horizontal https://www.messynessychic.com 300 4000

Category / Nostalgia

The Eiffel Tower’s Lost Art Nouveau Restaurant

Meet us for dinner in Paris under the Iron Lady … circa 1900? Over the 135 years since the Eiffel Tower was built, there have been some surprising additions that have come and gone from the site of city’s most iconic landmark. In our archives, we’ve shared the tower’s various transformations and experimental uses, including…

In the back of a Taxi with John Lennon and Bob Dylan (on Drugs)

John Lennon would later tell a journalist for Rolling Stone magazine that he and Dylan had done heroin that day, recalling they were “both in shades, and both on f**king junk, and all these freaks around us […] But it was his scene, that was the problem for me. It was his movie. I was on his territory, that’s why I was…

Where the Harlem Renaissance Got Its Swing

On West 140th Street and Lenox Avenue today, a drab supermarket squats in front of a housing project. It’s hard to believe that in the 1930s, the most famous dance club in the world stood on this dreary spot. Back then, the block was dominated by a two-story building with an enormous marquee sprinkled gaily…

Almost in America: Portraits from Ellis Island

“Amidst crowds of anxious immigrants milling about, Hine had to locate his subject, isolate [them] from the crowd, and set the pose-almost always, because of the language barrier without words. He had to set up his simple 5 x 7 view camera on its rickety tripod, focus the camera, pull the slide, dust his flash…

A Crash-course in French Yé-Yé Pop Culture

While the Beatles were singing “She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah” in England, continental Europe was forming its own musical phenomenon. The French called it Yé-Yé, literally derived from the “yeah! yeah!” lyrics that had become the sound of British and American rock and roll. Inspired by the Anglophone craze, the Yé-Yé movement provided a…

Travel like Wes Anderson on the Real Darjeeling Limited Railway

It was arguably the tea that put Darjeeling on the world map, but for me, it was really Wes Anderson… The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was the very first hill railway in India and its still in use today. By the tea and the gurkhas, the train has become a part of the identity of these…

Hitchcock’s Haunted House Party

Who better to kick off our Halloween weekend celebrations with than the master of horror and suspense himself, Mr. Alfred Hitchcock. In 1953, as he was about to embark on his next film, The Wrong Man, Hitchcock decided to throw a “Ghost-Haunted House Party” at his rented New York pad on East 18th St. Guest…

You’ve probably Never Heard of the Most Fascinating Woman of the Belle Epoque

Corsets could be blamed (among many things) for preventing a lot of women throughout history from living their best lives, but Camille du Gast was not one of them. She was a self-styled “exploratrice” with a mind of her own and a penchant for speed. If you weren’t familiar with any women pursuing race car…

Searching for Georges Méliès in Paris

Georges Méliès was an illusionist, in every sense of the word; a man who revolutionised cinema forever. He played an indispensable role with his innovations, creating the world’s first film studio, the first fictional film and when it comes to the invention of special effects in cinema, he’s the guy to thank. Yet, unlike other…

Before Jazz, Ragtime gave us America’s First Music Stars

You know the sound of ragtime even if you don’t think you do. “The Entertainer“, a classic piano rag, is one of the most recognisable melodies of the 20th century (go on, have a quick listen). But it was written by America’s greatest musician that we’re betting you’ve never heard of – an African American composer…

NEWER POSTS 1 … 41 42 43 … 191 OLDER POSTS