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

Category / Nostalgia

A New York City Misfit Museum, like No Other

Woody Allen pulls off one of Groucho Marx’s best lines in Annie Hall — you know, the one that goes, “I wouldn’t want belong to any sort of club that would have me as a member”. He’s kidding, of course, but the line perfectly reflects that charming New York brand of pessimism, and because it…

What We’d Bid on at the Historic Waldorf Astoria Hotel Auction

The Waldorf Astoria became an icon of Manhattan glamour ever since it first opened in 1931. One of New York’s oldest and perhaps grandest of hotels, it closed its doors as we knew it for the last time in the winter of 2017. We were there to say goodbye. Nearly four years later, the Waldorf…

Derelict Masterpieces of Havana’s Forgotten Art Schools

This story begins with an Italian architect roaming the meadow of an elitist Cuban golf course. “The first thought I had, looking at the site, was that I could walk down across the field, describing an ‘S’, with my arm outstretched like a plane.” It was April 1961, the bay of Pigs incident had just…

Parisian Woman and a Cat in her Cannabis Garden: A Short Story Challenge

It’s amazing to see how our minds can wander in different ways; how many variations of a story can come from a single picture. We recently proposed a challenge for our readers to become the storyteller, prompted by a historical found photograph with a brief caption as the only clue: “Parisian Woman with her Cat in…

Hedonist Hollywood’s Lost Garden of Allah

Before James Dean moved into the Chateau Marmont and made it a Hollywood landmark and go-to spot for stars to get up to no good, there was the far more notorious, but now long-forgotten Garden of Allah. The hotel’s ambrosial name certainly had no reflection on its reputation as the never-ending house party on Sunset…

America’s Boneyards: Where Airplanes go to Die

Before they are put to rest, airplanes undergo funeral-esque rituals known as ‘pickling’. Their engines are removed, the windows covered and the fluids drained. But of course these giants are too big to bury. In the parched deserts, where a dry climate is an old machine’s best ally, aircrafts young and old lie nose to…

Discover a Secret Fashion Time Capsule in Paris

When I think of Paris fashion week, I like to think of the historic couture houses and their army of skilled artisans furiously tailoring together glorious silks and handmade fabrics in the final hours before the show. I like to picture long-standing ateliers in the garment district; life-sized dollhouses; each floor with its own particular…

One Very Surreal Day with Salvador Dalì

Even today, in this era of “nothing shocks us anymore”, Dalì still manages to get an eyebrow raise out of me. The man is endlessly fascinating and just when I think I’ve seen all his work, up pops another thing I never knew he did. Just this morning, I found a clip of a dream…

We Could all Use a Good Conversation Pit Right About Now

It’s 1976. You kick off your platform clogs, pour a brandy, and snuggle up with your moustached companion in the cutting edge of groovy hangouts: the conversation pit. Arguably one of the most divisive home design features of our time, the conversation pit holds a very special place in our kitsch little hearts. If you’re…

The 1970 Osaka World’s Fair was Something Else

And here we were thinking that the New York World’s Fair of 1939 and 1964 were impressive. Osaka knocked it out of the park in the 1970. The theme of the Expo was “Progress and Harmony for Mankind,” and a total of 77 countries participate, including the USA and the USSR, with more than 64…

NEWER POSTS 1 … 79 80 81 … 191 OLDER POSTS