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Category / Nostalgia

Podcast du Jour: The Reclusive Royals that Lived in a Crumbling Jungle Palace

Some stories never leave us. They take up permanent residency in our brain, resurfacing for years to come in shades of daydreams and just-before-bed thoughts. “The Jungle Prince of Dehli” is one of those stories. Declarations of “How have we not heard about this?” and “Just when you think every story has been told…” made…

The Oddly Comforting Allure of London’s Vintage Tube Textiles

Fun fact. The woman who revolutionised British print design with some of the most iconic patterns for public transport was in fact a distant cousin of Karl Marx. Her name was Enid Marx, and in 1937 she was selected by the London Passenger Transport Board to design the moquette seat fabrics for the London bus and tube seats. Her…

Finding Peace in a Secret London Oasis, a Symbol of the City’s Struggle and Resilience

A short walk from Monument tube station, in a side street of the City of London, lies St-Dunstan-in-the-East. This abandoned church has been converted into a garden open to the public, which remains largely undiscovered despite its location. Tucked away from skyscrapers like the Shard and Walkie Talkie, this unexpected gem is a surprisingly peaceful…

Revisiting a Censored ‘Film Noir’ that Tackled PTSD Decades before it was Acknowledged

For so many US veterans, the real journey home begins in the head – that long, winding road to psychological stability after the traumas of service. Even today, it’s a topic not easily broached given the stigmas surrounding mental health. It wasn’t until 1980, and under much controversy, that the American Psychiatric Association added the term…

A Giant Cabinet of Curiosities in Paris

Every big city in the world has its own Natural History Museum, so what makes the one in Paris worth visiting? Well for one, there aren’t many major Natural History Museums that were abandoned for more than 25 years, closed to the public while they fell into disrepair with everything still inside… Archive images © Muséum national d’Histoire…

A Guide to Wes Anderson’s Paris

Did you know Wes Anderson lives in Paris? When he’s not off making one of his beautifully idiosyncratic films, the director keeps a low profile in his Parisian apartment and office, no doubt decorated as charmingly as his movie sets. We’ve been invited into Wes’ whimsical world through his lens, but we know very little about Wes Anderson’s Paris. So…

A Lonely New York Mansion For Sale, Possibly Haunted, Still a Rare Steal

Ten bedrooms, five bathrooms, four fireplaces and 6,000 square feet – the dream fixer-upper for a bargain $50,000. So the question is, exactly how haunted is this house? The James Seymour Mansion was built in 1861 by, you guessed it, James Seymour, a notable philanthropist who had founded the local library and city hospital. Located…

Never Again would there be a Costume Party quite like the 1903 Winter Ball

When the Russian Imperial family threw a party, they didn’t do “low key”. Even with a looming global economic crisis that would mark the beginning of the end for the Russian Empire, no expense was spared. If tsarist Russia was going down, they were going out with a bang. And so, in February of 1903, on the…

Vintage Muse du Jour: Peggy Guggenheim, Patron Saint of Art & Sex

You probably know Guggenheim– the name, the museums, the collections– but do you know the woman behind legendary the name (and sunglasses)? Peggy Guggenheim didn’t live the domesticated life that was expected of an heiress. She was her own kind of bohemian, impossible to define, mysterious and in many ways, tragic in her loneliness. But…

10 Remarkable Things Hiding in the Attic

An attic is the ultimate guardian of secrets; a hiding place for all sorts of things disguised in the darkness and the dust– family history, forgotten treasure, architectural follies and perhaps a few skeletons in the closet? I thought it was about time we dedicated a brief compendium to the attic: the most mysterious and…

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