Guinness Meets the Sapeurs of Congo

Three years ago, I wrote a little article exploring the sapeurs, a subculture of extraordinarily dressed dandies from the Congo. I can safely say it is one of a handful of articles I wrote in the beginning that really launched my blog, helping my readership to grow to numbers I could never have imagined. The story…

Literally the Best Shop on the Internet: Shoppe

Here at Messy Nessy Chic– that includes you, dear reader– we are a curious bunch aren’t we? Always looking for the authentic and the unique, the homemade and the well-travelled things of this earth. And when we decide to bring an object into our homes, it damn well better have a good story. In short,…

The Day the Shorts got Shorter

After this most deepest and darkest of winters (aren’t they always), what I’m more than ready for the sort of weather that just makes you want to burst out of the house and run the streets in short shorts. This is basically what is happening in these photographs I fished out of the LIFE archives… With LIFE’s…

Ace Hotel: The Rising Hilton of Hipster Accommodation

Comparing them to the Hilton hotel chain is probably going against everything they stand for, but you see I’m kinda hoping this flourishing collection of hotels, “held together by an affinity for the soulful,” takes over the world! So here’s a few things you should know about ACE, the self-proclaimed friendly hotel… 1. They’ve just…

The Queen of Rock ‘n Roll, 1969

Tina Turner rocks the stage at the Lake Amador Gold Rush Festival of 1969, when an estimated 40,000 people flocked to the small Californian county and its surrounding hills from all over the country to experience love, peace and rock n roll… Steve Rudzinkski submitted these photographs he took in 1969 to Merced Music: “I was in…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. LVI)

1. A House Truck “House truck at the tui community” is sadly all the information we get on this awesome old automobile, found on Flickr. UPDATE! Thanks to the awesome power of the internet, our article was brought to the attention of a certain Anna Lakeman, from the rural Tui commune in New Zealand. She…

Found: The Unclaimed Louis Vuitton Trunk of Marilyn Monroe

There’s a Japanese Lady Gaga living in Tokyo called Princess Tenko, and she collects anything from hairbrushes to underwear that once belonged to Marilyn Monroe. One of the most treasured pieces in her collection is a mysterious unclaimed Louis Vuitton trunk she acquired at auction in 2005 for a modest $5,000, which allegedly belonged to…

This Little-Known African Men’s Brand sure makes a Dandy Suit

I‘m not entirely sure of the path that led me here, all I know is that I was lurking in a pretty obscure part of the internet. What I do know is that these are some pretty dapper suits. At first, I thought I was looking at the impressive new collection of a well-known men’s…

The Great Brooklyn House Snooping of 1978

I love a good snoop around other people’s houses, don’t you? Assuming it’s all perfectly legal, of course. In January 1978, a then unknown, and still, very much undiscovered photographer by the name of Dinanda H. Nooney began documenting Brooklynites in their homes. She gained access to the private lives of hundreds of perfect strangers, who…

The Slenderizing Salon: Looking for Shortcuts since 1940

How’s your New Year’s health and fitness resolution doing so far? For our friend, little Miss Pat Ogden, it doesn’t appear to be going too well. The young LIFE Magazine model has been pressured into joining the Slenderising Salon, the newest fitness fad that is all anybody can’t talk about in 1940s New York. Shot…