5 Uplifting Ways to “Take Yourself Out” during Lockdown

Treat yo self! With some of us going into our second week of lockdown, here at MNC, we’re trying to find ways to get excited for the weekend by finding alternatives to our outdoor adventures and social soirées. Picking up where we left off with our 20 Things to Do at Home instead of Banging…

Dream about Dressing Up Again with a Century-Old Fashion Magazine

What will you wear to your first social event when the lockdowns are over? Are you daydreaming about that moment yet? When you finally get to open your closet and put together an outfit that doesn’t involve a stretchy-pant combo. Here’s hoping this worldwide confinement will change fashion for us and bring us back to…

10 Enchanting NYC Bookstores to Support During These Surreal Times

Books aren’t fair weather friends. No matter what, we can always rely on the words of the authors we love to taste life twice (so says Anaïs Nin, who sure lived a spicy life). Now, more than ever, it’s our turn to help support the guardians of these words: our cities’ independent booksellers. We’re talking…

A Brief Compendium, or an Ode, if you will, to Celebrate Balconies

As the world stays home, we would like to opt for a new euphemism for life in quarantine: Nesting. Last week, we dove into the plushy world of retro conversation pits. Today, we’re pivoting to the glory of the balconies – which have become the world’s incidental stages at this strange time. They’re teaching us…

Sex Worker Brides & the Rise of “Millionaires” in the Twisted Tale of a Forgotten Economic Crash

Once upon a time, in pre-revolutionary Paris, French prisoners were set free under the condition that they married prostitutes and emigrated with them to Louisiana. The newlyweds were chained together, escorted to the port and sent to the land of the free. This bizarre and little-known anecdote of history comes from the story of one…

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

1. The longest car in the world (100 ft long, 26 wheels, jacuzzi & diving board, king-sized water bed & helicopter pad) It was called “The American Dream”, built by California custom car guru Jay Ohrberg… began life in the late 1980s at Ohrberg’s Hollywood Cars shop. Ohrberg selected a golden 1970s Cadillac Eldorado as a…

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…

I Visited 18 Countries Today, How about You?

Not to brag, but I went all over the world today – before I’d even stopped for lunch! In these unprecedented times, when one of our greatest passions – travel – is taken away from us, it calls for a back-up plan. And that my fellow explorer, is armchair travelling. In addition to falling down…

From Frida to Shakespeare, the Amazing Things They Did whilst “Social Distancing”

In around 1603, a poet had a decision to make. With a plague underway in England, he could choose to answer to fear, or answer to the muse. Luckily for us, the writer – one Mr. William Shakespeare – decided to put pen to paper (quill to parchment?) and turn out one of his greatest…

How a Curious Bunch like Us can Help in Times like These

Where do I begin? Or a better question – how can I help in a time like this? Together, we’ve built a truly unique community of people that shares a very particular mindset. So let’s stick to what we’re good at and put it to some use. For the past decade here at MessyNessyChic, we’ve been…