Our Date with Diane Pernet, the Internet’s First High Priestess of Fashion

Crowned as the “original fashion blogger” by the New York Times, Diane Pernet has long been a one of a kind, spellbinding presence in the industry. She has filled so many roles – designer, filmmaker, curator, journalist and influencer (in the truest sense of the word) – that it’s impossible to reduce her work to…

Our Zoom Date with Britain’s First Woman to Explore the World (Alone) by Motorbike

In the summer of 1982, a 23-year-old Elspeth Beard set off on her motorbike, and didn’t return home until she’d travelled the entire globe – a remarkable feat for any person, but particularly as a solo female biker nearly 40 years ago, making her one of the first women to ride around the world alone…

In Defence of a Bad DIY Haircut before its Post-Lockdown Debut

I’m on the brink of cutting my own hair, and I can’t be the only one. I’ve been imagining that coming out of lockdown is going to look like the 1980s for hair all over again. And it got me thinking – there must have been something to those crazy perms and gravity-defying bangs for…

An African Vatican: The World’s Largest Church is a Colossal 1980s Replica

Like a mirage in the dusty haze that settles over the African bush, stands an almost exact replica of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City. Upon its completion in 1989, not only did the lookalike structure ‘borrow’ the design of the Roman Renaissance dome and encircled plaza, but measuring in at 30,000 square metres, it even took St.…

Meet the Winners of Drag Race 100 Years Ago

Hoist up your garters and fasten your wigs, because we’re voguing our way back in time to the origins of drag ball extravaganzas: those champagne and lipstick fuelled soirées where drag queens, cross-dressers, and everybody in-between gathered to unfurl their fabulousness in style – and just like on the main stage of the hit TV…

Is MacPaint the Most Underrated form of Outsider Art?

Readers of a certain age may remember MacPaint’s arrival well: developed by Apple and released in 1984 with the OG Macintosh Computer, it was our planet’s first taste of fancy graphics editing, and it was available to absolutely everyone. For a price, of course (the first Mac cost the 2019 equivalent of $5,000 USD). As…

Let’s Talk About 1980s Parisian Pop Culture

On a steamy summer night in 1981, it wasn’t odd to find David Bowie tossing around a blow-up ball in an underground discotheque pool or Grace Jones singing “La Vie en Rose” on a Harley Davidson surrounded by Paris’ premiere drag queens at clubs like Le Palace. A big, playful energy combusted across a city…

In the Shadows with NYC’s Self-Styled Guardian Angels

People forget that in 1979, New York was burning. To relive it today would almost be like entering an unrecognisable dystopian society where street gangs ruled the city after the sun went down. Times Square’s Disney stores were occupied by peep shows and drug dens, and you could go as far as saying that some…

The ’80s Harlem Hip Hop Tailor: Dapper Dan

He was selling custom-made clothing to Hip Hop’s finest for thousands of dollars a piece, fashioned from rolls of fake Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Fendi prints out of his Harlem boutique during the 1980s. His name is Dapper Dan and before the likes of Kanye West and Rihanna were doing it, this guy was the…

Inside the Scarface Hotel

Today, I got acquainted with The Mutiny Hotel, the early 80s cocaine-fueled Miami hotspot where the CIA partied side by side with notorious drug traffickers, celebrities and politicians. In 1969, The Mutiny Hotel opened its doors on Coconut Grove as the neighbourhood was fast becoming a mecca for cocaine kingpins. By its peak in the late…