Fashion’s Forgotten Bébé

Fabulous, free and fashionable, France bloomed in the 1930s. The avant-garde arts flourished, Paris was at the centre of it all and her output was bountiful. The creative giants of the day, Picasso, Cocteau, Coco Chanel, May Ray, Beauvoir and Sartre, the Lost Generation and their cultural circle basked in a warm summer evening’s glow…

Girl Crush du Jour: Vanessa Paradis

Perhaps it’s because we share the first name (yes, if you haven’t figured it out, Nessy is short for Vanessa), perhaps it’s because she’s a Parisian and I’m now attempting to call myself one or maybe it’s just because we both like Johnny Depp– whatever the reason, Vanessa Paradis is my girl crush du jour.…

Starved of a Realistic Female Body Image? Flesh & Curves this way…

Hi there. Don’t be shy, yes that’s a boobie and a curvy waist you just saw, we’re going to be looking at a lot of those in a moment. For a few minutes today, I thought I’d give you a little time-out from what we’re used to being brainwashed with exposed to all over the…

Marge Simpson, the Style Icon

With that towering head of blue hair, we tend to forget that Marge Simpson has a killer body – for a bright yellow cartoon character, that is. So what better way to show off those famous Simpson curves than have her recreate some of the most memorable moments in fashion history? Italian illustrator, AleXsandro Palombo,…

A Photographer’s Forgotten Muse on the French Riviera

There was definitely something about Renée. When the legendary French photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue met her while strolling the streets of Paris in 1930, he fell in love instantly. Tall, chic and hiding coquettishly under a wide elegant hat, he nicknamed her the ‘parasol’. Together they embarked on what Lartigue remembers as an “eternal vacation”, a dreamlike two-year holiday in the…

Men Wore Corsets, History Says

Pink for girls, blue for boys. Heels for women, flats for men. Corsets for ladies, burly silhouettes for gents? Turn back the clock and you’ll find history is full of contradictions. In fact, until the 20th century, pink was a boy’s colour, high heels were invented for men and yes, they also wore corsets. The…

Meet Stefania, A Model, Not a Plus Size Model

I used to blog a lot more about female body image in the fashion industry but I think I sort of trailed off on the subject because it didn’t really seem to be making much of a difference. Today I think I found some new inspiration. Meet Stefania, not a pluz-sized model, a model, full-stop.…

Women Wear High Heels Because We Are Idiots, Says History

High heels were not originally intended to be worn by women. In fact, the coveted red-soled Christian Louboutin shoes were famously inspired by a French royal and notable trendsetter of the high heel, King Louis XIV of France. He passed a law ensuring only members of his court could wear the red-soled heels he sported, making it…

The First Monokini: Trying to make the Topless Swimsuit happen in 1964

When we think of the monokini today, we picture those fiddly one-piece swimsuits that give you awkward tan lines, popularised by the Kardashian and Hilton sisters. But the first monokini was in fact originally a topless swimsuit that exposed the female breasts, conceived in 1964 by avant-garde designer Rudi Gernreich, who predicted (rather accurately) that…

The 1970s Political Activist Who Invented Penis Pants

Introducing Eldridge Clever, Presidential candidate, writer, political activist, a prominent early leader of the Black Panthers, oh and inventor of the penis pants. The fashion statement the world never asked for, solved all sorts of problems according to their late inventor, Eldridge Cleaver, such as ‘fig-leaf mentality’… “Clothing is an extension of the fig leaf –…