PARIS: Shops from another Century

The summer sales have started in Paris so I thought this might be a good time to take a look at how shopping used to be in the French captial. And thanks to Eugène Atget, a French photographer of the early twentieth century who made it his business to photograph the architecture and street scenes…

10 Summer Shorts for Girls who aren’t into Booty Shorts

Over the weekend I was doing a spring clean of the ol’ closet and decided to say goodbye to a well-worn, much-loved pair of red denim booty shorts. You see, there comes a point when you get over the mid twenties hump and make the wise decision to stand up and say, “I’m not going…

8 of the Best Things in a French Supermarket

Today is my weekly shop and I thought I might take you guys along with me to make it less monotonous. Fellow shoppers couldn’t quite figure out why I was taking pictures of items in the frozen food section and my francophone readers will surely be baffled by this post. But anyhoo, all the items…

The Little Shop that Cared & other Tales

– When I was a little girl, I used to play ‘shop’. I set up my own make-shift retail space, carefully displaying my own clothes and toys around my bedroom and for hours on end I happily traded with imaginary customers. I borrowed the colored bills from our Monopoly game and used a real receipt-printing…

A Brief Compendium of Vintage Cigarette Dispensers

“Tobacciana.” That’s a big ‘ole blanket term for all things smoking-obsessed. Not very 2020, perhaps (and for good reason! Don’t smoke, kids). But the reality is that until relatively recently, folks smoked a lot. So they were getting rather creative with the ways they lit-up, especially when it came to their cigarette dispensers. These often…

The Unexpected Elegance of Antique Salt Cellars

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: there is no better entertainment than watching the rich out-rich each other. Especially when all the standard bling has been bought, and folks start getting really creative – like, salt-shaker-bedazzling creative, which was the class act move for ye olde aristocrats in need of a stand…

The Pearly Wonders of Renaissance Bling

Pearls have always been in a league of their own. As souvenirs from the depths of New World waters in the 15th century, they were simply something diamonds, emeralds, and rubies could never be: alive. Pearls were ghostly. They were animal, and alien. They ushered in a quiet war and a “Pearl Rush” of their…

The Coded Couture of Antique Lacework

They were like snowflakes spun from silk, sought after just as feverishly as gold on the black market. Whether they were twisted with pearls or tied with silver knots, no two pieces of lace were the same in 1765. All too often forgotten in dusty attics today, for centuries, lacework was all about how you…

Making a case for Mouthwatering Majolica

They say you are what you eat. But what about what you eat with? We love a good bout of antique hunting, from the Paris Flea Market to one-of-kind auctions – and in matters of dishware, “Majolica” officially has our attention. You can spot the curious ceramics by their decorations of fish, fruit, and other…

This Dark Age of Disco and the Brave New World of Nightlife

Did Covid really kill the disco? Or was it just the nail in the nightclub’s coffin? Some would argue the clubbing era officially died near the end of the 00’s, and that it was the age of social media that pulled the trigger. It’s a nostalgia-driven debate that can be found thriving in the comments…