Windows of War: How Parisians Prepared for Attack

For seven straight days in September 1914, Paris became a World War I battleground as German pilots dropped 50 bombs on the city during the First Battle of the Marne. Notre Dame Cathedral was damaged and notes were dropped alongside the bombs demanding the immediate surrender of Paris and the French nation. How do you go about…

Play Shopkeeper in Paris for a Day

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 coloured bills from our Monopoly game and used a real receipt-printing calculator…

Online Shopping in the 1950s

Today, shopping while sitting in a comfy chair instead of aimlessly wandering around a store is becoming second nature to a lot of us, but in 1950, yes more than 65 years ago, it was already a hot new concept– albeit a concept the world perhaps just wasn’t ready for… We’re in midcentury Pembroke, Ontario where a local business…

A Thoughtful Family Gift Guide

The way to put smiles on your family members’ faces when it comes to opening presents on Christmas morning is by showing that you’ve thought about who they are and what they get up to on a daily basis; that you’ve listened to the things they’ve talked about and noticed what they like to surround themselves with. Being…

Welcome to the Saddest 1980s Mall in America

Think of the funnest place where you hung out as a teenager, when you were first allowed to go out with your friends on your own and pick up the latest chart-topping single. Now imagine it looking as sad and empty as this. Meg Stefanac from Pittsburgh, a former high school newspaper and yearbook photographer from the class…

This Abandoned Gas Station is a Portal into a Wes Anderson Wonderland

By the road in the small town of Ojai, California, a peculiar old mid-century gas station awaits your discovery. Converted from a sorry-looking roadside relic to something rather dreamy… Pull over at the old pumping station, but you won’t be filling up the tank here– more likely, you’ll be filling up your trunk with a hoard of…

Behind the Scenes at Macy’s, 1948

Two things you and I clearly need are a time machine and a “backstage pass” to everything. But the next best thing of course, is the internet and all its wonders, such as one of my favorite places to fish, the LIFE Archives. Today we go behind the staff only doors of the iconic Macy’s…

Typography Lovers, let this Online Boutique Romance You

I just fell head over heels, got swept off my feet, they had me at ‘hello’– all that stuff needed to begin a good ol’ romance. And if like me, you’re a hopeless devotee of typography and old world design, prepare to be wooed. Izola is a New York-based company that has so stylishly and impeccably curated their online boutique with just the…

If Wes Anderson had an Online Store, it would Probably look Something like This

Browsing the Best Made Co., an independent store based out of New York, is a little bit like browsing a Wes Anderson movie prop list. Steve Zissou’s red beanie and survival kit– check; Moonrise Kingdom’s boy scout badges and campfire tools– check. Since it was founded in 2009 by Peter Buchanan-Smith, a down-and-out guy who had just…

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,…