The Secret History of the Conversation Chair

It’s taken many names, shapes and forms over the centuries – the conversation chair, the courting bench, a tête-à-tête, a chaperone chair, the vis-à-vis, gossip chair or the indiscret. Considered the pinnacle of sophistication and style during the Gilded and Victorian age, if you were entertaining the fashionable elite, one simply wasn’t running a home…

How the Last Great American Flower Factory Still Blooms Over Midtown, NYC

Once upon a time, a woman needed a parrot tulip. Not just any tulip. “She started with something like this,” explains Adam Brand, heir to his family’s 4th generation flower factory business, M&S Schmalberg. He picks up a few flat, flower shaped layers of fabric. “Then we took some little poofs, some hibiscus, all different…

This Guy Knits ‘Ugly Sweaters’ for Every Place He Goes

Not all heros wear capes. Sam Barsky, for example, wears sweaters. Nearly 200 of them at this point. The Baltimore, Maryland native has taken the internet by storm recently with his talent for knitting sweaters of, well, everything, from the glory of Stonehenge to the streets of Baltimore; an incoming tram, or the Hollywood sign.…

Here’s the Quirkiest Gift Guide on the Internet

You trust me to take you shopping, right?! Good, because I’ve got something for everyone… For the Pop Culture Junkie Holly Golightly sleep mask. Available from numerous sellers on Etsy and Amazon. Make sure to print out the Breakfast at Tiffany’s photo with it! If you’re good with a needle & thread and have a…

Olympia Le-Tan transformed “Don’t be a Tourist” Books into Clutch Bags!

As an author and purveyor of curiosities, if there was ever a collaboration to be had, this was always it! So it is with great honour that we reveal the Olympia Le-Tan x Don’t be a Tourist Limited Edition embroidered Clutch bags, now available for curious collectors at OlympiaLeTan.com.

Inside the Secret Parisian Warehouse where the French Presidents Go Furniture Shopping

Picture an IKEA warehouse – but make it chic – and add an inventory of priceless furniture, textiles and objects that date as far back as the reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV, who indisputably raised the bar on what we’ll call French ‘power decorating’ for centuries to come. A sprawling Art Deco reinforced…

Van Gogh’s Gun & other Unusual Things up for Auction this Summer

In 1960, a French farmer dug up a Belgian-manufactured Lefaucheux pinfire revolver in a field north of Paris next to the village where Vincent Van Gogh spent his final days. The severely corroded gun is believed to be the one that killed the artist in July of 1890, after he shot himself in the stomach…

The Vault

Collectors Item du Jour (Vol. VII)

We love a fashion moment wrapped in a mystery, which is precisely what happened when fate, or chance, or whatever, first brought us to our dream handbag. There, in the sea musty bins at the Brooklyn Flea, it glimmered: a purse made up of cream coloured coils…dare we say, telephone cords? It was bold, campy,…

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Who wants to take over 13 Greenhouses? Café, Historic Nursery & Cottage included

I can picture myself now: waking up with the birds, throwing on a pair of wellies and zipping up my fleece as I walk out to a little hamlet of 13 Victorian greenhouses. The lines of the glass catch the morning sunlight just so, as dawn breaks through the trees. Clutching a watering can, I…

Catherine Deneuve Wants to Sell You Her Parisian Wardrobe

Spring cleaning came early for French cinema icon Catherine Deneuve, who says she’s just got no more room in her closet in Normandy (relatable!), so she’s auctioning off her perfectly Parisian, Yves Saint Laurent wardrobe. Now for fashion lovers, this is the Holy Grail of hauls. But even if you don’t care about clothes, you…