15 49.0138 8.38624 both 0 bullet 0 4000 1 0 horizontal https://www.messynessychic.com 300 4000

Cabinet of Chic Curiosities

Category / Indie Shopper

September 21, 2018

The Inexplicably Fascinating Japanese Art of Being Useless

“Not always useful, but not altogether useless” is the mantra behind Chindōgu, a Japanese art form that calls for stilettos with built-in umbrellas, noodle bibs for the face, and glue sticks filled with butter (that one we get). They’re nonsensical inventions on a mission, missing the mark of utility by a hair, and on purpose. “I…

September 19, 2018

Stop Everything, Check out this Forgotten Library For Sale

You know those movies set in a small town, where a bunch of local kids discover a murder mystery, try to solve it, and end up at the public library, scrolling through newspaper clippings from 50 years ago on the old microfilm machines. That’s how I imagine this library… The old Carnegie Library of Elwood…

September 13, 2018

Missing Paris in New York

If you happen to be a Parisian, like our new US editor Francky (hey, it’s me), who suddenly found herself plopped down in the Big Apple with a case of culture shock, you might be yearning for a cheat sheet of sorts — a means to finding a little bit of Paris in New York.…

September 12, 2018

Digging for Treasure (and Love) in New York City

Their’s is a love of strange and beautiful proportion. The kind measured in porcelain, peanut-sized dolls, and antiqued oysters as big as your face. “It’s hard to imagine a time when we’d stop digging,” says Belle, back-lit by a wall of technicolour glass bottles, “I mean it’s addictive. And when you have someone who gets…

August 14, 2018

For Sale: Your ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ Fixer-Upper Awaits

When Matthew Hampshire drops us a line, we know it’s time to head into the belly of yet another crumbling beauty. This time, the photographer gave us a peek inside one of his lushest expeditions to date, in the hills of northern Italy at the ghostly Villa Moglia. Step behind her gates for yourself, but…

July 10, 2018

A Rock Band’s Vintage Closet on the Run

Starling and Rein Irving are on the run. In a good way, mind you, and in extremely stylish fashion. You see, the 20-year-old-ish sisters have been making pilgrimages across the United States, with a collection of vintage treasures in tow. Their vessel? A 1959 green Chevrolet Viking bus they found abandoned in a field. Their…

June 6, 2018

The Last House of Fans, Paris

There was once a secret language used by women for centuries to communicate unspoken sentiments across the room. It was the code of duchesses and ladies-in-waiting; women who made bi-weekly trips to the opera armed with an exquisite accessory that with a simple flick of her wrist, could declare her true feelings for a gentleman sat across…

May 9, 2018

An Artist’s Beautiful Obsession with Cabinets of Curiosity

Steffen Dam doesn’t quite live in the same world as everyone else. For decades, the Danish artist has been creating a veritable Wunderkrammer, or “Cabinet of Curiosities” out of his studio (a former 1930s school house) dedicated to the creation of a whole new genus of sea creatures — all made of glass. Every beaker, jar, and…

April 4, 2018

Fixer Upper of the Week: A Ghost Hamlet in Salem

The memories of this place are hiding in the warm breeze and the peeling paint. Happier times are somewhere in the reflection of the glass windows and the creaking door speaks of the stories that have passed through it. At one time in my life, I want to be the person that brings back the…

April 3, 2018

Vintage Italian Scooter Sale of the Century

In the 1960s, the scooter became as much a fashion statement as humble transport. Vespa and Lambretta were the Coco-cola and Pepsi of the Mediterranean and you couldn’t be a fan of both. They had their own magazines, clubs and mod gangs across the continent. Then there was the Moto Guzzi and the futurist Maico Mobil,…