Tracing the Real Betty Boop back to a Notorious Bootlegger’s Club in 1920s Harlem
The 1920’s in Paris may have been roaring, but over in Harlem, they were stomping.…
Category Inspiration Vault
Credit is Due for America’s Black Couturiers
Not a month seems to go by without a new cultural insensitivity courtesy of the…
A Sapphic Sartorial Study of Lady Troubridge
Rest assured, the roots of fashion have never really been straight. Weaving in and out of…
Chasing Ghosts in an East London Time Capsule
I gave three taps to the door with the ominous Egyptian door knob and timidly stepped…
Race Movies and the Black-Owned Studios that Thrived Next to Hollywood
There was another Hollywood that thrived once upon a time. From the 1910s to the…
America’s Hidden “Mad Men” Age of Black Advertising
Style and smiles all-round, saturated to the max; sexy undertones complete with sexist overtones and…
The Familiar Hollywood Tale of How Screen Legend Veronica Lake Wound up Working in a Dive Bar
In 1962, a reporter with the New York Post got a tip that screen goddess…
Jesus and Kitsch: The Rise of the American Megachurch
They called him Big Butter Jesus – Sweet Cream Jesus. Sometimes, Touchdown Jesus. The nicknames…
Time Machine du Jour: A 1960s London Flower Taxi
It can’t be often that you come across a charming little business lost in the…
The French Castles, Literally Fit for a Pigeon
They might easily be mistaken for playhouses fit for a princess, like Marie Antoinette’s little…
Borrow a Private Lighthouse Island for the Price of a Bed & Breakfast
A stone’s throw from a medieval sea fortress in the heart of Morlaix Bay in…
The Real Ziggy Stardust who Lost his Career to Acid
In 1966, David Bowie had a chance encounter with Vince Taylor an early exponent of…