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Cabinet of Chic Curiosities
Category / Fashion for Dummies

Preserved Moments of Historical, Indisputable Black Style

I haven’t done one of these style compendiums in a while, so this is long overdue. And this is also for all those internet retrospectives on vintage style that don’t include a single Black face. It was a hard task narrowing down my favourites from thousands of found snapshots floating around out there on the world…

Refine your Moodboard with this 1970s French Fairytale

These are a few of my favourite things about a 1970s French musical called “Donkey Skin”: A giant cat throne, a surreal banquet with candy-coloured flora, a snow globe grave, talking roses and parrots, Catherine Deneuve as a Disney-esque princess, the deeply saturated colour palette, fashion tech ahead of its time, oh and pretty much…

Men Wore Corsets, History Says

Pink for girls, blue for boys. Heels for women, flats for men. Corsets for ladies, burly silhouettes for gents? Turn back the clock and you’ll find history is full of contradictions. In fact, until the 20th century, pink was a boy’s colour, high heels were invented for men and yes, they also wore corsets. The…

Curiosity du Jour: The Talking Victorian Bouquet

The Victorians loved their secrets. They hid them in the details but wore them on their sleeve with the help of a few small but elaborate accessories. The nosegay, also known as a posy or a “tussie mussie”, was one of the more discrete lady gadgets of yore that had multiple uses… For one, if…

Let Cindy Crawford Guide you through Paris Fashion Week Circa 1992

It’s Haute Couture Fashion week in Paris – well, sort of. Shows are being attended by video links and style is being created, communicated and consumed in a virtual world. But for a brief moment, let’s pretend we’re not in the middle of a pandemic and turn the clock back to the early 90s courtesy…

Cover Girls of the Anti-Apartheid

Once described as the “Hollywood of Black South Africa”, in 1951, Sophiatown, Johannesburg was one of the last surviving multiracial neighbourhoods of Apartheid and a symbol of resistance against a racist regime. It was here where the writers of DRUM magazine found their beat and South Africa’s Black celebrities and entertainment found their spotlight. It’s…

The Pathé Archive is hiding some Rad Midcentury Hair Trends

It’s no secret the British Pathé is a treasure trove of vintage content, but here’s a tip: pick a key search word, any word and let the channel Youtube channel dig up some delightful buried gems. Today’s keyword? Hair. Hair Flashes (1955) Space Age Hair Fashions (1962) Two Tone Hairstyles (1956) Hair Styles Beware (1956)…

Curiosity du Jour: Inside Out Handbags of Yore

Empty a woman’s handbag inside out and you’ve got the right idea about the chatelaine. Before purses were a woman’s primary accessory, this curious contraption that fell into the annals of fashion obscurity over time, once commonly served to carry her daily armour. Designed very much like a tool belt worn at the waist, the chatelaine…

Indulge in the Underrated Influence of Erté

An artist like Erté was unlikely to go by unnoticed in history with his profound obsession for the arts, spanning from dance to theatre and film to high fashion and beyond. The visual wizard arguably coined the Art Deco aesthetic with a signature style that continues to inspire modern design today and yet, his name…
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