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Cabinet of Chic Curiosities
Category / Fashion for Dummies

The Misunderstood Nomadic Women who Danced Their Way to Liberation

Centuries before Betty Friedan and the sexual revolution challenged social mores in the West, the women of the Ouled Nail in Algeria enjoyed the freedom to earn their own fortunes, choose lovers and engage in sexual relationships outside of marriage in a society that placed no shame on these choices – and indeed valued these…

The Peculiar Flapper Fad of Rouged and Decorated Knees

The infamous nightclub singer and vaudevillian, Velma Kelly, opens the musical Chicago in a sleek bob haircut, slinky black dress and all the glamour and sin of the swinging 1920s. She’s going to “paint the town”, play fast and loose… and “rouge her knees and roll her stockings down”? The last line might seem nonsensical…

The Secret World of “Ghost Shift” Midnight Manufacturing

The ship of Theseus, one of the oldest quandaries in Western philosophy, posits whether an object reconstructed with replaced parts can be considered the same as the original. But what if the ship is constructed with the same parts, in the exact same shipyard, only without the ship maker’s knowledge? It happens far more frequently than…

The Complicated Rise and Fall of Udoli, an Unsung Subculture of Black Fashion History

Black women have been at the forefront of many cultural trends throughout the centuries, from hoop earrings worn by ancient Nubian civilisations and 80s disco divas alike, to streetwear trends pioneered by R&B and Hip Hop artists of the 90s. There is one unsung fashion subculture however, which never quite took off with mainstream consumers…

Madame Mori, Haute Couture’s Real Madame Butterfly

European fashion designers have been inspired by Japan since it open its borders for trade in 1853. But while the art coming out of Japan was often appreciated and admired, the asian artists themselves have not always been welcomed with such open arms. One example of this admiration of Japanese aesthetics without a true understanding…

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…
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