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Cabinet of Chic Curiosities
Category / Fashion for Dummies

The Grace Mirabella Years: A Vogue Editor’s Unsung Legacy

Hailed as the most powerful woman in media, Anna Wintour has been fictionalised, caricatured and propelled into icon status since becoming editor-in-chief of Vogue. Then there’s Diana Vreeland, editor of the American style bible between 1963–1971, an industry legend who was the driving force of the Met’s Costume Institute, and styled a persona that would be remembered…

French Folk Costume or Next Season’s Haute Couture?

French fashion designers have long been at the forefront of avant-garde style and Paris has long been considered the birth city of fashion – the ultimate fountain of sophistication, glamorous muses and endless inspiration. But let’s turn back the clocks and leave the capital for the villages of provincial France where a part of French fashion…

The Secret Code of Beauty Spots

You’re looking at a very rare portrait from 1650 depicting a Black woman and a White woman, both appearing to hold equal status, some 183 years before the abolition of slavery act. Curiously, rather than commenting on the debate in 17th century Britain via the uncommon pairing, the anonymous artist chose to write an inscription…

How French Fashion Emerged even More Decadently from the Guillotine

Those of us who paid any attention in history class can probably recount a few key details and players of the French Revolution – there was Marie Antoinette, her Sun King and their posse at Versailles who were eating too much cake; the revolutionaries who kicked things off by storming the Bastille prison; and an…

In Nazi-Occupied Paris, Swing Kids had their own Resistance Movement

They aren’t remembered for their political or intellectual outpourings, nor for their radical actions in the streets. The only weapons of the Zazou were dress, speech and attitude, and yet, this Parisian subculture somehow came to be a thorn in the side of Nazis and French Fascists. Throughout history, fashion has always been a reliable…

And Now, A Brief Compendium of Neo-Victorians

Neo-Victorianism – a curious and persevering movement of reproducing, or in some way, reinterpreting, Victorian ways of life. This includes, but is not limited to, wearing top hats, corsets, silky waistcoats, an appreciation for Jane Austen, Alice in Wonderland tattoos and morbid mysteries. We’re not here to wax nostalgic about the wonders of Victorian living,…

Don’t Forget the Fearless Father of Unisex Clothing

From Harry Styles to Diane Keaton, household names of every generation continue to embrace and explore fashion that goes beyond the traditional gender binary. And as brands take note of an increasingly mainstream social shift, from luxury to fast fashion, the 2020s are on well course to being remembered as the decade that unisex fashion…

Fashion History’s Most Flustering Flex: The Codpiece

You only need to have a gander at the armour that Henry VIII used to wear to see how proud he was of his nether regions. Indeed, during his reign, one of the most important fashion items in a gentleman’s ensemble was a designated pouch that protruded from the crotch of men’s trousers, enclosing the genital area. This…

The Tribe That Inspired Frida Kalho

That unapologetic unibrow, the halo-crown of jet-black centre-parted flower-adorned plaits, rouged cheekbones and russet lips frame a fearless stare. Her Mexican torzal necklaces, silver filigree earrings and onyx beads you and I could only hope to collect over a lifetime of scouring obscure artisanal markets. No prizes for guessing who she is. But let’s drag…
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