15 49.0138 8.38624 both 0 bullet 0 4000 1 0 horizontal https://www.messynessychic.com 300 4000
Cabinet of Chic Curiosities
Category / Nostalgia

And Now, Abandoned Dollhouses for your Inner Demon Child

Forget those twee little dollhouses from your childhood, we’re a tiny bit obsessed with the work of a truly twisted genius. Juli Steel is not your average miniaturist. A self-taught assemblage artist from Texas who goes by the alias of @TwistedCopperForest, like us, Juli has a weak spot for the forgotten and unloved things of…

Mother & Daughter Buy an Abandoned Chateau, Invite You to Stay as they Restore It

Back in 2013, we broke a story about a couple that bought an abandoned chateau and started a blog to share their journey. Widespread interest, longing and general FOMO (fear-of-missing-out) ensued on the internet. Several years later, we’ve found a similar fairytale: an architect from Austria, Elisabeth Herring, and her daughter Valerie, adopt a neglected 16th…

How did the Heart Become the Symbol of Love anyway?

Once upon a time, a knight was really pissed off. He had just discovered that his wife took a lover, and naturally, sought revenge in a joust to the death with his rival. But even that victory wasn’t enough to quench his rage, so he cut out the heart of his wife’s lover and gave…

The 1970 Osaka World’s Fair was Something Else

And here we were thinking that the New York World’s Fair of 1939 and 1968 were impressive. Osaka knocked it out of the park in the 1970. The theme of the Expo was “Progress and Harmony for Mankind,” and a total of 77 countries participate, including the USA and the USSR, with more than 64…

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 1950s, an independent Black American film industry catered to its own segregated audience, had its own African American directors, stars and studios. The movies they produced, the first alternative American “indie” cinema, are known as “race movies”. Of more than…

Who were the Fasting Girls?

Mollie Fancher spent half a century in her bed. They called her “The Brooklyn Enigma,” but she was born your average, middle class New York gal. That all changed in 1865, when she gained fame from a freak accident in which she fell out of a horse-drawn trolley, and was dragged behind by her scarf.…

The Secret History of Lipstick

Its recipe has taken thousands of years to perfect, and if we follow the forgotten trail, its secret history can lead us from the ancient tombs of antiquity to underground societies that paved the way for freedom of expression. Contrary to popular assumption, lipstick was in fact genderless for most of its existence, and as…

Secretly Documenting the Intimate World of 19th Century Sex Workers

No one knew that William Goldman led a double life. A model citizen and well-respected photographer in Reading, Pennsylvania at the turn of the century, he became treasurer of the State Photographers’ Association and was a valued member of numerous social organisations. It wasn’t until nearly 80 years after his death that his vast collection of…

An Abandoned Overgrown Estate is the Last of its Kind in the Heart of Paris

Wild and consumed by nature, like a scene described by Dickens in Great Expectations – an estate frozen in time, fit for the reclusive Miss Havisham herself – a “country house” in the centre of the city, surrounded by Paris’ most coveted real estate, will go up for sale this week at auction. In a…
1 2 … 163
ABOUT NESSY
Mum & Dad named me Vanessa, but you can call me Nessy.

INSTAGRAM

messynessychic