Inside the Drawing Board of the Soviet Subway

It doesn’t get much better than this, especially for a morning commute: space-age chandeliers, marble statues, ‘golden’ ornaments, and a floor so clean you lick your lunch clean off it. Well, it’s all a part of the Moscow Metro, which has been shuttling Russians to-and-fro in opulent style since 1935. The stops were designed to…

Who Will Rescue this New York Manor Worthy of a Tim Burton Movie?

This incredible historic home has been sitting on the market for a little longer than we’re comfortable with. Fairview Manor is the sort of place that’s pretty much straight out of Tim Burton’s imagination, so it’ll take a special sort of owner to take it on. But of course, pairing quirky houses with even quirkier…

Meet Russia’s Gravity-Defying Answer to the Rockettes

On a dimly lit stage, dozens of cloaked figures rise in unison under a somber, blue glow. As the spotlight grows brighter, the dancers are revealed; all unshakeable smiles and sparkles in their conical gowns that seemingly glide – no, float – across the stage like a life-sized music box. It’s enchanting, it’s eerie, and…

Stalin’s Fashion House: Style Spying behind the Iron Curtain

For many, “Soviet fashion” reads like an oxymoron. One simply can’t imagine that funding fashion ateliers was high up on Joseph Stalin’s to-do list, and it wasn’t, but still — it was there, and apparently it was utterly extravagant. “Eclectic mannequins were turning slowly as they displayed rather bewildering clothes,” wrote Elsa Schiaparelli of the…

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Life Aboard the Luxury Super Yacht of Russia’s Last Emperor

She was the largest and most luxurious Imperial Yacht afloat in her time, but The Standart would inevitably meet a similarly tragic fate to her owners. After 30 years in service to the Russian Empire, the Imperial Yacht was stripped of her elegance and converted to a Soviet minelayer for World War II and then became training ship…

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The Hair That Launched a Thousand Tweets

Stop what you’re doing, and take a seat, because senator Valentina Petrenko’s hair is about to sweep you off your feet with its gravity-defying fabulousness. This Russian politician has been captivating the internet recently with her truly one-of-a-kind look, becoming quite the Twitter starlet, and leaving folks bewildered as to how she manages to keep it all…

Meet the Walt Disney of Eastern Europe

For those whose taste in fairytales favours a darker touch, we’re traveling to the far reaches of Eastern Europe, and into the enchanting world of animator Jiří Trnka. The late Czech animator (whose name is pronounced “Yershy Trinka”) created nearly two-dozen films over his lifetime, from folksy gems like Grandfather Planted a Beet (1945) to the…

The Disappearing Romance of Russia’s Window Art

Man oh man, do I need to get myself over to Russia. If like me, you lust after the architectural aesthetic of places like Cuba, the French quarters of New Orleans, India, Portugal, Barcelona, Venice; all that intricately carved, colorful old stuff that gets so much love on Pinterest and Instagram; then it’s probably time you discovered an…

Russian Hollywood: Inside the Studios

Today let’s head off to Russia and take a tour of the Soviet era film studios. Lenfilm and Mosfilm were the two largest movie studios of the Soviet film industry and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, both became quasi-private film production companies that still produce hundreds of films a year. This abandoned flooded…