There’s a certain kind of woman who never fit neatly into a box. Whether she was Annie Hall in that floppy hat or Erica Barry in her turtleneck armor, Diane Keaton was that woman. | And like you, she was a reader of 13 Things I Found on the Internet Today! Back in 2019, she nearly knocked me off my seat when I received a notification that Ms. Keaton had given us a shoutout (see the throwback at this week’s number 13). | Diane reminded us that being a little odd, a little awkward, could be magnetic; that there’s beauty in being a little misaligned with the world.
| The “quirky girl” isn’t just a cinematic trope — she’s an energy. She’s the part of us that refuses to iron out our wrinkles, literally or figuratively. She’s curiosity over composure, charm over perfection.
| So I’d like to raise a glass to the girl who still lives inside us — the one who talks to herself in grocery store aisles, who collects too many hats, who ages without apology, who has too many ideas and not enough time. Diane gave her a face, a laugh, a legacy, and gave us permission to never stop becoming.
| Here’s to keeping her spirit alive. To every woman who’s ever been told she’s “a bit much.” Keep being much. Keep being messy, expressive, unpredictable. The world needs your peculiar kind of light.
| This week’s conversation starters are for the quirky girls… | Stay curious | Nessy | | |  | We Found Dali’s Long Lost Surrealist Soulmate | The truth is, surrealist art was a man’s world. Its founder, André Breton was an unrepentant misogynist who believed women could not hold a central position in art. Dali too, could be patronising of his fellow female surrealists. When asked about our favourite bohemian queen of Paris, Leonor Fini, he said of her work, “Better than most, perhaps. But talent is in the balls”. So it should come as no surprise really, that it’s taken us this long to discover Maruja Mallo, one of the leading contributors to the Spanish Surrealist movement who was just as fascinating as her friend and fellow Spaniard, Salvador Dali. www.messynessychic.com/2018/10/05/we-found-dalis-long-lost-surrealist-soulmate |
|
|
|  | Vita, the Insatiable Muse of Virginia Woolf | The antics of those with blue blood don’t shock us, in fact we covet their blatant flaunting of taboos and we (albeit secretly and with much envy) gag at what seems like their infinite potential and unlimited opportunities for fornication, frolicking and cavorting. Having said that, within the ranks of nobility there are those who are heads and shoulders above the rest when it comes to outlandish behaviour – and quirkiness of ancestry for that matter. The wildly unorthodox life experiences of Baroness Vita Sackville-West, prolific lesbian and bisexual lover, mother of two, diplomat’s wife, bestselling novelist of over 35 books, poet, newspaper columnist, letter writer, diarist and passionate garden designer, are the ultimate case in point. | www.messynessychic.com/2023/01/06/vita-the-insatiable-muse-of-virginia-woolf |
|
|
|  | The Not-So-Straightforward Story of Women and Trousers | Not-so-fun fact: Until January 31st of 2013, it was illegal for women in France to wear trousers. It made headlines at the time when a 200 year-old law requiring women to ask police for special permission to “dress as men” or else risk being taken into custody, was finally revoked. The law had been kept in place since 1799, despite repeated attempts to repeal it, in part because officials said the unenforced rule was not a priority, and part of French “legal archaeology.” In a nutshell, lawmakers simply forgot the law still existed on the books. While comically absurd, this is a poignant reminder of the many liberties we take for granted today in Western society. While modern freedoms offer women a variety of sartorial choices, we forget that something so simple as the right to wear trousers was one of the most debated subjects of the women’s rights movement. Let’s step into the trousers of the women who have paved the way for us… | www.messynessychic.com/2021/03/17/the-not-so-straightforward-story-of-women-and-trousers |
|
|
|  | She was the Black Actress Who Refused to Pass | In 1934, a young woman stepped off the train in Los Angeles’ Union Station. Even in a city swarming with beauties, eyes would’ve fastened on her. She was astonishingly lovely — tall and lithe, with dark glossy hair she wore pulled back in a style that offset her porcelain skin and blue eyes. Everyone who saw her that day thought she was white. She wasn’t. They’d think she was just another aspiring starlet. She wasn’t that either. Her name was Fredi Washington and she descended on Hollywood with a burning mission: to redefine white America’s image of African American women. | www.messynessychic.com/2022/02/15/she-was-the-black-actress-who-refused-to-pass |
|
|
| | |  | A Lesson in True Bohemianism with the Witch of Positano | Every so often, an original is born; timeless, defying genre and completely of themself. Vali Myers, artist, dancer, environmentalist, bohemian and muse, was as original as they come, inspiring writers, artists and musicians from the streets of a post Second World War Paris to her bohemian coven in the wild canyons above Positano. Forming friendships with the avant-garde from Dali to Patti Smith, it seems that everyone who met Vali was captivated by the elfin-faced, flame-haired maverick known as the “witch of Positano”. | www.messynessychic.com/2023/10/13/a-lesson-in-true-bohemianism-with-vali-myers-the-witch-of-positano |
|
|
| | |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment