Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait
My fascination with Marilyn began in childhood, and it has never really left me. Part of what makes her such a compelling figure is how deliberately she protected her inner life, offering the world a luminous image while keeping the person behind it carefully out of reach. She is also just incredibly fabulous. So the prospect of unseen photographs felt like a rare gift. The show was organized around the photographers she worked with, tracing how each collaboration shaped her and left its mark. There was a generosity to the curation, a willingness to show both sides of her, the performed and the unguarded, and I found myself learning things I hadn’t expected to, sitting with a version of her I hadn’t seen before. I left emotional, though I’m still not entirely sure why. Whether it was grief for someone so talented lost so soon, or something more unsettled, a quiet feeling that I had been let into a space she would not have opened herself. She spent her life holding that door closed. The show was beautiful, and it deepened my admiration for her. But it also left me wondering whether what I’d witnessed was something she would have wanted us to see at all.
Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
This is one of those reads I’d press into everyone’s hands! Most of us assume we know Frankenstein (thank you Disney) but the novel’s emotional depth, particularly the monster’s suffering and the profound misunderstanding surrounding him, deserves to be experienced firsthand. Mary Shelley was a visionary, both as a writer and as a feminist thinker. What makes this edition especially exciting is how it distinguishes her voice from Percy’s, mapping his influence so we can identify where she worked alone and where they collaborated. It’s also a quiet but pointed reminder that creativity and intelligence have never been defined by perfect spelling or grammar, something Mary herself, famously imperfect in both, proved beyond any doubt. A true icon!
90s Vogue Italia
I’m currently deep in the pleasure of building a magazine and publication archive for a fashion art director, which means I’ve been looking at a lot of Vogue covers lately. Late to the party on this one, but 90s Vogue Italia might have some of the most consistently stunning covers I’ve ever seen.
Details at Edinburgh castle
My partner and I just got back from Edinburgh Castle, and even though I’d visited before, I found myself stopped in my tracks by all the little details I’d never noticed. So, this is an ode to those!
