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Elegant Rebel of Jaipur
When I first arrived in India, Jaipur’s Wind Palace looked like an exotic fairytale castle to me, like a giant honeycomb, pierced with tiny windows from which hundreds of women in the royal entourage once watched the world go by,…
Descartes’ Rainbow
In Encyclopedia of the Exquisite I write about maraviglia, the marvels that 16th century and early 17th century European princelings expected from the artists they hired in order to keep themselves amused. Chief among these marvels were giochi d’acqua, or “water jokes,”…
The Baltimore Bonaparte
It was a dress so small that it “would fit easily into a gentleman’s pocket.” Elizabeth Patterson (1785-1879) was one of the daring young women who imported France’s scandalous Grecian-inspired (Empire) dresses to the United States in the early 19th…
Bento Deluxe
The regular New York bento box has nothing on the real thing. In Japan, mothers of lucky preschool children spend their mornings preparing special kyarakuta bento, box lunches brimming with cabbage leaf flowers, boiled egg bunnies, rice-ball rocket ships and…
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