Penelope Singh articles

Michael Romanoff claimed to be a member of Russia’s deposed Romanov royal family, but no one seemed to mind that he was no prince.

Fashion is one of the greatest forms of expression and a reflection of the times. Let's take a look at how American fashion has changed throughout the decades, from 1900s corsets and 20s flapper haircuts to hippie dresses and hipster glasses.

In her day she was a fashion icon and royal mistress, but it was her influence on one of France's greatest writers where she made her biggest mark.

Miss Cleo became the world’s most infamous psychic—but was she the victim or the villain in the scam that gripped America?

In public, the Victorians were some of the stuffiest, snobbiest, most repressed people in history. Behind closed doors, it was a different story. In private, Victorian England was rife with drink, debauchery, and scandal—and no one did it better than Queen Victoria's infamous son, King Edward VII.

Strong, intelligent, and best known as Queen Victoria’s African goddaughter, Sarah Forbes Bonetta led an extraordinary life. Her experiences, however, were far from idyllic. Born an African princess and captured as a slave, she was later raised as the queen’s ward in English high society. But if her time in England revealed anything, it’s that any cage, no matter how gilded, is still just a cage.

After hearing a singular piece of music, Baroness Nica de Koenigswarter, daughter of the Rothschild dynasty, abandoned her gilded cage and basically left her husband behind to become a patron saint to the High Priest of Jazz, Thelonious Monk, and a muse to countless other musicians.

Lavinia Warren was the 19th-century proportional little person who lived largely—and very lavishly. Despite being small in stature, she was huge in stardom. From her humble beginnings as a school teacher to her worldwide fame as one-half of a petite power couple, Warren did it all.

He was born into royal privilege, yet King Edward VIII’s reign ended in absolute infamy.