THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Among her more memorable get-ups was a suit of armor pierce with hundreds of electric arrows that short-circuited and nearly fried her; an iridescent necklace of live snakes that slithered from her bare shoulders at a ball; and a headdress of peacock tail feathers accessorized, for a night at the opera, by the blood of a freshly slaughtered chicken.

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The residents of Venice were regularly treated to the midnight apparition of their richest and thinnest neighbour strolling through St. Mark’s Square perfectly nude and lunar white beneath a fur cloak, accompanied by two cheetahs on diamond-studded leashes and a majestic Negro retainer bearing torches to illuminate the scene.

Thurman/New Yorker, 2003

Marchesa Casati

Is a living doll

Pinned on my Frisco

Skid row wall

Kerouac/Blues, 1995