The Legendary Mata Hari

I find Mata Hari hugely inspirational, not only stylistically but also for her joie de vivre. I have desperately wanted a picture of her for years but am yet to find the perfect one.

Mata Hari was of course the self-styled exotic dancer and most notorious female spy in history who was in fact probably not a spy at all!

Due to a tangled web of love affairs, jealousy and prejudice against a highly educated, independently wealthy and single woman who chose to ''Satisfy all my caprices'', Mata Hari was arrested in Paris on charges of espionage without a single piece of evidence against her. On October 15th 1917 she was excecuted by firing squad choosing not to be bound or blindfolded, bravely facing her executioners with complete calm.

Mata Hari travelled wherever and whenever her heart desired, spending money with abandon and slept with whomever she pleased, although often not just for pleasure. Some of Mata Hari's choices may have been questionable, but it could be argued that she merely seized the only opportunities available at that time in history for her independence and freedom, allowing her to ''live like a colourful butterfly in the sun''. And that she certainly did!