It is undeniable that kitsch objects can be utterly fascinating, they do play indeed with two distinctive and divergent forces - attraction and rejection, beauty and ugliness - dichotomies that have become the main inspirations for a few contemporary fashion designers as well, from Miuccia Prada to Alessandro Michele at Gucci.
Among the supreme kitsch objects extraordinaire there are definitely sea shell figurines, at times representing ladies or animals. But if you abhor kitsch and still want to have a quirky sea souvenir, you can maybe collected a bit of sand from a beach (always check out the local regulations first as, in some cases, it may be illegal to do so...) and store it in your favourite vessel or maybe collect shells and store them in glass bottles.
The results may not look as kitsch as the classic sea shell figurines, but this display at the Museum of Malacology in Cupra Marittima, Italy, proves that you can reach a safe degree of "kitschness" (in this case the various shapes of the bottles, their colourful caps decorated with Murano glass fruit and the fact that some of the bottle sample come from chemist's shops as proved by their labels, contribute to create a colourful chaos...) without falling into the realm of complete bad taste.
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