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Breathing fresh air into the formulaic art scene, Atelier 7 is a chic, discreet gallery that resuscitates the forgotten genre of the Parisian art salon.

A stylish home where people go to mingle with art, and each other, Atelier 7 has the perfect pedigree for the part. The Montparnasse home-studio was built in 1904 by Louis Süe and André Mare to attract the artists who lived in the neighborhood—and boy did it work! None other than Picasso settled in from 1911-1913.

Exactly a century after the two-storey apartment, which butts against the side of the Cemetière du Montparnasse, was built, Louise Brody, a graphic designer, and her architect husband, moved in. Inspired by the space’s unusual artistic past, they decided to make it into a gallery to showcase the work of their talented circle of friends.

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All photos by Fabrice Fortin for Paris By Appointment Only™

The holiday season is as much about delight, as deceit. The presents we give/get rarely live up to the pomp of their packaging. To resolve this annual angst, the clever art-meets-fashion concept brand, Slow and Steady Wins the Race, has turned the act of giving into the gift itself.

Rolling art and anticipation into one, ‘Presents’ is an ephemeral collection of artist-designed nesting boxes that celebrate the experience and excitement of giving and receiving. What lies inside the boxes is an afterthought—the presentation is the present itself. (Can you think of a more suitable endnote to the worst financial year in decades?)

Inhabiting the Brachfeld gallery in Paris for the month of the December, ‘Presents’ is an art show/pop-up shop in synch with the brand’s deconstructionist design manifesto. Creating collections like chapters in a living archive, Slow and Stead Wins the Race focuses on sartorial notions (evening), social critiques (luxe?) categories (white t-shirt) or design fundamentals (seams). Each mini-range of six to eight pieces is numbered and indexed for future reference like files in a library.

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In the wee morning hours of February 1st, 2008, a four-alarm fire ravaged the most ancient and atmospheric taxidermy shop in Paris.

For those familiar with Deyrolle—a crowded cabinet of curiosities located in a multi-room apartment above street level—the news was creepy, if not totally surreal (imagine all those dead beasts having to go through it all again??).“The scene had a Pompeii feeling to it, almost like an archeological dig,” recalls photographer Laurent Bochet of the charred and ransacked insides of the nearly two-hundred-year-old boutique. All of the furniture had gone up in smoke, an entire room was missing a ceiling, and close to 90% of the historic inventory was now a pile of smoking cinders.

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Photos by Nicholas Calcott for Paris By Appointment Only™

Despite distance traveled or time lived abroad, an expatriate’s cultural roots are remarkably resilient. With the accumulated weight of new experiences and customs pushing them deeper underground, they become more organized, focusing their strength on their most distinctive features.

As any expat will tell you, these gnarly little buggers can sprout up out of nowhere. For Maria De Morais (aka Milu Cachat), a Portuguese artist who has lived in Paris for thirty years, her cultural heritage caught her by surprise, not in her subjects, but in the shapes of her paintings.

“Someone stopped by my studio and saw all of my paintings laid out on the ground and said ‘no doubt you are Portuguese, these look like azulejos,’” laughs De Morais while admiring the vibrant grid of colors at her feet. “I hadn’t realized it at first, but the paintings are perfect squares, just like the ceramic tiles that Portugal is famous for.”

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