Kein Cross is an American fashion designer, interior designer, and entrepreneur, who founded the New York-based Lifestyle brands La Maison Moderne, a two-story home furnishings boutique, & La Maison Moderne Interiors, and more recently the proprietor of Club RaYé, a cocktail bar in the heart of Paris.
At the age of five he begged his grandmother, a “Southern belle” whose trade was dressmaking, to make him a black and white striped suit complete with a matching hat.
One day after school, Cross returned home with a book titled How To Speak French, which slightly perturbed his parents, but their lack of enthusiasm couldn't quell his interest in the language, the country and its culture.
[5] At La Maison Moderne, clients didn't just shop; they enjoyed sparkling champagne or fresh coffee while perusing the wares at either end of his spiral staircase.
The exterior was battered and marred by a bricked-up window; the kitchen had an old water heater that "stuck out like a sore thumb" and the bathroom was "grubby", but the owner was happy to let Cross do anything he wanted, and the rent was half the market rate.