li Mizrahi, founder of the fashion label, is known for the head-turning eveningwear he creates for friends like Gisele, and Kate Moss. The Lebanese-born designer and longtime New Yorker has a point of view that is unique and daring. So when he took the plunge on a Paris apartment, he went big.

The space, in an 1860 building near Parc Monceau, is enormous by Parisian standards, with six bedrooms and three baths—4,300 square feet in all. But while its expansiveness made a statement, the apartment was far from the daring and imaginative showplace Mizrahi had envisioned. Indeed, in its most recent iteration it had been a law office. To transform it he turned to his iPhone, where his Instagram feed had lately been filled with images showcasing the eye-popping work of a young Paris-based architecture and design studio,  “They are bold and different, and that’s what I liked about them,” he says.

For Uchronia’s founder, Julien Sebban, getting the equivalent of a cold call from a potential client via a direct message on social media is more the norm than an anomaly. Founded in 2019, Uchronia gained buzz when Sebban designed the decor of Forest, a brutalist brasserie at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. In a city known for restrained elegance, Uchronia instantly stood out with its playful vocabulary of bright colors, fun florals, and wavy patterns. “Eli saw one of our flower tables on Instagram, and that’s how it all started,” Sebban says.