In a bid to win hearts (and votes), Parisian politician Natalie Kosciusko-Morizet has published proposals to revamp the city's abandoned railway stations if she is elected mayor later this month. Speaking with Manal Rachdi, one of the local architects behind the designs, Elizabeth Neep discovers how the neglected underground stations may soon become the hottest go-to destination.
By Elizabeth Neep
Alina is the editor of frank by The Genteel, freelance writer and occasional portrait painter.
Semhar Woldeyesus is writer whose primary reporting interests include design, music and culture.
Cristina reports for The Genteel from Rome. She is a professional freelance journalist with ten years of experience.
Chere contributes lifestyle editorial to The Genteel from Paris.
Erin hails from the San Francisco Bay Area, but has called Madrid home for the last four years.
Claudia Costa contributes to The Genteel from Maastricht, Netherlands.
David is an East to West coast Canadian currently skulking through the streets of Vancouver.
Katie is a Ph.D researcher studying at Loughborough University. She has a flare for fashion and loves writing.
Amanda is a photographer and writer with a love for travel, fashion, design and adventure.
Karin reports from Toronto but travels extensively throughout the year.
An East-coast girl by nature but a European at heart, Julia is a Toronto-based freelance writer and editor obsessed with the fashion, culture and art scenes from Montreal to New York.
Lisa Xing is a television and radio journalist who also pursues her love of current affairs, arts, culture and society through photography, poetry and features writing.
Graffiti duo Mint&Serf are back at it, spraying and tagging their message of #ANTIPOP in a new exhibit at New York's Bleecker Street Arts Club. But as Semmi W. came to find out, tolerating the unapologetic complexity of their work is an art form unto itself.
Turning weapons of horror and destruction into objects of beguiling artistic beauty is no mean feat. Andrew Adebowale met up with the emerging artist that is looking to blow a hole in the London art scene through her use of the hand grenade.
In her 60-year career, Edith Head worked on 1,131 films, creating beautiful outfits for some of the most famous women - and men - in Hollywood. Although Head passed away in 1981, her memory and ambition lives on thanks to Susan Claassen and her one-woman touring play titled A Conversation With Edith Head.
While it is widely known that fashion is cyclical, how much of what we see within runway designs and glossy advertising is actually repeated directly from earlier sources? Fashion photography website Part Nouveau has been tracking such trends, highlighting the questionable authenticity and creativity demonstrated within modern fashion. Julie Rubinger speaks with creator Lilah Ramzi.
From pretentious galleries to elitist crowds, the art world has intimidated as much as it has inspired. Yet for Brooklyn-based organisation Art House, a relationship with art should be as accessible as fast food. "Like a taco truck but with sketchbooks," their flagship venture - The Sketchbook Project - tempts everybody to tuck in and devour.
The Genteel unearths the forces shaping global fashion and design through the lens of business, culture, society and best kept secrets.
A worldwide collective of contributors currently form The Genteel. On a daily basis our team dispatches thought-provoking and insightful articles from the streets of Oslo, Toronto, Beirut, Moscow, United Arab Emirates, Seoul and beyond.
