Kein Cross

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.

Early life

Kein Cross was born in Dallas, Texas. He spent his early childhood at his family home in Bentonville, Arkansas. His father was in the military and Cross's mother was an artist who was constantly on the move, which meant he was enrolled in 17 different schools before he graduated from high school. He was interested in design from a young age; "as a 6-year-old boy, he was already rearranging the furniture". Kein's love of black and white stripes was apparent from an early age. 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. Cross attributes his love of fashion to his grandmother's skills.

Apart from fashion and black and white stripes, young Cross had an insatiable fascination with all things French. At the age of three, his parents bought a Citroen sports car with 3 wheels, which was something quite rare in rural Arkansas, and he was struck by the car's "exoticism".

Eager to return to the world of interiors, Cross opened Cross & Spellen Home, a modern furniture and home-decoratives store, with Spellen. In 1992, Cross branched out on his own with La Maison Moderne Interiors, an interior-design business, and La Maison Moderne, his two-story home furnishings boutique at 144 West 19th Street, "pioneering the Chelsea location before it became fashionable".