What The Broken Arm is known for
Opened in 2013 by Guillaume Steinmetz, Anaïs Lafarge and Romain Joste at 12 Rue Perrée in the Haut-Marais, this concept store combines a fashion edit (Lemaire, Jacquemus, Maison Margiela), art books and an integrated café. Its name nods to Marcel Duchamp's readymade.
The Broken Arm opened in February 2013 at 12 Rue Perrée in the Marais, founded by Anaïs Lafarge, Romain Joste, and Guillaume Steinmetz, who had previously spent four years running the fashion and lifestyle site De Jeunes Gens Modernes together before opening the physical shop. The name is a direct reference to Marcel Duchamp's readymade sculpture 'In Advance of the Broken Arm,' a snow shovel hung from a ceiling — the founders have described the reference as illustrating the blurred line between art and everyday life, which extends into the store's own mixed format of fashion, art books, and design objects. The clothing selection runs from established houses such as Lemaire, Balenciaga, and Comme des Garçons through newer names like Jacquemus, alongside streetwear labels including Nike, Off-White, and Asics. The in-house café is not run by the founders directly but operated by Dreamin' Man, a Japanese coffee shop brought in as the café concession, sourcing its beans from Solberg & Hansen, a Norwegian coffee roaster and supplier. That combination — three ex-media founders, a Duchamp reference in the name, and a subcontracted Japanese café pulling beans from a Norwegian roastery — is what separates The Broken Arm from a standard Marais boutique-with-coffee-corner.
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — Marais fashion sharpness — the insider edit where Lemaire meets art books
France.
More in Paris
- Balenciaga — Paris
- Bourrienne Paris X — Paris
- Cartier — Paris
- Céline — Paris
- Chanel — Paris
- Charvet — Paris
- Creed — Paris
- Dior — Paris
Where next
- Barbara Bui — Paris
- Okaïdi — Paris
- Finsbury Shoes — Paris
Hand-curated for ORBIS · no paid placement