Help Wanted

Author

Vanessa Grall
February 24, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Do you know someone who belongs here?

As you may have heard, Messy Nessy’s Cabinet is getting bigger – we’re expanding our Parisian emporium on the Rue de Bièvre — and if all goes to plan, we’ll be unveiling the new space at the beginning of the summer season. But first, it’s time to go in search of a few curious humans to join the Messy Nessy team for this next chapter. So I thought: where better to start than with the people who know Messy Nessy and understand the spirit of the Cabinet better than anyone?

We’re hiring Cabinet Keepers!

What’s a Cabinet Keeper? An all-hands on deck role that’s part host, part helper, part merchandiser, part maker. Someone who can welcome visitors and tell a good story. An energetic and steady pair of hands to help the Cabinet running like a small, magical machine.

Must love: Paris • people • old things • working within a coven team of women.
Required ingredients: Currently living in Paris with near-fluency in English & French • warm, confident conversation skills • creative multitasker • brewing passion for crafting & design • meticulousness • strong eye for enchanting and visual presentation

Full time and part time positions available to start in June, with training availability from April/ May. Candidates can send resumés to cabinet [at] messynessy.com.

In the meantime, this month at the Cabinet…

The Paris Writers & Readers Club welcomed New Yorker magazine’s woman in Paris, the brilliant Lauren Collins this month, celebrating 10 years of her book When in French: Love in a Second Language and her upcoming tour de force They Stole a City (available to pre-order now). If you missed the salon, you can watch it back in the Keyholder Vault or to join us at a club night in the future, all the info is at MessyNessy.com/club. By the way, our club jackets, shirts & caps with are now back in stock & will be a signature Figaret x Messy Nessy collection going forward, available exclusively at the Cabinet & online.

And in other news, les petits Parisiens are on school vacation at the moment, so I’m also preoccupied with finding new ways to entertain my four year-olds in the city while refining their cultural palette (and refreshing mine). Fortunately, Leonora Carrington is in town, and I thinking her surreal magical mystery will make for a very suitable introduction to the avant-garde. Britain’s lost surrealist is getting her first exhibition in France at the museum inside the Jardins de Luxembourg, and if you don’t have littles to put to bed, here’s a hot tip: the Musée de Luxembourg is open until 10pm on Mondays and you can have Leonora all to yourself. And did you know she was besties with Ms Leonor Fini? Oh, to have hung out with these two bohemian queens!

With the first few days of Spring weather headed our way, I’d also like to teach my little Parisians how to wander and explore the city like a true boulevardier (inspired by a recent interview I did with the recently-revived 1920s magazine).

And to round out the week, I’m thinking of taking my daughter to this Friday’s Revolutionary Ball to see the costumes and festivities at the historic Hotel de la Marine – I’m still just figuring out the kinks of how to explain the guillotine and to pre-schoolers. With any luck, they’ll soon be ready to help carry on blazing Mama’s trail.

I’ll leave you with a selection of oddities in this week’s 13 Things I Found on the Internet.

Stay curious,

Nessy

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 766)

Your weekly distractions are servedc

www.messynessychic.com/2026/02/23/13-things-i-found-on-the-internet-today-4

What if the First African American Woman to Run for President Had Won?

Shall we for a moment, imagine an alternate reality where Shirley Chisholm became President of the United States in 1972 instead of Nixon? As the first African American woman in Congress, as well as first woman and African American to run for President, Shirley campaigned under the powerful mantra, “Unbought & Unbossed“. And let’s just make one thing clear from the beginning – this is not the story of a symbolic political figure who was running a novelty campaign. Before Barack Obama and before Hillary Clinton, Shirley Chisholm was a truly worthy and serious candidate to be reckoned with, and one that deserves far more credit than history has given her.

www.messynessychic.com/2020/04/22/what-if-the-first-african-american-woman-to-run-for-president-had-won

How French Fashion Emerged even More Decadently from the Guillotine

Those of us who paid any attention in history class can probably recount a few key details and players of the French Revolution – there was Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI (AKA Louis the Last) and their posse at Versailles who were eating too much cake; the revolutionaries who kicked things off by storming the Bastille prison; and an infamous Reign of Terror that ensued, starring the guillotine. Rarely however, do we mention the subculture that would emerge in the aftermath of it all, morphing into an outrageous public display of aristocratic grunge fashion.

www.messynessychic.com/2022/01/20/how-french-fashion-emerged-even-more-decadently-from-the-guillotine

ARTICLE UPDATE! This Strange Abandoned Hiking Lodge has been officially declared a Gaudi

The world's greatest artists aren't supposed to have their work overlooked or unattributed, but it happens more than you might think. In museums, private collections, and public spaces, there is a myriad of artworks that remain unidentified.

www.messynessychic.com/2021/07/15/a-strange-abandoned-hiking-lodge-no-one-knew-was-designed-by-gaudi-himself

The Surrealist Magical Mystery of Leonora Carrington

On paper, she is Britain's lost surrealist; an English debutante who cut herself off from her wealthy family, fell in love with Max Ernst and eloped with him to Paris, finding herself in the centre of surrealist movement.

www.messynessychic.com/2021/12/22/the-surrealist-magical-mystery-of-leonora-carrington

America's Hidden "Mad Men" Age of Black Advertising

Style and smiles all-round, saturated to the max; sexy undertones complete with sexist overtones and carefree capitalism – those iconic mid-century advertisements weren’t just unique to the magazine pages of white America. In the 1950s and ’60s, the notorious advertisers of Madison Avenue, aka the real-life “Mad Men”, sought out African American dollars too. Unbeknownst to most, an entirely different realm of advertising hid in the shadows of mainstream society, directed towards a Black American class that was, and still is, rarely seen by white consumers. The adverts paint an unfamiliar, yet distinctly glossy picture of life for African Americans during those years. At once, it’s a joy to (re)discover this alternate world of Black media, but on closer inspection, the cracks start to reveal themselves beneath those smooth, vibrant, and wholesome images of Americana – cracks that have only become wider and more visible today.www.messynessychic.com/2020/07/03/americas-hidden-mad-men-age-of-black-advertising

Explore the Cabinet’s Curiosities

Discover our collectors trinkets and treasures …

shop.messynessychic.com/products/observation-frame-with-magnifying-glass