What does it take to protect a legacy?

In this episode of Compelling, host Katy Wellesley Wesley speaks with Patrick Frey, Creative Director and President Emeritus of La Maison Pierre Frey, about the unpredictable, joyful mystery of creation. Patrick shares how he grew up learning to see: travelling through Europe with his interior‑designer mother, absorbing architecture, landscapes, and museums, and developing an instinct for beauty that later shaped a global design house.

They explore how a company rooted in 1935 Paris remains nimble and continues to surprise: making decisive creative calls with instinct, thinking globally and looking back at heritage design as well as thinking about innovation. Patrick discusses the continuation of the business as control passes to the third generation, the importance of stopping to really look, and why there is no reliable formula for what becomes a bestseller.

• (00:00) - Welcome to Compelling
• (00:56) - Introducing Patrick Frey and Maison Pierre Frey
• (02:58) - Founding Pierre Frey and the Early Export Mindset
• (04:40) - Learning to See: Travel, Architecture, and Taste
• (07:22) - Apprenticeship and Starting From Scratch in the US
• (09:27) - Leadership, Succession, and Working With Family
• (12:16) - Export, National Style, and Growing Beyond France
• (17:15) - Heritage as Fuel for Modern Creation
• (19:30) - Why You Never Know What Will Sell
• (24:00) - Inspiration, Streets, and Staying Open to the World
• (31:00) - The Future of Interiors

Patrick Frey: Patrick Frey is the Creative Director and President Emeritus of La Maison Pierre Frey, the Paris-based family house founded in 1935 and known worldwide for fabrics, wallpapers, rugs, carpets, and furniture of the highest quality and most refined taste. He became artistic director in 1969 and expanded the company’s global reach while keeping a strong commitment to craft, quality and design-led experimentation.

Visit Pierre Frey

Katy Wellesley Wesley: With over 18 years of leadership across galleries, foundations, and startups, Katy has built a career shaped by curiosity and a drive to explore new ideas. She spent a decade at leading commercial galleries—first at Gagosian, then at Pace, where she was Director of Exhibitions in London. She went on to lead the Villa Lena Foundation in Italy as Director, before joining the founding team of ROKBOX, a pioneering environmentally focused art logistics startup, as Sales Director. After relocating to Paris six years ago, Katy developed a strong interest in the intersection of art and luxury. To deepen this focus, she recently completed an Executive Master’s in Luxury Management and Design Innovation, a joint program between ESSEC Business School and Parsons School of Design. She now works as a consultant to brands, artists, foundations, and collectors. Among her clients is the legendary art publisher Cahiers d’Art, where she heads Commercial Partnerships.

Compelling is proudly in partnership with Cahiers d’Art.

Compelling is produced in collaboration with Cahiers d’Art, the iconic Paris-based art publisher founded in 1926, home of the Catalogue Raisonné of Picasso and most recently the Frank Gehry Drawings Catalogue Raisonné. At the heart of it's publishing program is the Cahiers d'Art Revue, one of the most significant and longest-standing annual art publications of the last century. In 2026, Cahiers d’Art will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a series of major publications, projects and exhibitions in collaboration with leading global institutions, including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the MoMA in New York City and the Musée Picasso in Paris.

Visit Cahiers d’Art

Art direction by Eddie Harrop Studio
Website and Production by Story Ninety-Four

In memory of Martin Parr (23 May 1952 - 6 December 2025). This interview was recorded before his death.

How does a chance encounter on a doorstep evolve into one of the most compelling collaborations?

In this bonus episode of Compelling, we go behind the scenes with Lee Shulman on a year-long filmmaking journey that saw Lee kidnap the legendary Martin Parr to revisit the locations of his early career. We explore the making of I am Martin Parr and the book Deja Vu, uncovering the raw, sometimes brutal honesty that defines their friendship.

Lee Shulman: Lee Shulman is the Founder and Creative Director of The Anonymous Project, containing nearly a million Kodachrome slides. A London-born, Paris-based visual artist and award-winning filmmaker, his expertise lies in curating and recontextualising amateur photography through immersive installations, books, and collaborative art projects. His recent work includes the collaboration Being There with Omar Victor Diop and directing the documentary film I Am Martin Parr.

Visit the Anonymous Project

Katy Wellesley Wesley: With over 18 years of leadership across galleries, foundations, and startups, Katy has built a career shaped by curiosity and a drive to explore new ideas. She spent a decade at leading commercial galleries—first at Gagosian, then at Pace, where she was Director of Exhibitions in London. She went on to lead the Villa Lena Foundation in Italy as Director, before joining the founding team of ROKBOX, a pioneering environmentally focused art logistics startup, as Sales Director. After relocating to Paris six years ago, Katy developed a strong interest in the intersection of art and luxury. To deepen this focus, she recently completed an Executive Master’s in Luxury Management and Design Innovation, a joint program between ESSEC Business School and Parsons School of Design. She now works as a consultant to brands, artists, foundations, and collectors. Among her clients is the legendary art publisher Cahiers d’Art, where she heads Commercial Partnerships.

Compelling is proudly in partnership with Cahiers d’Art.

Compelling is produced in collaboration with Cahiers d’Art, the iconic Paris-based art publisher founded in 1926, home of the Catalogue Raisonné of Picasso and most recently the Frank Gehry Drawings Catalogue Raisonné. At the heart of it's publishing program is the Cahiers d'Art Revue, one of the most significant and longest-standing annual art publications of the last century. In 2026, Cahiers d’Art will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a series of major publications, projects and exhibitions in collaboration with leading global institutions, including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the MoMA in New York City and the Musée Picasso in Paris.

Visit Cahiers d’Art

Art direction by Eddie Harrop Studio
Website and Production by Story Ninety-Four

What role do books play in shaping a life devoted to art?

In this bonus episode of Compelling, host Katy Wellesley Wesley speaks with Staffan Ahrenberg, owner and publisher of Cahiers d'Art, for a quick-fire conversation about the books, habits and dreams that define his approach to art and life. He discusses the formative impact of Malevich's The Non-Objective World and Kandinsky's Concerning the Spiritual in Art, as well as novels such as Camus's L'Étranger and García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Staffan also reveals his unrealised architectural ambitions, including building the Le Corbusier museum originally commissioned by his father in 1962 but never constructed due to political opposition in Stockholm, and creating a library designed by Thomas Schütte in a Swedish forest. He explains his daily practice of rewriting handwritten notes as a mnemonic device, why physical movement matters, and offers powerful advice: be curious and act on that curiosity without hesitation, even when asking provocative questions to Nobel Prize winners or major artists.

Staffan Ahrenberg: Swedish art collector, entrepreneur and film producer, Staffan Ahrenberg is the owner and publisher of Cahiers d’Art, the historic Parisian publishing house and gallery he relaunched in 2012. He has revitalised its revered revue, book and limited‑edition programmes, and co‑founded the nonprofit Cahiers d’Art Institute to publish catalogues raisonnés for leading 20th‑ and 21st‑century artists.

Katy Wellesley Wesley: With over 18 years of leadership across galleries, foundations, and startups, Katy has built a career shaped by curiosity and a drive to explore new ideas. She spent a decade at leading commercial galleries—first at Gagosian, then at Pace, where she was Director of Exhibitions in London. She went on to lead the Villa Lena Foundation in Italy as Director, before joining the founding team of ROKBOX, a pioneering environmentally focused art logistics startup, as Sales Director. After relocating to Paris six years ago, Katy developed a strong interest in the intersection of art and luxury. To deepen this focus, she recently completed an Executive Master’s in Luxury Management and Design Innovation, a joint program between ESSEC Business School and Parsons School of Design. She now works as a consultant to brands, artists, foundations, and collectors. Among her clients is the legendary art publisher Cahiers d’Art, where she heads Commercial Partnerships.

Compelling is proudly in partnership with Cahiers d’Art.

Compelling is produced in collaboration with Cahiers d’Art, the iconic Paris-based art publisher founded in 1926, home of the Catalogue Raisonné of Picasso and most recently the Frank Gehry Drawings Catalogue Raisonné. At the heart of it's publishing program is the Cahiers d'Art Revue, one of the most significant and longest-standing annual art publications of the last century. In 2026, Cahiers d’Art will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a series of major publications, projects and exhibitions in collaboration with leading global institutions, including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the MoMA in New York City and the Musée Picasso in Paris.

Visit Cahiers d’Art

Art direction by Eddie Harrop Studio
Website and Production by Story Ninety-Four
Filmed and recorded by Marque Page Studio

What role should books and digital experiences play in the future of art institutions?

In this bonus episode of Compelling, host Katy Wellesley Wesley sits down with Daniel Birnbaum, director of Acute Art and former director of Moderna Museet, for a quick-fire conversation about life, art and ambition. They explore the books and writers that shaped his thinking—particularly Italo Calvino—and discuss his dream of creating a digital home for major VR and AR artworks commissioned with artists such as Mark Leckey, Cao Fei and Jeff Koons.

With immersive art experiences expanding globally, Daniel explains why the future will be a hybrid mixed-reality world where physical objects and digital tools coexist. He also addresses the risks of living in a post-truth era where fiction and reality merge in political spheres, and why artists have always navigated this terrain. Above all, he offers simple but powerful advice: do only what you find interesting, because if you don't find it compelling, nobody else will.

Daniel Birnbaum: Daniel Birnbaum is a writer and curator based in Paris and Stockholm. From 2000 to 2010 he was rector of the Städelschule in Frankfurt and director of its Portikus gallery. Between 2010 and 2018 he was director of Moderna Museet in Stockholm. In 2009 he curated the the 53rd Venice Biennial. His most recent exhibition is Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint. Dreams of the Future at K20 in Düsseldorf (with Julia Voss) and Dream Machines at DESTE Foundation (with Massimiliano Gioni). Recent publications include Exhibition, Academy, Museum: Notes on the Frames of Art (Walther König, 2022) and the novel Dr B (Gallimard, 2022). In 2024 Birnbaum joined the Warburg Institute’s Visionary Circle.

Katy Wellesley Wesley: With over 18 years of leadership across galleries, foundations, and startups, Katy has built a career shaped by curiosity and a drive to explore new ideas. She spent a decade at leading commercial galleries—first at Gagosian, then at Pace, where she was Director of Exhibitions in London. She went on to lead the Villa Lena Foundation in Italy as Director, before joining the founding team of ROKBOX, a pioneering environmentally focused art logistics startup, as Sales Director. After relocating to Paris six years ago, Katy developed a strong interest in the intersection of art and luxury. To deepen this focus, she recently completed an Executive Master’s in Luxury Management and Design Innovation, a joint program between ESSEC Business School and Parsons School of Design. She now works as a consultant to brands, artists, foundations, and collectors. Among her clients is the legendary art publisher Cahiers d’Art, where she heads Commercial Partnerships.

Compelling is proudly in partnership with Cahiers d’Art.

Compelling is produced in collaboration with Cahiers d’Art, the iconic Paris-based art publisher founded in 1926, home of the Catalogue Raisonné of Picasso and most recently the Frank Gehry Drawings Catalogue Raisonné. At the heart of it's publishing program is the Cahiers d'Art Revue, one of the most significant and longest-standing annual art publications of the last century. In 2026, Cahiers d’Art will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a series of major publications, projects and exhibitions in collaboration with leading global institutions, including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the MoMA in New York City and the Musée Picasso in Paris.

Visit Cahiers d’Art

Art direction by Eddie Harrop Studio
Website and Production by Story Ninety-Four
Filmed and recorded by Marque Page Studio

Happy holidays! Thank you for listening to Compelling.

I've really enjoyed the first six episodes and I hope you have too.

A huge thank you to my early guests on the podcast for their trust, time and inspiring conversations: Lena Evstafieva, Lee Shulman, Clemente Boisseau, Charlotte Bouygues, Staffan Arhenberg, Daniel Birnbaum, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Camille Miceli.

If you've enjoyed what you've heard, please do share, like and subscribe. I'm also really happy to hear thoughts, suggestions, or ways to improve so please get in touch with me at katy@thecompellingpodcast.com.

Additionally, you can find out all the latest news on the website and you can also find Compelling on Instagram at @TheCompellingPodcast and on LinkedIn.

Happy holidays, thank you very much, and I look forward to starting the conversation again in 2026.

How do you launch a luxury beauty brand that remains absolutely true to its "love of the soil" DNA while navigating the brutal practicalities of industrial manufacturing?

In this bonus content, host Katy Wellesley Wesley speaks with Charlotte Bouygues, founder of the new beauty line Dix Hectares, about her journey to find "unobvious collaborators" and materials that would not compromise her vision. Dorothee Meilichzon was the fierce and talented designer she found. Charlotte details the challenging two-year quest for the perfect, marble-look lid. A seemingly small component that became the "bane of her existence" until the well-timed discovery of a brand new sustainable material.

The discussion reveals the tension between aesthetic goals and uncompromising ethical standards. You'll hear the dramatic moment when her designer threatened to walk away, a crisis that ultimately led to the discovery of a groundbreaking, sustainable bioresin.

• (00:00) - Collaboration between Unobvious Partners
• (00:54) - The DNA of the Project
• (01:51) - The Challenge of the Lid Design
• (03:35) - The Turning Point: Commitment to Sustainable Material
• (04:47) - Partnership and Achieving a World First in Packaging

Charlotte Bouygues: Founder of the regenerative skincare line Dix Hectares, and Chairwoman of Eutopia Estates, the Bouygues family’s wine group. She is a third-generation leader with a background in strategic management from Babson College and extensive experience in marketing and media, including roles at L’Oréal in New York and as Director of E-Commerce at TF1’s Aufeminin Group. Her current work focuses on building a purpose-led brand that connects soil health and beauty for a new vision of luxury.

Visit Dix Hectares

Katy Wellesley Wesley: With over 18 years of leadership across galleries, foundations, and startups, Katy has built a career shaped by curiosity and a drive to explore new ideas. She spent a decade at leading commercial galleries—first at Gagosian, then at Pace, where she was Director of Exhibitions in London. She went on to lead the Villa Lena Foundation in Italy as Director, before joining the founding team of ROKBOX, a pioneering environmentally focused art logistics startup, as Sales Director. After relocating to Paris six years ago, Katy developed a strong interest in the intersection of art and luxury. To deepen this focus, she recently completed an Executive Master’s in Luxury Management and Design Innovation, a joint program between ESSEC Business School and Parsons School of Design. She now works as a consultant to brands, artists, foundations, and collectors. Among her clients is the legendary art publisher Cahiers d’Art, where she heads Commercial Partnerships.

Compelling is proudly in partnership with Cahiers d’Art.

Compelling is produced in collaboration with Cahiers d’Art, the iconic Paris-based art publisher founded in 1926, home of the Catalogue Raisonné of Picasso and most recently the Frank Gehry Drawings Catalogue Raisonné. At the heart of it's publishing program is the Cahiers d'Art Revue, one of the most significant and longest-standing annual art publications of the last century. In 2026, Cahiers d’Art will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a series of major publications, projects and exhibitions in collaboration with leading global institutions, including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the MoMA in New York City and the Musée Picasso in Paris.

Visit Cahiers d’Art

Art direction by Eddie Harrop Studio
Website and Production by Story Ninety-Four