Robert Mallet-Stevens was born in Paris in 1886. He was the son of a modern art dealer and the grandson of an art critic. His aunt married the financier and collector Adolphe Stoclet, who commissioned a palace in Brussels (1905–1911), designed by Josef Hoffmann with the collaboration of Gustav Klimt. This architecture deeply influenced the young Robert, who had just graduated from the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris.