Retail confused lies about English artist's place in Paris? (7)
I believe the answer is:
atelier
'retail confused lies' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how they can define each other.
'about english artist's place in paris?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'about' could be 'a' (abbreviation in Chambers) and 'a' is present in the answer.
'english' could be 'e' (abbreviation) and 'e' is present in the answer.
'place' could be 'lie' (lie is a kind of place) and 'lie' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for atelier that I've seen before include "Artist's workshop, studio" , "Artist's studio (French)" , "Tie earl up in the artist's place" , "I relate to workshop used by artist" , "Artist's workroom" .)