The International Contemporary Furniture Fair this year boasted 100 extra exhibitors, so the Jacob K Javits Convention Center was brimming with even more furniture, floor and wall coverings, and home accessories – both from local designers and international brands – than ever.
Among the standouts, Umbra launched its Shift line with the help of a stable of talents, including Philippe Malouin, Harry Allen, MSDS and Fugitive Glue. And Bernhardt Design celebrated its 120th anniversary in style, with a collection by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, Ross Lovegrove and more that played homage to the classic lines that has established the brand as a major purveyor of American modern furniture.
At WantedDesign, Bernhardt also debuted its collaboration with Brooklyn textile designers Dani Song and Makoto Kishino. The intimate installation was one of the standouts at this ever-more-popular event, which took place for the fourth consecutive year in The Tunnel – a former railroad freight terminal, and then nightclub. The show abounded with great design, including group shows of Polish and Mexican work, and the Launch Pad section and competition devoted to prototypes, where Elish Wallop won for her transformable light fixtures.
Elsewhere around town, shows like Site Unseen Offsite, Intro/NY, and Yabu Pushelberg’s Rational x Intuitive party celebrated the city’s energy and the design world’s optimism – with lots of colour, pattern and pomp thrown in for good measure.
Compiled by Elizabeth Pagliacolo and Nelda Rodger