A visit to the Design Miami trade fair shows that exclusive furniture is replacing short-lived fashion trends among the young audience. While luxury fashion and art have had a miserable year economically, the design industry is optimistic. A visit to Basel, er Miami.
“Are you going to Basel too?” the art people ask each other as winter approaches. By that she didn't mean the city on the Rhine, but Miami of all places, a place that couldn't be more un-Basel. While in Switzerland people only brag about how many kilometers the holey Bally loafers have already covered, Lamborghinis, Bentleys and Cybertrucks are lined up on Washington Avenue in Miami Beach, soon to be served by the valet service of the art fair “Art Basel Miami Beach,” which has been held in Florida in the first week of December for 22 years.
But not only art collectors are drawn to Miami, but also more and more lovers of design objects and unusual pieces of furniture. The design segment of Miami Art Week is on the verge of stealing the show from the established art fair: this year the area appeared more lively and optimistic than the Grande Dame Art Basel.
At the “Design Miami” trade fair, which was launched 20 years ago by real estate entrepreneur Craig Robbins – it runs in tandem with the art fair and forms part of the Miami Art Week with smaller events – a breath of fresh air has been blowing since the format was introduced October 2023 was bought by Jesse Lee, the owner of Basic.Space, an exclusive online platform for fashion and design. The entrepreneur has observed how a preference for individual home furnishings among Millennials and Gen Z is replacing interest in owning expensive fashion. “First people took photos of themselves in the mirror, now they post the mirror,” Lee told the Financial Times. A mirror that has proven to be particularly “fashionable” is the “Ultrafragola” model by Ettore Sottsass, a design with a wavy edge from 1970 that has become an integral part of every influencer’s apartment.
Just like Pierre Paulin's Groovy Chair from 1964, which is reminiscent of an animal made of towels. “The younger generation is turning away from short-lived fashion,” explains the trade fair organizer via email. “They place more value on design as a long-term investment.” That’s why fashion brands are also trying to penetrate this area.” This is a reference to Lee, who is expanding his trade fair and is holding it not only in Miami and Basel, but also in Paris Los Angeles, Fendi, which teamed up with London designer Lewis Kemmenoe for this year's Design Miami and showed patchwork furniture made of metal and translucent wood – and Bottega Veneta, which collaborated with furniture manufacturer Zanotta presented animal-shaped beanbags on which the audience at the fashion show in Milan sat in September.
The large range of replicas can also be seen as a clear sign of the increased interest of younger customers in design objects. On the platform dupe.com, which was launched in the spring (motto: “Find something similar for less”, German: Find something similar for less), there are models between 65 and 200 for everyone who cannot afford an original Ultrafragola mirror for 8,500 euros dollars, but it's also linked to vintage design sites like 1stdibs.com, where an early original goes for $32,000. The fact that TikTok and YouTube are bragging about the quality of the replica shows that it is no longer a shame not to have the original. As long as you don't pass off the fake as an original! This happened to Kim Kardashian, of all people, who raved about her Donald Judd tables in a now-deleted video and was reported by the Judd Foundation in the spring because it was plagiarism.
Gallery stands like living rooms
Of course, only originals were presented in Miami. Instead of white booths like across the street at the art fair, Lee opts for a more vibrant (and Instagram-friendly) concept. The galleries were invited to design their stands in a homely way, “as if you were entering the home of a collector,” explains the entrepreneur. The New York gallery Friedman Benda divided its stand into two rooms. One was dedicated to the Mexican architect Javier Senosiain, known for his organic cave dwellings, while the second resembled a plush salon with works by Formafantasma, Carmen D'Appolonio and Nendo. “We see two main trends,” explains co-founder Marc Benda, who confirms a successful trade fair with many sales, “a focus on quality and comfort for one’s own home and an interest in the narratives that the individual designs tell.”
One of the best stories is told by the rubber “Flap Chair” from Chamar, on which Rihanna was photographed by her partner A$AP Rocky on the last day of the fair. “Chamar” is a project by Sudheer Rajhbar, an artist who grew up in the slums of Mumbai, who uses recycled rubber as a leather alternative to help workers from the Dalit community who were made unemployed by the cattle slaughter ban and whose talent and know-how with Chamar A new platform is given. All three armchairs exhibited at the fair were sold by Galerie Aequo. For how much? “I would be interested in that too,” says Rajhbar on the phone from Mumbai. “Half of the proceeds go to the foundation.”
Parallel to Design Miami, Alcova was a guest in Florida for the second time this year, currently the most interesting Italian exhibition platform for contemporary design. The creators Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima pursue a nomadic concept both at their place of origin, the design week in Milan, and in Miami: while the first US edition of Alcova was held in a 1950s motel in the north of the city this year the “River Inn Hotel” in a forgotten corner near the Little Havana district, a small collection of pastel-colored Victorian houses from 1908. “We “I think the packaging is just as important as its contents,” says Grima. “That's why we attach great importance to the architecture and the feeling it conveys.” This is how we create a dialogue with the works that are exhibited.” More than 50 designers from all over the world accepted the invitation to display their work in the rooms, To show the hallways and even bathrooms of the hotel that was cleared out for this purpose.
Young, shopping-loving trade fair visitors
The result was an urgent reminder of what design should be: a curious, optimistic and experimental look at the design questions of our time. Attractive use of leftovers and radical material experiments were a theme that ran like a common thread through the winding rooms. The Greek-American studio Objects of Common Interest transformed leftovers from its synthetic resin production into mirrors and vases reminiscent of precious stones, Panoramma from Mexico showed simple yet eccentric folding furniture made from hand-made metal chains, and Studio Haos covered simple grid structures with fiberglass to create furniture , which looks as if it were folded out of paper. The audience: young, sophisticated, fashionable. And keen to buy.
Studio Haos received a number of inquiries, while Objects of Common Interest lost a considerable number of its vases on the first day of the fair. Panoramma's furniture was purchased for a film set and will soon be available in the new design gallery CyCyCy in Miami. “The fashion industry and some of the big players in the furniture industry are not doing well at the moment,” says Valentina Ciuffi. “There is a boom in design that is young, a little offensive and promises collector value.”
