Welcome to the high end. Whereas ICFF showcases everyone and their mother, with prototype designs nuzzling up against tchochkes and gadgets, The Architectural Digest is pure high end housewares and furnishings for the moneyed set.
Designers we spoke to you said this is where the serious buyers are, and that ICFF was just a distraction. So, what was in it for us? Just fun window shopping, mainly.
If it weren't for bumping into a few creative shops like BDDW, International Fashion Machines, and the kooks over at Candelierart.com, we would have been a little deflated.
Is it worth going? Yes. The show is small enough to enjoyably walk through in 2-3 hours and there is plenty of room and refreshment. If you are remodeling and have cash to burn, you will find a great number of very practical high end solutions (ovens, sinks, etc) and if you are on the low end, you will see a few neat ideas and enjoy the art booths in particular, which have a really nice variety of affordable art options - all in the more decorative vein.
While it does have it's limitations, this show is a nice 1/2 day trip.
We have more to say about a handful of individual shops that caught our attention. For the next few days, we'll be breaking out the designs we saw and loved, but you can stroll through the whole collection right now.
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
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Maxwell, all these things are beautiful and very, very expensive. Don't you ever see "stuff" for the budget challenged to offer.
That glass staircase looks like a spectacularly bad idea. Hope they also come with 1) a maid to clean off the footprints every time someone walks down barefoot, and 2) an insurance policy for when anyone walks on it in sock feet.
Great to see Alpha Workshops and David Winter of Winter Works on Paper there again this year!
My artist friend Dan Bleier is also premiering his resin furniture pieces at this year's show.
AD is not better than ICFF but I must say it has improved since the inception.
looks like eyes of the misdirected beholders need another braille 101, eyes wide shut?
I think it's difficult to compare ICFF and the Arch Digest show. They're reaching different audiences and certainly aren't about the achieving the same goals. Both shows have high end design but I think Arch Digest speaks to a different crowd and it sounds like sour grapes to me to hear a designer say that ICFF is a "distraction".
You're probably going to pick up a lot of high end clients and interior designers at Arch's show but so many designers and products are discovered at ICFF and then covered by high-end design publications (and in turn picked up by designers and clients..).
Just because ICFF showcases more designers and products doesn't mean that the goods at Arch's show are any better. I'd love to know which designers said that...sounds like someone didn't have a good showing at ICFF or wasn't happy with their placement at the show.
Grace
The AD Show and ICFF are geared to different markets. The AD Show is directed at the consumer while ICFF is supposed to be to the trade. My observation about the AD show is that it has become more homogenized over the years. 3 or 4 years ago, there were 1 or 2 booths with "live edge" designs, now there are 6-8. It seems the show has more repetiveness than it once did. Very few booths really have any unique creative spark. Last year, Maxwell, rather than show his usual collection of furniture, took old non-working pinball machines and turned them into tables, artwork...But I did not see any real inspired designs this year, just some of the same old, same old as last year. But at the ICFF, there is still some of that creative juice flowing. Just an observation.
The other difference is that the ICFF is contemporary by nature, and is fairly limited to that category.(NOT saying the show itself is limited! Loves me some ICFF!)
The AD show has always presented itself as a living venue to experience products found within their pages... and that means in their features and their ads. Since AD itself exhibits a range of styles (high contemporary to French chateau, for example), so too the show.
I don't miss either one.
who is No i NEWYORK, last 5 or 6 photos, Is that a typo or
very hard to track down compamy?
thanks
Check out the IDSA New York Booth, Studio 94, Booth 565. All designers are producing locally adn have some really cutting-edge work.
antsparro--
It's NOI New York...
http://noiny.com/
I didn't go this year, but I did go last year. You're right, Maxwell, when you've just moved into a new place and need help, the AD show is a nice place to scoop up ideas. Just try not to be put off by the sticker shock.
Last year they offered free 30 min interior designer consultations. I thought it was a great idea, though a bit weirdly executed but it worked. You first got a list of designers, checked off the names of the ones available for consultation while you're visiting, perused displays of their projects for styles compatible with your own, then selected a designer to meet with.
I met with a designer who was very impressed that I brought floorplans, drawings, and other resources. We talked for well over the time, and I went home with great ideas and confident that my plans weren't going to create a design disaster at home.
Hope you all had fun there.
Picture 061 in your slideshow is uncredited. The piece is by Brian Cullen Furniture.
cullenfurniture.com