8 Highlights From COLLECTIBLE Fair 2025

The second edition of COLLECTIBLE fair in New York opened with small-but-punchy changes after last year’s buzzy launch. This year, the Belgian-born fair had 123 exhibitors from 22 countries spanning a single floor at Water Street Project WSA, a recently renovated conference center expansion at 180 Maiden Lane. Wall Street’s glitzy building befitted the fair’s effortlessly sleek profile with its clean-cut atmosphere, backdropped by spectacular city views. The heavy representation of European studios and practices with their bold take on contemporary design suited the setting, which paid a nod to the heydays of downtown New York’s financial and social boom.

Liv Vaisberg, who organizes the fair’s New York and Brussels editions with Clélie Debehault, tells Interior Design that her most important take from last year was a realization of the strength of the city’s local design community.

“It was impressive to see how everybody came together last September—I believe we can build on that,” she says. In line with this awareness, the fair returned with a strong programming, which included a group show on the intersection of design and fashion and another group show organized by design editor and author Hannah Martin in celebration of architectural folly. Visitors of this year’s COLLECTIBLE fair could also visit a suite of tightly themed presentations, such as one dedicated to table tops and another grouping where multiple designers each created a mise-en-scène.

Vaisberg’s other discovery from her experience of bringing her fair across the pond is the speed at which sales operate. “Collectors buy on the spot here,” she adds. “Usually, decorators and interior designers consult and take their time before acquiring a piece of furniture for their clients.”

This energy was palpable in the VIP day’s vibrant atmosphere with collectors, interior designers, and design lovers quickly filling up the circular layout. And according to Vaisberg, the design sector is not as susceptible to the current shakiness in the art market, saying, “Design is much more resilient—people flip and do other extreme tactics with art, but design remains reassuring even when times are hard.”

Interior Design attended the COLLECTIBLE fair 2025, which ran from Sept. 4–7. Here are highlights of the New York–based event.

Discover the Standout Highlights From COLLECTIBLE Fair 2025

Cork Collection by Studio Ahead

The San Francisco-based practice Studio AHEAD organized a special section in the inaugural New York fair last year. For 2025, the duo Homan Rajai and Elena Dendiberia came back with a display of their new Cork Collection, which blends the titular material with stainless steel for a table, bench, and stool. Using Italian cork with a sculptural heft and smoothness for function, the studio exhibits a vignette of rounded furniture pieces that blends cork’s particular softer touch with steel’s breezy and unbothered presence.

Drag Queen’s Boudoir by Henri Judin

Finnish designer Henri Judin exhibited perhaps the most colorful presentation at the fair with Drag Queen’s Boudoir. The Helsinki-based maker has created a living room with a bold pastel palette and an unabashed celebration of queer joy. Judin’s vision comes out of his drag persona, Carelia, who favors zebra prints and does not shy away from kitschy undertones. In fact, the designer and his husband were present at their booth in drag to activate the domestic setting, which included two wooden dining chairs, a four-color coffee table, a group of mirrors with wooden frames, and a lounge with zebra prints. Judin has been in New York since the summer on a residency supported by the Finnish Cultural Institute.

Toro Manifesto Installation

Vaisberg noticed Toro Manifesto on a recent trip to Mexico City and immediately invited them to participate in her venture. The gallery’s founders were, in fact, familiar with COLLECTIBLE after visiting the Brussels fair two years ago. Even though their Roma Norte gallery opened only in June, their stand reflected a mature outlook on design from their native Mexico, as well as Europe. The running theme throughout the elegant juxtaposition was an unapologetic celebration of ornamentation “not as excess but as a vital gesture.” Backdropped with walls painted in a Farrow & Ball yellow, the presentation included Ehecatl’s three mysterious glass lamps that allude to sacred Mesoamerican flowers, titled Xochipilli. Omareli (Omar Eli Reyes) exhibited elegant aluminum lamps and a shelving unit with sculptural touches in an homage to his experience of working in architectural firms in Mexico.

In Praise of Folly by Hannah Martin

This year’s CURATED section was helmed by Architectural Digest editor and author Hannah Martin. Taking architectural follies as a jumping point, Martin invited visitors to roam around a scenography, which she created in collaboration with sculptor Cat Snodgrass. Rendered in a powdery blue, the setting involved prints of quirky objects on its floor and walls, such as a jelly bean and a silver spoon. Objects peppered across the whimsical scenery included Los Angeles-based designer Sam Klemick’s wooden chair with a large bow tie on its backrest and Fernando Aciar’s ornate egg display tower in ceramic with accents of birds. Martin tells Interior Design that she paid attention to providing a platform to U.S.-based designers in her selection process due to the limited opportunities they otherwise receive.

Room-File Table Display

The London and New York-based design agency and studio Room-File placed an inviting dinner table complete with different chairs and tablescapes by a large window. The arrangement’s scene-stealer was a large Northeastern maple wood table designed by husband and wife duo María Daniela Huiza and Abraham Bendheim of New York-based Juntos Projects. The table’s unique coloration with minty hues creates a balanced contrast with the bold tones of the surrounding seats, including a burgundy stool designed by the couple. They were also represented steps away in the fair’s FASHION Section with a red wine-hued leather and wood chair with a triangular body.

Buket Hoșcan Bazman Showcase

Turkish designer Buket Hoșcan Bazman orchestrated an attractive layout of patinated brass furniture pieces finished with sensual accents of porcelain and textile. Based outside of the Aegean city of Izmir, Hoșcan Bazman brought a gentle and tactile interpretation of a rugged material, forming brass into determined but gentle plays on function. Take, for example, Curio No.2, a long bench punctured with a gentle veil of kilim, woven in Anatolia. Spread across the surface, the fabric penetrates into the brass on both sides and ends up expanding onto the floor, creating a dramatic and even theatrical presence.

Verre d’Onge Glass Display

Run by Flor Amélia Taillefer-Pérez and Jérémie St-Onge, the Montreal design studio Verre d’Onge occupied a cityscape-view stand to demonstrate the visual grasp of minimalist design. A line of handblown glass vessels in various gentle shades was spread across a table, while a long line of photographs that showed St-Onge’s glass-making process was hung throughout the two walls behind. The strong afternoon light washed the vessels in earthy tones with a bright sheen over their mineral palette. Yielding an installation-like experience, the display created a mythic aura around one of the oldest forms of craft while manifesting the timelessness of clean and effortless design.

Uppercut Installation

Antwerp gallery Uppercut is another venture that Vaisberg was excited to bring overseas. Their New York debut was with a two-person outing that pairs South Korean design Yoon Shun with Belgian Freya Tangelder, who operates under the name Destroyers/Builders. The seamless blend of two names results in Shun’s dramatic oak wood and aluminum lamps with heavily burnt surfaces mixed with Tangelder’s aluminum furniture pieces. A standout was her two-seater, dressed with lacquered cotton pads with a raw design over the aluminum surface and small white bronze accents on the couch’s feet. An aluminum low coffee table cast with a lost wax technique held a hefty sculptural presence as well as a tectonic earthiness.