New York Design Week might be winding down, but things at the festival’s marquee event, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), are just heating up. The trade fair, which takes over the Javits Center until 20 May, marks the largest showing of its kind in the U.S. More than 450 exhibitors from 35 countries show off the latest in furniture, lighting, materials and more for both the primary show and its sister presentation, WANTED, a showcase of American design that occupies about 20,000 square-feet of the already-sprawling exhibition floor. That’s quite a lot of ground quite literally to cover. But there were many stand-outs, including fresh approaches to sustainability and craft. Without further ado, here are five things that particularly caught our eye.
Virginia Sin’s new ceramic lighting
You’ll likely know Brooklyn-based ceramicist Virginia Sin for her playful, hand-built bowls, candelabras and vessels, but increasingly she’s been expanding her practice with lighting. At ICFF, she’s showing off her largest lighting assortment to-date with the introduction of two new collections, OBEL and STRIA. For Obel, Sin was inspired by the monumentality and history of Egyptian obelisks. The result is a series of table lamps with sculptural ceramic bases and gently tapered pyramid-shaped shades. But we were especially drawn to her STRIA collection of sconces, whose chubby interwoven forms have all the elegance of a Bottega Veneta bag. It was all about exploring ancient techniques, Sin says: ‘By translating those histories into light, the pieces become more than just functional—they hold space, carry meaning, and bring a sense of presence into the home or wherever they’re installed.’
Rockwell Group's cork lamps for Stackabl
Cork has been everywhere lately and no one has mined its potential quite as rigorously as Rockwell Group. In Milan, the design studio debuted Casa Cork, an entire pop-up devoted to this sustainable–and beautiful–material. The fascination continues with a new fixture Rockwell Group has launched in collaboration with the lighting company Stackabl. The company uses felt offcuts to create light fixtures that not only look cool (you can customize the colours to suit your space) but also addresses textile waste. Rockwell Group’s collab of lamps uses, you guessed it, a cork base with a blue, white and purple felt palette chosen by David Rockwell himself.
Put a cork in it? Don’t mind if we do!
LaRose Guyon’s gauzy-and-gorgeous booth
It takes a lot to stand out amid a sea of hundreds of booths at ICFF. But, as design editors at the fair all agreed, LaRose Guyon’s immediately snagged the eye. In lieu of a traditional booth with rigid walls, the Canadian lighting company, which creates hand-made light fixtures with jewellery-like precision, hung layers of gauzy fabric to create a soft, illuminated enclosure. Combined with the chandeliers, the booth glowed like an otherworldly sea creature from afar. No surprise, this beauty took home 'Best Exhibit Design' at ICFF’s Design Awards.
Cuff Studio’s glamorous collection
In the Wanted portion of the fair Cuff Studio’s presentation stood out. The Los Angeles furniture and lighting studio showed off its new WITHIN collection, a glamorous assortment of new to-the-trade furniture and lighting. We loved the Puddling Cascade lamp, a sculptural light made from white cotton rope that softly tumbles from the ceiling, as well as the C-Back lounge chair, which comes with a sexy hand-textured patinated bronze frame and was shown in a pretty plum-coloured upholstery. We’ll take it all, please!
CJ Hendry’s inflatable tubes
The chaos of Design Week can have a funhouse feel (especially if you’re party-hopping) which is why we appreciated CJ Hendry’s cheeky addition to ICFF. The Australia-born artist created a series of knotted inflatable tubes – an installation dubbed ‘Keff Joons’– that sprawled across the convention floor like a bouncy castle. Hendry also showed her Space Chairs, a set of unique seats made from 65 per cent recycled materials.
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