The ten-year old Boutique Design New York (BDNY) is the premier trade fair for the lifestyle design community and it was held earlier this week at Jacob Javits Center. This year there were over 400 exhibitors compared to about 800 in a typical pre-Covid year.
7300 people pre-registered and the show felt quite full. I asked Jackson Schultz, Marketing Manager, BDNY about the attendees, and he explained, “The audience is very diversified but consists mainly of interior designers, hotel owners, commercial developers, investment firms among others.”
Coronet and WAC/Modern Forms exhibited in full force as well as many hospitality lighting companies that we did not recognize. Shakil Ahmad, Coronet’s VP of Spec Sales stated, “This is our first time at BDNY and the first tradeshow where we have exhibited since the pandemic and we are demonstrating a suite of products geared toward the interior design and hospitality industry.” Coronet was a finalist for the BDNY Best Booth award.
Midgard, a 100-year old German company demonstrated its AYNO collection, very clever floor and table lamps that bend and twist in any direction. AYNO is particularly flexible, minimal and extremely sustainable. The central feature of the AYNO lighting family is a fiberglass rod, which is bent into the desired position by moving the two adjustment rings that tighten or relax the cable, thus directing the light where it’s needed.
After the show I visited Ann Schiffers and her Floss team at their beautiful showroom in SoHo. Ann demonstrated an updated Richard Kelly design called Coordinates and is designed by Michael Anastassiades. Its first iteration was an epic light sculpture made by Flos Custom by Lukas Lighting for New York’s Four Seasons restaurant, and now the custom concept is available in either bespoke structures or pared down standard lamps to meet the growing need for flexible lighting in residential and commercial spaces
In addition to visiting BDNY and FLOS, I had a behind-the-scenes tour of the new Google retail store with designer Levia Lew, of reveal design group. We’ll feature this design in the December issue of designing lighting (dl).
My concluding thoughts after 3 days: The design community in New York City is alive and well!