Collectible New York Brings Daring Design to Unexpected Places

Since Collectible made its New York debut two years ago, founders Liv Vaisberg and Clélie Debehault have steadily cultivated a vibrant community around 21st-century collectible furniture and objects. The Brussels-born fair, which launched to considerable interest in 2018, arrived stateside at a pivotal moment in 2024, when the city’s otherwise tight-knit design community was eager to reconnect after pandemic disruptions had left a conspicuous void in the fair circuit. Its inaugural edition at the WSA Building in Lower Manhattan sated that appetite with an eclectic gathering of international galleries and independent makers; a more ambitious sophomore outing followed in the same building during last year’s Armory Arts Week in September.

Now, for its third New York edition, Collectible made two significant moves: shifting its dates to early November alongside Salon Art+Design and Boutique Design New York (BDNY), and trading the Financial District’s sweeping skyline views for the soaring ceilings and cavernous former screening rooms of a disused cinema on the Upper East Side. The calendar change offers exhibitors welcome breathing room after the summer holidays and places Collectible amid a growing concentration of late-fall fairs. That momentum could soon establish November as a major fixture on New York’s cultural calendar, especially with the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) planning to shift its timing from May to November next year. 

“The enthusiasm of New York’s community and audience has affirmed Collectible’s place in the city,” explains Vaisberg. “I think we’ve become a genuine New York platform, something that New Yorkers anticipate and that brings the local community together. We’ve evolved from a European platform into something much more connected to the city.” 

And in a city as creatively diverse as New York, the possibilities are considerable. This year’s edition brings together over 110 exhibitors from 27 countries across several distinct sections, each offering a diversity of perspectives on contemporary collectible design. The Main section gathers forward-thinking galleries whose presentations span an eclectic range of materials and artistic approaches. Among the highlights are Poland’s upstart Objekt Gallery, which surveys the country’s creative talent across generations; first-time exhibitor Colony, pairing new textile works by Anjuli Bernstein with lounge chairs by independent makers; and Montana-based gallery Placed, whose founder Coryander Friend explores the implications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution through a craft-forward presentation titled “A Future for History.” 

Another highlight comes from Alex-Tieghi Walker, founder of the newly nomadic gallery TIWA Select, who curated “Human Resources,” an imaginative exploration of the late 20th-century corporate office. The show transforms the familiar workplace into a surreal corporate fantasy that challenges the sterility of work culture. “Arranged as a series of office cells, the installation adopts the recognizable layout of a conventional workplace, only to fill it with objects that challenge its uniformity,” explains Tieghi-Walker, who enlisted talents including Anna Sheffield, Tino Seubert, Sadaf Farahanifar, and Adi Asia to reimagine the nine-to-five. 

Other sections include Fashion, curated by Harper’s Bazaar executive digital director Lynette Nylander with scenography by Ceren Arsla; Bespoke, which highlights independent studios specializing in custom and made-to-order pieces; and New Garde, a showcase for nonprofits and collectives experimenting with unconventional approaches to furniture and objects. 

Across the fair, Vaisberg has noticed a growing fascination with delicate materials such as glass, textiles, and lace, exemplified by the ethereal lighting on display at Hudson gallery Freaks, who is presenting glass and silk pendants made with antique pleat molds that mimic 19th-century service bells, and Ulrike Zerzer’s wispily intricate ceramics reminiscent of earthen movements at French gallery SM Bureau. She also points to a renewed interest in cultural heritage, particularly among international designers reinterpreting their home countries’ traditional furniture through a contemporary lens. Standout among these are Studio Tôduy, who is presenting a dark wood cabinet, side table, and freestanding mirror adorned with floral motifs in Vietnamese mother-of-pearl inlay. There’s also a strong showing of designers with Romanian heritage, including woodworker Tiberiu Cojocaru as well as architect Crina Arghirescu-Rogard, who furnished a booth examining the country’s creativity with her own sculptural pieces and those by Alexandra Mocanu, Aurel Cucu, Moffat Takadiwa, and Fernanda Fragateiro. 

Yet for all the creative ingenuity on display within the fair’s unconventional walls, Vaisberg is bullish on cultivating a community beyond them. Club Collectible returns this year with an expanded program of intimate gatherings and exclusive cultural experiences that bring architects, interior designers, and collectors into closer conversation. “Creating an ecosystem and building a community have always been extremely important to us,” says Vaisberg, who sees a growing appetite among these communities for meaningful exchange. 

The initiative recently organized a weekend excursion to the Hudson Valley, complete with a private tour of the Pocketbook Hotel in Hudson and a studio visit with Galerie Creative Mind artist Katie Stout. During the fair, the festivities continue with a walkthrough of Tschabalala Self’s solo exhibition at Petzel Gallery and a late-night DJ set by Tuleste Factory cofounder Celeste Greenberg at Aman Jazz Club. “New York has countless clubs,” Vaisberg observes, “but I don’t think many are bringing these particular communities together in such a focused way.”

For Vaisberg, the ultimate goal is to forge lasting connections between designers and collectors while deepening the conversation around contemporary collectible design. “We want architects and designers to expand their understanding of collectible design and discover possibilities beyond the work they already know,” she says. That also informs the fair’s approach to curating its exhibitors: “We also want to support newer voices alongside established designers,” she continues. “It’s not exclusively about emerging talent; it’s about contemporary design as a whole.” Three years into its New York chapter, Collectible has become one of the city’s most vital champions of a creative community whose possibilities continue to evolve. 

Collectible will be on view at 210 East 36 Street, New York, until September 8.