Chicago-based theMART (formerly the Merchandise Mart) is looking ahead beyond our current virtual gathering-based reality with the launch announcement of the NY Luxury Design Fair, a new home furnishings and design trade show to premiere September 9 at the Javits Center in Manhattan. While largely associated with the Windy City, theMART is also the producer of another notable long-running event on the New York City design calendar, the Architectural Digest Design Show at Pier 94. In a press statement, theMART described the four-day NY Luxury Design Fair as an “exciting evolution” of the AD Design Show that will offer “a fresh take on a “20-year tradition.”
That said, 2019 marked the final year for the AD Design Show as the 2020 edition, scheduled for March, was canceled due to the COVID-19 after initially being postponed. With the announcement of the NY Luxury Design Fair, however, it’s clear that the AD Design Show will indeed live on in a wholly reimagined form with a new name and in a new location.
“We are pleased to introduce a freshly reimagined, compelling event to the trade show calendar next fall,” said Susan McCullough, senior vice president of theMART, in a statement. “We are collaborating with new and returning brands, as well as industry and media partners, to develop the fair into a marquee international design destination. Set in a state-of-the-art facility, it will define the luxury design experience for years to come.”
The inaugural NY Luxury Design Fair will run concurrently at the Javits Center with the Armory Show, which was also previously held in March—a couple of weeks ahead of the AD Design Show—on Manhattan’s West Side piers. The Armory Show, New York’s most prominent annual art fair, announced the switch of season and location during the 2020 edition of the fair, which itself kicked off just before a massive sweep of coronavirus-related postponements and cancellations. Both theMART and the Armory Show are owned by Vornado Realty Trust. Meanwhile, the 2021 International Furniture Fair, to be co-located for the first time with WantedDesign Manhattan (the latter event was previously held at the Terminal Stores in Chelsea), is still scheduled to begin at the Javits on May 14.
