What’s Happening: RH seems to be on track to deliver the members’ club experience without annual dues, with a series of lavish restaurants better described as “caviar lairs,” ultra-high-end lodgings in the über-wealthy’s favorite destinations, and an editorial platform helmed by former AD editor Margaret Russell—all while continuing to post eye-watering revenue. The expansion evokes the recent moves of another sweeping lifestyle brand: Soho House.

The Download: At one time RH, then known as Restoration Hardware, was just another mall-caliber furniture store selling greige furniture and decor to suburbanites. Since then, the California-based brand has truncated the name and shifted its consumer base up a few tax brackets by embarking on a sweeping foray into opulent restaurants, ritzy lodgings in New York and Aspen, shrewd expansions of its furniture business, and now a media arm helmed by former AD editor Margaret Russell.

Sound familiar? The furniture juggernaut’s recent trajectory seems to be mimicking that of Soho House, whose parent company, Membership Collective Group (MCG), rapidly expanded its U.S. holdings leading up to its 2021 IPO. Soho House has been in expansion mode ever since, with a spate of buzzy clubs and hotels opening in Nashville, Copenhagen, and Tel Aviv, and future ones slated for Mexico City and Bangkok.

As MGC approached its IPO, the company opened the doors to Soho Works, a dedicated coworking space in New York where members’ screentime and phone calls wouldn’t be policed by eagle-eyed social club managers. The launch of Soho Home, its upmarket line of club-inspired furniture and decor, soon made landfall in Manhattan and then Los Angeles. The company then raised eyebrows when it appointed Wired UK and British GQ alumnus Andrew Diprose with the bold directive of creating a print magazine in 2022.

Most recently came America’s first outpost of the Ned, another joint social club and hotel venture under the MCG banner that brought with it public and members-only restaurants and a fine art collection fit for the Whitney. The company also has holdings in international spas, dubbed Soho Health clubs; skincare products branded Soho Skin; and the UK movie theater chain Electric Cinemas.

For all the parallels between RH and MCG’s respective hype trains, their revenue figures tell a different story. In 2021, RH posted 35 percent year-over-year revenue growth to the sum of $3.66 billion, and is on track to post $3.85 billion for 2022. By comparison, MCG posted 2021 revenue totaling $400 million, and is on track to grow that figure by 58 percent to $650 million this year. There are caveats to such a direct comparison: RH has been a publicly traded company since 2001, and Membership Collective Group made its IPO just last year. During a recent earnings call, RH CEO Gary Friedman shared a staggering contraction of the company’s gross profit margin, and uncertainty seeded by the “complete collapse” of the luxury housing market, according to Business of Home.

Further, MCG has a reputation for creating offshoot companies like Soho Home from within. Following suit, RH recently made calculated business acquisitions to power its category expansions in the case of California-based upholstery brand Dmitry and Michigan-based furniture manufacturer Jeup, whose leadership and infrastructure will be positioned to launch RH Couture Upholstery and RH Bespoke Furniture, respectively. With the appointment of Russell, a legendary doyenne of shelter media, the company seems to hope to flex its—or perhaps by proxy, her—proximity to people influencing the direction of design at the highest level.

In Their Own Words: With oak floors, travertine slabs, and leather upholstery, a specific shade of Billionaire Beige prevails at the recently opened Dining Room at RH Guest House in Manhattan, where Friedman told the New York Times: “Nobody cares if the room’s beautiful if the food sucks.”

Surface Says: It’s too early to tell who will come out ahead in the arms race to become the ultimate lifestyle omni-brand, but it feels symbolic that the neighboring Soho House and RH rooftops along New York’s Ninth Avenue share the same view.

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On Thursday, cult-favorite Finnish fashion brand Marimekko opened its latest shop in SoHo, New York. The storefront is new, but the brand’s presence in the city isn’t: its former flagship in the Flatiron District permanently closed in 2021. The new downtown location brings a studio-like feel, which draws from both the industrial architecture of Marimekko’s Helsinki textile printing factory as well as the simplicity of Shaker interiors.

Consider it an extension of creative director Rebekka Bay’s philosophy of “less but better.” The storefront, which will carry fashion, bags, accessories, and home decor, “is an ever-evolving concept that has been designed to be rediscovered over and over again,” she says. “It aims to create a dialogue with New York, its inhabitants and creative culture.”

On Nov. 29, Surface and sustainable furniture company Model No. hosted a reception for “Endless Loop: From Waste to Wanted,” a group exhibition featuring Prowl Studio, artist Michael Han, 3D motion designer Natalie Liu, and Model No.’s design director Mike Vance. Organized around the central theme of circular design, the show features work transforming salvaged wood waste into covetable objects using 3D manufacturing. Throughout the evening, guests perused the works at the newly opened Solana Spaces in Wynwood over charcuterie plates and drinks from Liquid Death, Tepozan Tequila, and Body Vodka.

Functional sculptures that channel Renaissance elegance with the Colombian designer’s modern point of view, Il Corpo is an entirely hand-made figurative sculpture inspired by the feminine form. Sculpted in clay and cast in a resin-stone composite, this collectible design object is both a celebration of the female spirit and a functional set of decorative bookends.

In 1999, Pantone greeted the 21st century by inaugurating its Color of the Year program, a prognostication of which tone will best characterize the next 365 days of interior, graphic, and product design. It picked Cerulean Blue 15-4020. And perhaps that was apt: if the vibe of any this century could possibly be close to “blue skies ahead,” it could only have been 2000.

For 2023, Pantone has selected Viva Magenta 18-1750. Perhaps it will soon tint your walls, magazine covers, and furnishings; it can right this moment rope around your neck in a Pantone Long Keychain. It’s easy to shade all this merchandise, to wonder if there are hues of colonialism in one American company dictating a color-monoculture. It’s understandable to blanche at the company’s recommendation to live with the color as “an NFT projection in a white entryway.” Some might empathize with Blanche Devereaux, the Golden Girl who famously felt for the color a deep, existential hate.

Sommsation is an innovative wine tasting experience platform bringing together independent wineries, sommeliers, wine experts and those looking to discover new wines, expand their knowledge, and have a great time. Uniquely crafted virtual tastings feature hidden gems of the wine industry and the insights of an engaging wine professional.

Surface Says: Sommelier-guided wine tastings aren’t inhibited by a little thing like geography, thanks to this upstart platform ushering the interactive vineyard experience into the digital age.

Japan has been getting inventive when it comes to eliminating food waste.

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A sculpture of hip-hop legend Biggie Smalls pops up near the Brooklyn Bridge.