The scene outside the WSA Building in Lower Manhattan yesterday buzzed with activity as VIP hours for Collectible neared. Movers in hard hats hoisted crates out of cargo trucks cramped into the Financial District’s narrow alleys as designers nervously guided them into service elevators. Stylish aesthetes spilled out of Ubers and whisked through scaffolding to queue behind velvet rope.

The moment, albeit somewhat chaotic, seemed to signal the excitement stoked within New York’s independent design sphere when the Belgian fair announced its stateside expansion six months ago after seven successful editions in Brussels, where it debuted to much fanfare in 2018. There, it established a key presence as a closely watched platform for emerging designers to showcase their latest zany one-offs—and for collectors to source their next piece of statement furniture.

Previous editions of Collectible focused primarily on European exhibitors, but co-founders Clélie Debehault and Liv Vaisberg, who both have fine art backgrounds, were itching for a change of scenery. New York City’s reign as one of the world’s most robust collectible design markets—as well as its thriving ecosystem of makers, designers, collectors, and galleries—made expanding there a logical next step. And when the duo saw the cavernous, light-filled spaces in the WSA Building, a hotbed for the downtown-cool creative set sporting tenants like Luar, Ghetto Gastro, and Bode, it was a done deal. That afforded them just six months to bring this new fair to life, meaning they needed to figure out a whirlwind of complex logistics in a protracted time frame of six months.

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Thanks to New York-based studio Love Is Enough, a getaway to North Carolina’s Blue Ridge mountains doesn’t have to mean going without. A full renovation by the studio has equipped the 1920s-era former residence—and most recent addition to Trailborn’s lineup of destination-worthy nature escapes—with a restaurant and bar, Nordic spa, and a market of local goods to sustain a well-appointed backcountry stay.

Its 63 guest rooms overlook the surrounding Blue Ridge mountain range and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, while offering the comfort of Parachute bath robes, Grown Alchemist amenities, and Fellow kettles for tea service after a long day of outdoor adventuring. A tipple by the firepits or a hearty dinner at the soon-to-open Highlands Supper Club will also suffice.

Francesco Balzano was one of the first designers that Nacho Polo and Robert Onuska collected; they were immediately won over by the emotional resonance and inner poetry the sought-after French designer’s artisanal furniture draws from basic shapes, noble materials, and simple gestures. It seemed like fate that Balzano became one of the first of many talents the work-and-life partners represented when they launched StudioTwentySeven, the Miami- and London-based collectible design dealer that recently made a splashy entrance into Lower Manhattan’s burgeoning gallery scene earlier this year with a 7,000-square-foot Tribeca flagship. So when the duo was pondering which of their designers could inaugurate their new gallery, Balzano quickly came to mind as someone with whom to establish that foundation.

It turns out that Balzano’s work is largely about foundations, with monolithic forms dictated by pure lines that make room for manifold interpretations. Two collections debut here: Inizio focuses on eye-catching furniture like swooping tables, sturdy bookcases, privacy screens, and rippling benches in tinted hemlock wood; Loci comprises limited-edition brass and onyx jewelry boxes. Polo and Onuska crafted a dramatic yet muted scenography, draping just about every element of the gallery’s neoclassical interior besides Balzano’s pieces in drop cloth. The effect creates an atmosphere of concealed grandeur, not unlike a Gilded Age mansion waiting for its owners to return after their summer decampment from the city. Or a chrysalis of cascading light, depending on one’s perspective. More importantly, it creates a welcome white space that affords Balzano’s sublime gestures the room to fly free.

The Ohio textile artist crafts portraits of Civil Rights figures and changemakers in her chosen medium as they practice their hard-won constitutional right to vote.

Here, we ask an artist to frame the essential details behind a recent work.

Bio: Carolyn Mazloomi, 76, West Chester, OH.

Title of Work: Voting Rights (2024).

Where to See It: Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, until Nov. 16.

Three words to describe it: Strong. Provocative. Thoughtful.

What was on your mind at the time: As an African American born and raised in the Jim Crow segregated South, I was thinking of all the sacrifices Civil Rights workers made so Black people could have the right to vote.

The Madison Melle Agency is a creative design studio, lifestyle branding and marketing firm, shaping the landscape of invention in hospitality and beyond. With headquarters located on one of Los Angeles’ most iconic Venice streets, Abbot Kinney, The Madison Melle Agency brings creative prowess to developing one-of-a-kind media, hospitality, food and beverage, real estate, and retail brands.

Surface Says: The Madison Melle Agency brings industry-leading talent and an incisive point of view to its work crafting brand identities that are impossible to overlook—or forget.

Jools Lebron’s trademark case reveals a lucrative side to the “demure” drama.

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Another canvas of wreckage from the Titanic turns up a rare sculpture.