Buy Design
This month, New York City turns its attention toward all things interiors for NYCxDESIGN, the citywide celebration of design. Along with the International Contemporary Furniture Festival and the Javits Center and the myriad satellite fairs surrounding it, the cultural calendar overflows with exhibitions, lectures, installations, and events. While that’s more than enough to stoke the imagination, a fresh crop of stores and pop-up shops are offering limited-edition objects and artist-made goods starting at prices even lower than the $60 admission to the ICFF. From a Bushwick boutique selling handmade items created by emerging artists from around the world to a design expo featuring no fewer than six pop-up shops within it, here are six of the most exciting places to shop for unusual and unexpected home goods now.
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“We’re basically always playing house,” says Fabiana Faria, who opened the airy Lower East Side design shop Coming Soon with partner Helena Barquet earlier this month. “The concept is something that will always be evolving. But what we want and look for are fun, original, well-made tools that bring you some happiness.”
Coming Soon, 37 Orchard St., New York
Image by Coming Soon
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The gallery veterans at Coming Soon stock their shop with playful pieces from a mix of established and emerging designers, including (from left) Wyatt Little’s Hat Bowl ($130), Tom Dixon’s colorful salt and pepper grinders ($85), and a Love Cave sculpture from Chaparral Studios ($60)—shown here atop a cutting board by Christopher Harth ($250).
Image by Coming Soon
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While The Shop at Cooper-Hewitt Design store won’t open in its official home until the fall, visitors can peruse its curated take on contemporary design in a pop-up shop at the WantedDesign fair, featuring pieces like these 3D-printed and enameled bracelets ($105) from Brooklyn’s AEA Jewels.
The Shop at Cooper-Hewitt pop-up at Wanted Design is open from May 16-19, 262 Eleventh Ave.
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The Cooper-Hewitt pop-up will also stock Bower NYC’s geometric cutting boards ($75). “These young designers are ones to watch,” says shop director Chad Phillips. “[They have] fresh, new takes on common objects, and a very clean, strong graphic sensibility.”
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For the month of May, embroidered textiles specialists Coral & Tusk will host the Coral & Tusk and Friends Spring Extravaganza pop-up in the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, building where their studio is located. Everything in the space is for sale, from papier-mâché pieces by Big Fun Store and ceramics from Small Spells, to the hanging Natalie Page light fixtures and label’s own embellished tepee.
Coral & Tusk and Friends runs through May 31, 109 S. Fifth St., Brooklyn
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To celebrate the pop-up, Coral & Tusk has collaborated with designer John Derain to create decoupage plates based on their embroidery designs, plus custom slipcovers for Derain sofas.
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Handjob, which started as a part of Zoe Alexander Fisher’s thesis on functionality, features functional objects made by artists. After a series of pop-ups and web shops, last month she found a brick and mortar home for her Gallery/Store in a former discount store in Bushwick, which she shares with 99 Cent Plus Gallery and studios.
Handjob Gallery/Store, 238 Wilson Ave., Brooklyn
Photo by Yael Malka + Cait Oppermann
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“The idea behind this was a way for artists to make alternate income without losing autonomy,” says Fisher. Among Handjob’s current offerings are Tommy Coleman’s hand-printed college-ruled paper ($10 for three sheets), diamond-tipped scribes ($75 in steel, $80 in brass), and handmade No. 2 pencils ($8 each); Amy Worrall’s orgy vases ($90); ceramic vases by Jessica Hans ($30–$150); Kylie White’s machine-milled steel ashtrays ($150); and Joseph Hutchins ceramics.
Photo by Yael Malka + Cait Oppermann
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A collaboration between Design With Benefits and desigNYC, the MAKINGOODESIGN Social Impact Pop-Up Shop features objects created in ways that are socially, environmentally, and ethically responsible. Judi Powers’s handcrafted jewelry features recycled materials and ethically sourced metals and gemstones, in pieces like this necklace cast from a small branch found in her Brooklyn backyard.
MAKINGOODESIGN runs through May 11 at Bklyn Designs at 20 Jay St., Brooklyn
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Artecnica’s TranSglass up-cycled wine and beer bottles are produced with young artisans in Guatemala City through the Design w/Conscious initiative. A percentage of profits form the MAKINGOODESIGN shop will benefit the Arts on the Block community art charity.
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Online magazine Sight Unseen goes IRL for Sight Unseen Offsite, an exhibition space and pop-up shop including cult-favorite object curators Kiosk and a papier-mâché flower shop from Chiaozza. Sight Unseen will present its own shop with Print All Over Me featuring all-over-print clothing and furniture by Camille Walala (pictured), plus five other textile designers and three furniture designers.
Sight Unseen Offsite runs from May 16–20 at 200 Lafayette St.
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Curated by blogger Su Wu, the I’m Revolting Ceramics Shop will feature a range of works from artists Object and Totem, Cody Hoyt, Helen Levi, and Joey Watson (seen here). “On Sight Unseen … we’ve been especially attuned in the past year or two to the exponential rise in talented young studio ceramists,” says co-editor Jill Singer.