15 Projects We Loved From September’s Design Fairs in London and Paris

It could be the time of year that gives the London Design Festival and Maison & Objet in Paris a kind of in-between feel. Summer still lingers in places, and a moody, autumnal atmosphere takes over in others — although this could also be attributed to the essential nature of each city's design scene as well. As usual, there was plenty to see, though we also wondered if there was some amount of holding out for what may end up the true statement moment of the fall design calendar: October's inaugural edition of Design Miami/Paris. What struck us this year (from afar, sigh) wasn’t so much a few noticeable trends as an emphasis on collaboration — aesthetics may be fragmented, but our connection to each other is stronger than ever.

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09.12.19

Fair Report

10 (More) Things We Loved at Paris Design Week 2019

Consider this the year that Americans took over the French design fair, much like Milan in 2017. The fair had strong showings from other countries as well, of course, and we've included 10 of our favorite projects here. But in a year when it's sometimes been hard to be proud to be an American, this was a bright spot.

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09.11.19

Sighted

This Breakout Korean Lighting Brand Was One of Our Favorites at Maison & Objet

For its debut, the new Korean lighting brand AGO has collaborated with designers from Korea, Switzerland, and Sweden to present eight collections that blur the lines between residential and contract. Each AGO collection has a distinct personality, from the elegant Bell by JWDA — a spotlight that brings a friendly form to traditionally cold track lighting — to the Mozzi by BYMARS, whose gentle dimple recalls lightly-poked mochi.

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01.22.19

Fair Report

The 40+ Best Things We Saw at IMM Cologne and Maison & Objet 2019

Our trend-spotting needle hasn't exactly gone haywire in the first few weeks of this year — and we, for one, think that might be a good thing, considering how frenetic the pace of trends has been of late. IMM Cologne and Maison & Objet, the first two big furniture fairs of the year, have also traditionally not been the first places you might go to scout for said trends, whether owing to their spot on the design calendar (just before Milan) or the regional peculiarities of each host country (Cologne, to this day, always has a preponderance of Bauhaus-inspired pieces). And yet, scrolling through our picks this year, you'll see a few things that look just different enough that they might be harbingers of things to come.

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01.23.18

Fair Report

45 Key Designs We Spotted At IMM Cologne and Maison & Objet 2018

While IMM Cologne and Maison et Objet aren't the most outwardly exciting fairs on the design calendar, they can be particularly fun for us to cover. The reason has to do with why we love antique shopping so much: It can be more gratifying to make small, triumphant discoveries amidst a sea of less-relevant items than to be surrounded by perfection at every turn. The thrill of the hunt, if you will. Here are 45+ of our biggest finds.

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01.27.17

Fair Report

At the 2017 Maison et Objet and IMM Cologne Fairs

Neither the shadow of Milan nor the frigid, grey weather prevents us, each year, from being able to bring you all kinds of February goodness from the 2017 IMM Cologne and Maison et Objet fairs, which we’ve catalogued below. You’ll find such gems as a confetti-sprinkled carpet, a new design line out of Portugal, and no less than three distinct releases with patina-mottled surfaces that have officially triggered our trend-spotting sonar. Not a bad opening for what’s promising to be a turbulent year in all other regards.

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02.06.16

Saturday Selects

Week of February 1, 2016

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week is all about shapes: geometric tables and artworks, a shelf adorned with a wooden squiggle that looks like a break in the space-time continuum, a series of angular Brutalist teapots, and the epic Vignelli-esque, Toogood-esque Moser tray pictured above.

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01.23.16

Saturday Selects

Week of January 18, 2016

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: The latest iridescent confections, new ceramics from New York and L.A., and some early picks from Maison et Objet, including an exciting new design brand working with a powerhouse of emerging European talents (like Thevoz—Choquet, whose new bench is pictured above).

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02.03.14

Fair Report

At Maison et Objet and IMM Cologne 2014

In January, we saw plenty of incredible things, from the Brancusi show at Paul Kasmin Gallery to the Swiss Alps to the movie Her. What we did not see, unfortunately, was a design fair — while many of our friends and colleagues were making the rounds in Paris and Cologne, we were busy with the likes of planning our 2014 New York Design Week event, beginning our site's forthcoming redesign, and talking about how much we loved Her. Lucky for us, though, we're pretty well connected, so we managed to round up a relatively comprehensive group of photos of what we missed. Behold, after the jump, the Sight Unseen armchair guide to the best new releases at Maison et Objet and IMM Cologne 2014, minus the jetlag and the convention center food.

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