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Collectible 2025: Highlights from New York
By Julia Bikbulatova
BY JULIA BIKBULATOVA
Collectible 2025 in New York (Sept 4–7): highlights from the global design fair. Discover cutting‑edge works by Tuleste Factory, Toro Manifesto, Marcela Cure & more.
From September 4 to 7, New York hosted the Collectible design fair for the second time, bringing together designers, architects, sculptors, and gallerists from around the world to showcase 21st-century collectible design. First launched in Belgium in 2018, the fair aims to highlight contemporary design practices on a global stage.
This year, as part of Armory Week, Collectible took place on the 39th floor of Manhattan’s Water Street Associates building. Raw concrete walls and panoramic views of Brooklyn created a striking backdrop, while the fair’s layout favored curated sections over traditional booths.
The MAIN section showcased leading talents in contemporary design. Among the participants, the New York–based gallery Tuleste Factory presented the Afterglow collection, transporting viewers into a world of dreams and surreal fantasies. Toro Manifesto, a gallery from Mexico City, demonstrated how sculptural logic can be seamlessly integrated with functionality. The plastic forms of its design objects reference the legacy of ancient civilizations and carry not only material but also emotional meaning.
BESPOKE brought together series of works by artists, sculptors, and designers created specifically for the fair. This section marked the international debut of Colombian artist Marcela Cure. In her collection Materia Colectiva, Cure draws on Latin American cultural codes and personal memory, experimenting with form and hand-colored resin.
Emerging design collectives were presented in the NEW GARDE section. A shared interest in childhood memories and the emotions associated with them was particularly evident in their works. For example, in the Inventario collection, Venezuelan designer María Laura Camejo reinterprets furniture objects through the lens of memories of her childhood home. A rocking chair, a chest, and a folding screen—familiar wooden forms—were rendered in metal. This approach is not only a material experiment but also a conceptual play on contrast: the warmth of memory (wood) versus the coldness of time’s passage (metal).
Among the other sections, FASHION explored the intersection of design and fashion, while VIGNETTE unfolded as a series of immersive “mise-en-scènes” curated by interior designer Michael Hilal.
This year, as part of Armory Week, Collectible took place on the 39th floor of Manhattan’s Water Street Associates building. Raw concrete walls and panoramic views of Brooklyn created a striking backdrop, while the fair’s layout favored curated sections over traditional booths.
The MAIN section showcased leading talents in contemporary design. Among the participants, the New York–based gallery Tuleste Factory presented the Afterglow collection, transporting viewers into a world of dreams and surreal fantasies. Toro Manifesto, a gallery from Mexico City, demonstrated how sculptural logic can be seamlessly integrated with functionality. The plastic forms of its design objects reference the legacy of ancient civilizations and carry not only material but also emotional meaning.
BESPOKE brought together series of works by artists, sculptors, and designers created specifically for the fair. This section marked the international debut of Colombian artist Marcela Cure. In her collection Materia Colectiva, Cure draws on Latin American cultural codes and personal memory, experimenting with form and hand-colored resin.
Emerging design collectives were presented in the NEW GARDE section. A shared interest in childhood memories and the emotions associated with them was particularly evident in their works. For example, in the Inventario collection, Venezuelan designer María Laura Camejo reinterprets furniture objects through the lens of memories of her childhood home. A rocking chair, a chest, and a folding screen—familiar wooden forms—were rendered in metal. This approach is not only a material experiment but also a conceptual play on contrast: the warmth of memory (wood) versus the coldness of time’s passage (metal).
Among the other sections, FASHION explored the intersection of design and fashion, while VIGNETTE unfolded as a series of immersive “mise-en-scènes” curated by interior designer Michael Hilal.
- Kawabi x Of The Cloth. Confluence collection. Credit: Collectible Design Fair.
- Marcela Cure. Materia Colectiva collection. Credit: Collectible Design Fair.
- Tuleste Factory stand. Afterglow collection. Credit: Collectible Design Fair.
The fair also featured special projects. One of them was Table Top by Michael Yarinsky and Allan Wexler. The artists address the rituals of dining, and the work forms part of the broader research project A New Futurist Cookbook. The project draws inspiration from F. T. Marinetti’s 1932 culinary manifesto.
- Mad Tea Table by Touch With Eyes. Credit: Collectible Design Fair.
- Table Top by Michael Yarinsky and Allan Wexler. Special projects section. Credit: Collectible Design Fair.
- Toro Manifesto booth. Credit: Collectible Design Fair.
The fair’s most widely discussed section was CURATED, presented under the programmatic title In Praise of Folly. Curated by Hannah Martin, Senior Design Editor at Architectural Digest, the section took as its point of departure the architectural phenomenon of the folly. Popular in 18th-century Europe, follies were structures created not for practical use but as aesthetic gestures—acts of play, imagination, and symbolism. Martin reframes this historical concept through the lens of contemporary design.
Highlights included a sculptural lamp by American artist Autumn Casey, referencing the visual language of Tiffany stained glass, as well as Fika, a cherrywood table by Thomas Yang Studio, whose base is ornamented with nails shaped like small wildflowers.
Highlights included a sculptural lamp by American artist Autumn Casey, referencing the visual language of Tiffany stained glass, as well as Fika, a cherrywood table by Thomas Yang Studio, whose base is ornamented with nails shaped like small wildflowers.
- Thomas Yang studio. FIKA table. Credit: Collectible Design Fair.
- Objects from the Curated section. Credit: Collectible Design Fair.
- Silence Please x Tang Thousand, Special projects section. Credit: Collectible Design Fair.
After surveying the fair, an interesting observation emerges: contemporary collectible design is increasingly oriented toward the inner states of the individual—memory, association, and personal experience. At the core of this approach is an immersion into the atmosphere of an “other world.” Artists and designers are working with emotion as a primary objective rather than a secondary effect. Immersion, sensory practices, and emotional expressiveness are becoming defining characteristics of collectible design in 2025.