Basic.Space Creates an Immersive Design Experience
Patrick Michael Hughes
Basic.Space will translate its online marketplace into a three-day, in-person event in downtown Manhattan, New York this November. The event will offer a private shopping environment for design, art and fashion. The invitation only experience will present a curated selection of exclusive works developed with leading creative talent. Underscoring the platform’s role in shaping contemporary collecting and taste.
There will be more than 20,000 square feet of art and design in an undisclosed venue. The information will be —revealed only after an RSVP confirmation. The significant space is expected to be transformed into a series of installations and gallery-style environments. Patrons will be able to experience and acquire rare and collectible pieces on-site or through the Basic.Space app.
Basic.Space was built around discovery
This format follows the platform’s first marquee event at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles earlier this year. The West Coast event featured notable works sold to numerous design-forward collectors and cultural insiders.
“Basic.Space was built around discovery. Technology has made shopping seamless, but it has also flattened taste.” says Jesse Lee. Founder and also CEO of Basic.Space and Chairman of Design Miami. “Our LA event reintroduced a more intentional form of curation: IRL to URL. New York felt like the natural next step. Also partnering with influential designers, galleries, and new voices. As a result offering members a chance to explore and acquire pieces in a thoughtful environment.”
Basic.Space: Art, Design and Fashion Designers in Dialogue
Consequently what makes the New York installation unique are the noteworthy curators and collectors Jordan “Watts” Watson (LoveWatts) and Jeff Magid. Their installation will anchor the New York venue with a dedicated gallery program. Hence merging of Watson’s cultural reach with Magid’s collecting positions the event as a site for new modes of seeing, sharing and circulating contemporary art and design.
An auditory experience is also in store for patrons. Multidisciplinary artist Devon Turnbull (OJAS) will debut HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 2 in New York. First conceived for SFMOMA’s Art of Noise. The installation is however built around a custom high-fidelity sound system. Which firstly encourages patrons to slow their pace and engage in deep listening. A rare and site specific form of cultural experience.
Antwerp Six & Memphis
Designer Kris Van Assche one of the original Antwerp Six fashion designers from Belgium will present his collaboration with Laffanour | Galerie Downtown. He will present bronze vases and vessels that reflect his sculptural approach to objects. Hence the display will sit alongside key decorative arts and design works from the gallery’s collection. There will also be new colorways of Edizioni del Pesce from Meritalia, and a forthcoming audio collaboration by Memphis. The influential design collective founded in 1980 by Ettore Sottsass.
MSCHF will exhibit a focused selection of its most recognized works. The work will highlight the Global Supply Chain Telephone Handbag series. A fashion object created by the studio’s expanding design directions at the intersection of art and cultural commentary.
Then rounding out the experience will be KidSuper a Brooklyn based multi-media fashion brand. It was founded by the LVMH Group- Karl Lagerfeld Prize winner 2021 Colin Dillane. His highly creative work is know for its fully immersive experiences. Furthermore the distinctive built environments are filled with furniture, tactile experiences and music. Additionally for the New York event he will introduce a commissioned “Playroom” concept—an environment reflecting his world-building approach, featuring bold and experimental objects from Gufram, Tadashi Adamson and many others.
Basic.Space: Credits and Information
Designer/Maker: Tadanori Yokoo Date: 1999 Product Name: SHONEN BRUTUS; Description: Shonen Brutus refers to a 1999 issue of the Japanese magazine BRUTUS (No. 437, August 1, 1999) whose cover was designed by Tadanori Yokoo. Credit Information: Courtesy of BEAMS
Designer/Maker: Devon Turnbull Date: 2024 Product Name: HiFi Pursuit Listening Dream No.2 is a one-of-a-kind, hand-built sound system crafted from components and techniques gathered during the artist’s audio pilgrimages around the world. The installation was created by multidisciplinary artist Devon Turnbull. An artist who produces audio equipment under the moniker OJAS. This listening room was actually commissioned for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition Art of Noise and is one of a handful of his “shrines to music ” inviting visitors to slow down and engage deeply with the act of listening-Photo credit: Don Ross
Product and Fashion Designers to Immersive Environments
Designer/Maker: Kris Van Assche Date: 2025 Product Name: Vase Bronze 02, 2025- Laffanour | Galerie Downtown showcases the work of Belgian fashion designer Kris Van Assche. He was the then, former artistic director of Dior Homme and Berluti, through an exhibition of 14 bronze pieces conceived as true object-sculptures.
Bronze, Outside: Moon Jade, Inside: Lapis Blue Courtesy of Laffanour | Galerie Downtown. Photo credit: Jeremy Barniaud.
Designer/Maker: Kris Van Assche Date: 2025 Product Name: Vase Bronze 06, 2025 Laffanour | Galerie Downtown showcases the work of Belgian fashion designer Kris Van Assche, also former artistic director of Dior Homme and Berluti, through an exhibition of 14 bronze pieces conceived as true object-sculptures.
Bronze. Outside: Heliotrope, Inside: Orchid Hush. Credit Information: Courtesy of Laffanour | Galerie Downtown
Designer/Maker: Ettore Sottsass and David Kelley Date: 1985 Product Name: Enorme Telephone Description: The ENORME telephone was the joint creation of Ettore Sottsass, David Kelley, and Jean Pigozzi. The maker’s 1,000 phones were ever produced. Each ENORME landline comes with the original 1985 packaging and instruction booklet designed by Sottsass and Kelley. ENORME is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design. Courtesy of ENORME, photo credit to Maya Fuhr
Designer/Maker: MSCHF Date: 2024 Product Name: Global Supply Chain Telephone Handbag-The Global Supply Chain Telephone Handbag is actually an accessory/art object/performance art mashup created by MSCHF, a New York-based arts collective. The bag is a combination of elements from several iconic designer handbags in fact and serves as a commentary on consumerism and fast fashion. Leather, twill interior. Courtesy of MSCHF
Featured Classic Pop Artist
Designer/Maker: James Rosenquist Date: 1973- Flame Out Picasso-James Rosenquist (1933-2017), was actually an American conceptualist pop artist, with work in every major collection of 20th century American art. “Homage to Picasso” printed by Petersburg. Press, London and published by Propyläen-Verlag, Berlin. A print from this same edition of 30 is in fact, in MoMA’s permanent collection. This is a signed print. Courtesy of The Arcades
Designer/Maker: Gufram x The Andy Warhol Foundation Date: 2025 -ANDY’S CACTUS® Gufram partners with The Andy Warhol Foundation to release three new editions of the Gufram CACTUS®. The work is inspired by Warhol’s 1986 Fright Wig Self Portraits Specifications: Coat stand of soft polyurethanefinished by hand with Guflac® Courtesy of Gufram x The Andy Warhol Foundation
Basic.Space Website
November 14–16, 2025
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Patrick Michael Hughes is a fashion and decorative arts historian. He writes about fashion culture past and present making connections to New York, London and Copenhagen's fashion weeks with an eye toward men's fashion. He joined IRK Magazine as a fashion men's editor during winter of 2017.
He is often cited as a historical source for numerous pieces appearing in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, LVMH, Conde Nast, Highsnobiety and others. His fashion career includes years as a fashion reporter/producer of branded content for the New York local news in the hyper digital sector. Patrick's love of travel and terrain enabled him to becoming an experienced cross-country equestrian intensively riding in a number of locations in South America Scandinavia,The United Kingdom and Germany. However, he is not currently riding, but rather speaking internationally to designers, product development teams, marketing teams and ascending designers in the US, Europe and China.
Following his BA in the History of Art from Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York he later completed graduate studios in exhibition design in New York. it was with the nudge and a conversation in regard to a design assignment interviewing Richard Martin curator of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art he was encouraged to consider shifting his focus to the decorative arts with a concentration in fashion history and curation.
Patrick completed graduate studies 17th and 18th century French Royal interiors and decoration and 18th century French fashion culture at Musée Les Arts Decoratifs-Musée de Louvre in Paris. Upon his return to New York along with other classes and independent studies in American fashion he earned his MA in the History of Decorative Arts and Design from the Parsons/Cooper Hewitt Design Museum program in New York. His final specialist focus was in 19th century English fashion and interiors with distinction in 20th century American fashion history and design.
Currently, he is an Associate Teaching Professor at Parsons School of Design leading fashion history lecture-studios within the School of Art and Design History and Theory,
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