Last week I attended BDNY at the Javits Center in New York City for the first time. Trade show initials can usually be teased into words that describe the purpose of the show. In this case, Boutique Design New York. It’s a relatively new trade show and conference for design professionals and suppliers serving smaller, trendier boutique hospitality establishments. The show primarily serves the eastern United States, Canada and to some extent, Europe.
In 2018 BDNY was acquired by Emerald Expositions, the owner and operator of ICFF, HD Expo and HCD Conference, along with many other trade shows. In its 2018 Annual Report Emerald Expositions states, “Presented annually in November at New York City’s Javits Center, BDNY showcases high-end, unique and innovative design products for the hospitality industry. The two-day show brings more than 8,000 interior designers, architects, purchasing agents and hospitality property owners and developers together with over 750 manufacturers and marketers of exceptional design elements for hospitality interiors.”
I was excited to see what a boutique hospitality show would be like, my background being pretty much limited to workplace design shows. Going in, I wondered if I’d know any of the exhibiting companies; the answer presented itself immediately. Right at the entrance I encountered Momentum Textiles and Wallcoverings and thought, “Of course!” A lot of the suppliers to the “contract” market have divisions in hospitality – and healthcare and education too, for that matter.
My next question was what would distinguish a boutique hospitality show from a hospitality show. In the end, I thought that in reality – not much. I think the main difference in this case is that BDNY is in New York and HD Expo is in Las Vegas. Well, that and the fact that even though BDNY is growing fast, it has a long way to go to catch up with the better known, better established and much larger HD Expo. But the geographic issue isn’t trivial in that most attendees at trade shows have a distance beyond which they won’t travel, so even the most important shows draw most attendees from the local region. I like to say, “All trade shows are regional.” But when I do, people say, “Right, Salone del Mobile.Milano.”
As I made my rounds, I learned that designers of “boutique” hotels and restaurants require even more custom variants of products than workplace designers. One supplier I spoke to said, “Hospitality designers always like to put their own stamp on a project, but when it’s a boutique project they feel like the can really let their creativity soar.”
As a consequence, I found most exhibitors extoling their ability to do everything custom. At Imagine Tile, a boutique tile manufacturer, they said they can do pretty much any design a designer can come up with and in small runs with short lead times.
Responding to this demand for custom variants, I found a plethora of flooring manufacturers featuring their ability to work with designers to create one-off solutions. From Chilewich to Tarkett to Durkan and Shaw Contract, custom capability was presented along-side new products.
We attribute the trend we see in workplace design toward a more relaxed and comfortable feel to hospitality and/or residential design. It was certainly evident here. Instead, what I did notice is that a number of retailers who are known as residential companies were at the show with newly minted contract divisions: Room & Board Business Interiors, Williams-Sonoma Business to Business, and CB2 Business Sales.
From the companies I usually consider as being from “our industry” Davis, Global and Andreu World exhibited what I’d naturally think of as office products, but that could also be happily specified for hospitality applications. The others, for example, Kimball Hospitality, Bernhardt Hospitality, and JSI with its Klem brand were specifically focused on products for the hospitality market.
In the textile sector most exhibitors were more widely associated with the residential market. Fabricut had the coolest space, but Kravett, P/Kaufman and Robert Allen Contract were also represented.
I met Harriet Wallace-Jones, one of the founders of the eponymous textile company Wallace Sewell Studio. Wallace Sewell manufactures its signature collections in Britain, with a thoughtful and meticulous approach to production. The studio works on custom projects for the hospitality, transportation and retail markets. New ideas are created on handlooms at their studios in London and Dorset, which are then woven industrially at a UK textile mill. Ms. Wallace showed me the very clever upholstery patterns they developed for the London Underground and bespoke scarves for the Tate gallery shops. Their color choices were wonderful.
I noticed that many smaller companies banded together in collaboration with non-competing brands to take a larger space than any one could afford alone. This was also noticeable among foreign companies that are from one country, Spain for example, and are just trying to get a start in the North American market.
In our November 10th issue we published an announcement that Coalesse and the Spanish rug company Nanimarquina had agreed to collaborate on a collection for the American brand. So I was happy to find Nanimarquina at BDNY to see its work first-hand. And I certainly understood the appeal for Coalesse. While The products exhibited were not part of the collaboration, the use of color in the collection of outdoor rugs was amazing.
The show was well organized, well attended and interesting for a first-time visitor. Given the emphasis on custom capability, there seemed less focus on making product presentations and a bit more of getting to know the company and its specialties and capabilities. Not knowing the relative size of the exhibitors, I had a sense that most of them were smaller than we normally encounter at “our“ trade shows. I’ll definitely go to BDNY next year, and I recommend it.
