The Future of Design

On the third floor of a posh gallery just off Park Avenue, a Ron Arad chair, shimmering like a gorgeous metallic cucumber, sits resplendent on a green carpet. It's an aluminum-mesh beauty, crafted at the same plant that turns out chassis for Aston Martin. Indeed, a signed, numbered, limited-edition Arad chair is as sleek as James Bond's beloved DBS--and can cost just as much.

Truth be told, most folks would find the thing, for all its aerodynamic curvaceousness, to be a pretty punishing piece of furniture. But for the crowd that already has a Warhol, a Koons, and a pickled Damian Hirst shark, comfort is hardly the point: Acquiring a piece of furniture built by a modern-design master is simply the next logical step in the fine art of filling one's fine home with fine things.

For that rarefied group, the hottest ticket this summer is Design Miami Basel, the new sibling of Art Basel, a 37-year-old art fair that has become the world's premier showcase for 20th- and 21st-century art. This year, the art show is expected to draw 55,000 collectors, dealers, curators, and art groupies to ogle and buy work by some 2,000 painters and sculptors. Based on that success, Sam Keller, the show's director, last December backed an offshoot focused on high-end design. Design Miami Basel (the design and art fairs will shuttle together between Florida and Switzerland every six months, landing in Basel in mid-June) was an instant smash: The 15 participating galleries did $7 million in business over four days. New York's Barry Friedman Gallery, which represents Arad, among others, sold all three of the designer's chairs it exhibited, for $50,000 to $250,000 apiece, as well as 35 of his mirrored stainless-steel tables, at $35,000 to $60,000 a pop. Not bad for a few days' work. "Barry was quite overwhelmed," says Marc Benda, the gallery's director.

As was the show's organizer. "Going into it, I had no expectations," says Ambra Medda, the young Sardinian who cofounded the show with Keller and now serves as its director. "I thought, I hope the dealers sell enough to pay for their booths and transportation. I hope there's a good vibe. And I hope everyone makes good contacts with clients. But then furniture was flying out the door even before the opening." Among the more stunning sales: an Yves Béhar chandelier ($434,600); a Pierre Szekely screen (sold to Donna Karan for $350,000); and, to a buyer with either a sense of humor or a mother fixation, an Axel Salto vase covered in breasts ($75,000).

It's hard not to think of these prices simply as examples of what happens when too much money collides with too few coveted objects, be they condos on Central Park or shares of Google. And on some level, this is tulip mania applied to tables and chairs. But unlike fine art, which never descends to earth, design is meant to be both functional and, usually, reproducible--which means it's less precious, more accessible. Eventually, some of the designers will influence the mass market.

Think of the design food chain in fashion-industry terms, with Design Miami Basel as the equivalent of haute couture (Karl Lagerfeld's stratospheric creations for Chanel, say) and the retailers exhibiting at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York, or mass retailers such as Design Within Reach, as the ready-to-wear collections (Lagerfeld separates at Bloomingdale's). And it extends all the way down to the nice Lagerfeld tuxedo shirt at H&M for $40, or the Michael Graves teakettle at Target for $30. In these cases, the designer's name is on the product; in others, their influence is more subtle, visible as colors and shapes derived from iconic designs. But that influence is there.

So while a $200,000 chair may be both uncomfortable and meaningless to all but a few, it may ultimately turn into something we can all plant our less-privileged butts on. And these days, if you want to glimpse the future of design, you go to Basel in June or Miami in December--where an electric new show is suddenly setting the agenda for the American home. "In any given marketplace, there's a triangle," says Ben Watson, managing director of the Italian manufacturer Moroso. "There's a line of Dior goods at $25,000 that creates the sharp focus you need to sell $100 scarves to every woman. When [Design Miami] Basel popped on the scene, it proved there's a market for the top of the design triangle, which will lead the wide base beneath it." That wide base--the U.S. furniture market--now represents a $65 billion business.