This story is part of Fair Take, our reporting on global design events that looks up close at the newest ideas in fixtures, furnishings, and more.

New York design week originally coalesced around the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), the massive annual trade show at the Javits Center. But these days, the NYCxDesign event calendar is packed with exhibitions, talks, and trade fairs across the city. One of its highlights this year is Afternoon Light, which debuted in 2025 as Shelter, itself an evolution of the online collectible designer retailer cofounded by the organizers of the home accessories expo Shoppe Object.

You can think of Afternoon Light as ICFF’s more indie-minded younger sibling; spread across the fifth and sixth floors of downtown Manhattan’s much-talked about WSA building, the design fair showcases more than 75 brands and designers across furniture, lighting, and collectible works. The mix includes up-and-coming makers—students at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design presented a series of market-ready 3D-printed table lamps that I loved—alongside established names like Danish furniture company Carl Hansen & Søn. But there were also cool-kid brands and independent designers and artists, many of whose work we’ve featured, including Dwell 24 alum Muhly, Matthew McCormick, Ben Willett, Sam Klemick, and Jialun Xiong.

I took a quick visit with Dwell’s senior visuals editor Valeria Suasnavas to scan the objects in the show—here’s what made us pull out our phones.

Muhly and Studio/ Jialun Xiong

Palet

I’m a fan of Dutch studio Palet’s made-to-order glazed ceramic wall tiles, so this modular installation for the brand’s North American debut caught my eye as soon as I walked in.

Quartered

New York furniture studio Quartered made its debut at Afternoon Light with one piece: a low-slung rectilinear coffee table with a push-to-open drawer. The table is available in six colorways, and its striping is hand-painted. Designer Joshua Sevitz told me that the blue colorway is inspired by his son’s baseball glove, the orange one by a Kith and NY Knicks collaboration. He used his foot to show me how you nudge open the drawer, which I thought was a nice touch.

USM x Symbol

Realm

I’d seen the Baltimore design studio’s Quelaag’s chair, the second from its Witch’s chair series, in our coverage of last year’s Collectible design fair, but I was so impressed by the hand-carved ebonized sapele seat—with a hand-stitched cushion made from rabbit fur and lizard leather—IRL, especially alongside the equally impressive, also hand-carved cabinet and mirror by Ian Murphy and Stevie Pniewski, the artists behind Realm.

The duo’s shared love of ancient crafts like woodworking, metalsmithing, and leatherwork characterize their creations, which they say flirt “with avant-garde and modern design while maintaining a sense of mischief and seduction.” The cabinet has bronze-and-garnet handles and sapele doors carved with flora and fauna inspired by the William Morris poem, “Spring’s Bedfellow.” The Pluto’s Gate mirror is named for the lord of the underworld. This display somehow gives upscale medieval sex dungeon and Queen Grimhilde’s tower at once...and I can’t get enough!

Ollin

Dimwit

I was excited to check out this new Portland, Oregon, electrical hardware company founded by brand consulting veteran Joanna Bean Martin, whose goal is to make light dimmers that feel like considered design objects (not unlike what brands like Petra are doing with cabinet pulls and doorknobs). Dimwit’s debut collection, Anagrams, features interchangeable knobs and ceramic-coated brass wall plates made to be mixed and reconfigured across a range of colorways. It didn’t disappoint!

Rarify x Christian Borger

Forks Plus

One of the standouts was Brooklyn designer Kelsey Fairhurst’s small-batch flatware project, Forks Plus (which Dwell’s design news editor Duncan Nielsen previously wrote about for Figma). The “soft-line brutalist” stainless-steel pieces are offered in a range of colors, and Fairhurst’s display also showed how she’s experimenting with materials—one of the sets had a few pieces with textured marble handles. Talk about making flatware fun!

Shelton Metal

North Carolina designer Colby Byrd’s brand Shelton Metal is a great example of why I’m personally all for the jewelry-to-tableware design pipeline. Byrd says his designs draw inspiration from “the romance of the sea” and the “imagined elegance of a gentleman pirate’s table.” I lingered for a while at the shell cordial tower display.

Top photo of the Ford Bostwick display at Afternoon Light (showing from left: Lucy lamp, Mira sconces, Tag shelf, Appliqué de Lys sconce, and Domino table) by Valeria Suasnavas

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