The first New York edition of Collectible, an annual contemporary design fair founded in Brussels six years ago, opened on Wednesday during what always feels like the city’s cultural “back-to-school” moment, with fashion week, art fairs, openings, and other events all colliding on the calendar. The Belgian import’s debut stateside fair, which closes today, featured one-off and limited edition work from dozens of galleries, designers, studios, and collectives spread out over two raw floors at 161 Water Street, a corporate office building in the Financial District that has become an improbably located hub for creative businesses. The show included sections organized by the Female Design Council, architecture-focused nonprofit The World Around, and several other curators and organizations, which gave it a feeling of many connected environments. The fair was also heavy on emerging designers and featured galleries from far-flung parts of the world. The whole show had a sense of playfulness and energy.

Dwell dispatched our Creative Director, Suzanne LaGasa, and photographer Ben DeHaan to take it all in and report back on the best things they saw. “I loved work with unexpected colors, big gestures, sharp points, and lots of rubber, metal, and delicate glass,” says LaGasa, “as well as the push and pull between surrealist goth clubhouse aesthetics and unapologetically colorful sculpture. It was as if Niki de Saint Phalle and Dracula lived together.”

Here are their picks.

Featured Above: @farrahsit, @vyvoistudio, @richaybar

Featured Above: @studio.s.ii

Featured Above: @clarajorisch, @ononge__

Featured Above: @genos_design

Featured Above: @lauralukasdominici, @basilschu

Caroline Rennequin makes paintings, sculpture, design objects, and many other things. At Collectible she showed a series of colorful furnishings." layout="" credit="Add credit" photoUserId=""/>

Featured Above: @carolinerennequin

Featured Above: @fusionf__, @atelierfomenta,

Featured Above: @golem.digital

Featured Above: @_leonardogarza

made from cherry, mahogany, and walnut by Toronto’s Kate Duncan—stole the show." layout="" credit="Add credit" photoUserId=""/>

Featured Above: @otrasformas.nyc, @kateduncandesign, @malcolmmajer

Featured Above: @otrasformas.nyc, @jamesdieter

Featured Above: @room57gallery, @danielwidrig, @georgiab.smith, @brechtwrightgander

Featured Above: @celine__salomon, @daniel.k________

Featured Above: @wsanyc, @waterstreetprojectsnyc

Top Image: Antwerp design shop/gallery St Vincent's showed work by San Francisco designer Michael Hilal, whose sofa anchored their space. @stvincents, @mhilal

Everything Our Editor-in-Chief Liked at Brooklyn’s NYCxDesign Shows

The Best of Milan’s Surreal Exhibition of New Designers, According to Dwell’s Editor-in-Chief

The Dwell 24: Meet the Best New Designers of 2023