B&B Italia Brings Tufty-Time to Life With Dazzling Dance Performance at NYCxDesign
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Patricia Urquiola’s iconic sofa, the Italian brand joined forces with Galerie to transform its Madison Avenue flagship into a stage for movement, emotion, and immersive design
On a balmy Friday evening during the weeklong NYCxDesign festival, Galerie and B&B Italia hosted a one-of-a-kind event for the city’s design community. The action-packed evening welcomed hundreds of creative talents and design enthusiasts to the Italian furniture brand’s Madison Avenue showroom to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Tufty-Time, the visionary sofa designed by Milan-based architect and newly minted Galerie Creative Mind Patricia Urquiola.
Designers quickly filled the sprawling showroom—a 25,000-square-foot emporium housing B&B Italia, Flos, Louis Poulsen, Maxalto, Arclinea, and Azucena—as anticipation built for the Tufty-Time’s celebration.
Soon enough, as guests sipped on prosecco and cocktails, a performance produced exclusively for B&B Italia by Lily Azrielant of Clarity Productions and choreographed by award-winning dancer Vivake Khamsingsavath unfolded gracefully throughout the showroom. With energy and poise, Khamsingsavath’s troupe of 19 dancers swayed, twirled, and pirouetted energetically among the showroom’s furniture and lighting, making the static vignettes spring to life through alluring movements that left attendees and passersby entranced.
“My work is based on connection to energy, space, and people—bringing the human spirit into space and how I can help people experience it and relate to it,” Khamsingsavath, a New York–based teacher and choreographer, told Galerie after the performance. “I’m interested in taking familiar spaces that people venture into daily and creating a new experience in those spaces. I always walk by furniture stores or lamp stores and think, how can we awaken the lighting, the furniture, and the clothes? This was something I’ve always wanted to do.” His performers danced passionately with energy that was palpable throughout the evening as they invited guests to join in the fun.
“B&B Italia’s furniture becomes a language—one that articulates how we live, feel, and express ourselves within space,” says Francesco Farina, CEO of B&B Italia USA. “Naturally, a question emerged: How can we deepen the story around durability and landscape—qualities so deeply rooted in the brand’s ethos—while keeping the message engaging, poetic, and celebratory? The answer revealed itself not only in the objects presented, but in the experience itself. Wanting our space and furniture to come alive—for guests to feel, experience, and break the boundary of what luxury can be. It’s not untouchable, it’s livable.”
One of the best-selling and most beloved sofas in B&B Italia’s formidable repertoire of iconic furnishings, the Tufty-Time was an immediate commercial success when it debuted in 2005. Urquiola ingeniously channeled the relaxed, low-slung lounges of the 1970s—as well as the era’s penchant for entertaining and actually living in one’s living room—into Chesterfield and capitonné traditions. The result was an unmistakable career highlight boasting languid curves, compelling shapes, and a sense of understated glamour that didn’t compromise on livability.
Speaking to the Tufty-Time’s enduring charm and staying power, the sofa recently underwent a refresh to celebrate its milestone anniversary while preserving its most defining characteristics. Recycled polyester padding was added, its seat height was rethought for added comfort, the structure was updated to ensure longevity, and a curved module was introduced to enhance the sofa’s versatility and create more convivial and fluid arrangements. The Tufty-Time 20 also debuted with a new wool chenille with a subtle effect for extra plushness and tactility. B&B Italia even released a new coffee table series designed to seamlessly fit between the sofa’s modules, whose near-infinite configurations lend themselves well to sumptuous living rooms, lavish hotel lobbies, and well-appointed office spaces.
“Our brand has always embraced timeless design, research, innovation, and a contemporary spirit,” Farina continues. “We are proudly Italian—not only in craftsmanship but in cultural generosity. Tufty-Time 20 is a joyful expression of that identity, and we’re honored to share it with like-minded guests around the world who understand that design is not only about form, but about feeling.”
The evening was an unforgettable highlight of NYCxDesign and drew a list of design-industry notables including Fawn Galli, John and Christine Gachot, Oliver and Jean Pelle, Andrew Torrey, Jennifer Weisberg, Helena Clunies-Ross, Antonio DeLoatch, and more.
