Basic.Space Transforms a SoHo Storefront Into a Walkable Gift Guide

For anyone whose holiday wish list includes a gleaming gold Verner Panton chair, a rare creation by Virgil Abloh, or a sleek pair of high-fidelity speakers, Basic.Space has assembled a rather extraordinary shopping destination in downtown Manhattan. The “IRL-to-URL” luxury marketplace has returned to New York for its second edition, taking over a sprawling SoHo storefront through November 19. Conceived and produced in collaboration with creative director Alexander May, the weeklong event brings together an eclectic assortment of collectible furniture, contemporary art, and unexpected curiosities in an imaginative setting that offers an enticing alternative to conventional holiday shopping. 

The event marks another ambitious chapter for Basic.Space, the digital shopping platform founded by Jesse Lee, whose portfolio also includes Design Miami and the art marketplace Platform. Following successful editions in Los Angeles and London, its latest New York outing expands last year’s three-day format into a weeklong affair that embraces the holiday season with a decidedly downtown sensibility. “The holiday shopping experience is the underlying theme,” Lee explains, further describing the concept as “a downtown take on the traditional department store, reimagined as a ‘gift guide’ you can walk through and shop.” 

May, whose multidisciplinary practice encompasses sophisticated interiors for Victoria Beckham and Costa Brazil, furniture for Pierre Augustin Rose, and exhibition scenography for Carpenters Workshop Gallery and Nordic Knots, has likewise orchestrated a gallery-like environment sure to spark memorable encounters between one-off oddities and furniture spanning generations. “What’s interesting about this edition of Basic.Space New York is there’s something for almost everyone,” May tells Galerie. “It wasn’t made with one targeted client in mind. It’s a collection of exciting objects and collectibles.” 

At its heart sits The Lounge, an offbeat domestic tableau featuring a futuristic business class–inspired airplane seat by Crosby Studios founder and Galerie Creative Mind designer Harry Nuriev. Perched nearby are three works from Virgil Abloh’s 2035: US Edition collection for Vitra, including the late polymath’s pastel-hued reinterpretations of Jean Prouvé’s Antony armchair and Petite Potence lamp, which mingle with modernist classics by Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand. In an unusually democratic gesture, visitors can enter a $1 drawing through Apple Pay to win the entire installation, with proceeds benefiting the Virgil Abloh Foundation, which supports emerging creatives from underrepresented communities. Entries close November 19, with the winner selected at random on December 8.

Elsewhere, visual surprises abound. Vitra is continuing its celebration of Panton’s centennial with a limited-edition version of his sinuous chair in a dazzling metallic gold. Brooklyn artist Joe Henry Baker is presenting arresting abstract paintings through Platform. Local audio studio Silence Please is inviting visitors to settle onto hay bales and jam out to vinyl records through gleaming silver loudspeakers. “We brought a familiar sign of fall into the room and made it somewhere to sit and listen,” explains Silence Please founder Marwan Roushdy. Tuleste Factory contributes another splash of color through a collaboration with chauffeur service Blacklane, for which Quincy Ellis of Facture Studio conceived a custom valet station in translucent blue resin. Football star Stefon Diggs, meanwhile, is showing a plush, H-shaped seating system from his furniture venture Si Vis Pacem.

The eclectic assortment seems to reflect Lee’s conviction that a new generation of collectors is increasingly comfortable crossing boundaries between creative disciplines, with an appetite for contemporary experimentation that transcends distinctions between vintage and new. Every object on view is available for purchase on-site or through Basic.Space’s app, which connects the physical shopping experience to its digital marketplace. 

For Lee, that fluidity offers an enticing glimpse of luxury retail’s future, with discovery and individual taste guiding the experience. “We focus on curating the best online and offline experience, with discovery at the forefront of everything that we do,” he says. “Even the term ‘collecting’ is a social construct from the past and we’re excited to play a small part in evolving what it means to buy or collect furniture, art, cars, and speakers.”

Basic.Space will be on view at 13 Crosby Street, New York, until November 19.