New York’s main furniture fair ICFF—held this year from May 18 to 20 as the anchor event of NYCxDesign—surveys many areas of the industry: everything from the latest cross-category innovations to the next crop of up-and-coming talents. Since 2024, the event has also hosted the Bespoke: The Art of Making Salon, a showcase presented with AD and AD PRO that highlights studios and brands specializing in artisanal furnishings and finishes.
For this year’s Bespoke Salon, award-winning interiors firm March and White Design (MAWD)—an AD PRO Directory member—has been tasked with the outfit of the show-within-a-show. Fair attendees can enjoy the space through a lineup of fireside chats and intimate gatherings, hosted by AD and AD PRO.
“Our strategy for the 2025 edition of the Bespoke: The Art of Making Salon was to imagine a space that is hospitality-driven,” says Elliot March, MAWD co-founding principal. “We want to demonstrate how high-level craftsmanship can be introduced within this typology and not just residential spaces.”
Holistically constructed to resemble the lobby of a five-star hotel, the space will serve as a relaxed and inviting retreat cut away from the rest of the fair. Fully enclosed, the section can be accessed through large archways, an approach that will better facilitate the exchange between the 20 or so carefully selected exhibitors and the vested trade visitors meandering through the showcase during the three-day event.
“The installation will richly layer a variety of materials for a warm and nuanced feel,” March adds. “As such, each brand will be essential in creating a well-balanced environment.” Among the exhibitors are Mercoeur Edition, Caroline Besse, and Michiko Sakano Studio.
“There’ll be the element of tactility—handmade Portuguese rugs from Ferreira de Sá; audio engagement courtesy of Edelweiss Piano; and an architecture of scent furnished by Bio Alchemy Olfactive,” March notes. “Through activating our senses, we’re aiming to create an experience where visitors can become fully immersed and engage each design piece with greater intention.”
Among the impressive raft of participants is Ateliers Allot, a seventh-generation French practice specializing in the skilled techniques that have garnered the country’s savoir faire since the time of Louis XIV. Like most of the ICFF Bespoke Salon exhibitors, the company is versatile in its offering and services: reconstituting classics as much as applying its varied skill set to contemporary furnishings.
Also hailing from the European country, Cinabre Paris extends its expertise in the finest French fabrics from top fashion houses to the most sought-after interior architecture studios. The focus on France’s undying and ever-reinvigorated craft tradition continues with Procedes Chenel. The practice harnesses a long-entrenched history of carefully treated materials in various interior contexts, including exhibitions and conferences.
“ICFF is expertly designed each year, and we are proud to add onto an incredible floor plan,” says March. “What we’re looking to do is to champion craft, highlight the artisans who have kept tradition alive, producing pieces that are shaped not only by innovation, but also by heritage.”
The Bespoke Salon programming lineup
Design for the Senses
Sunday, May 18 | 12:30 p.m.–1 p.m.
Bespoke Salon at ICFF | Javits Center
Join AD PRO senior editor Mel Studach and Elliot March, cofounder of March and White Design (MAWD), an AD PRO Directory member and designer of the Bespoke Salon, explore the sensorial nuances of designing around artisan works.
The Power of Bespoke Craftsmanship
Monday, May 19 | 12:30 p.m.–1:15 p.m.
Bespoke Salon at ICFF | Javits Center
Join AD digital director Allie Weiss, Star Tile partner and designer Andrea Keller, and Thomas Norman in conversation at the Bespoke Salon as they highlight the showcase’s featured makers.