Brent Gipson Design Takes NYC: New York Gift Show

 

This past week, I packed my bags and headed north to New York City to merchandise the Fortunata showroom at the New York International Gift Fair. 

Luckily I made it from LaGaurdia to the corner of 7th and 55th street without suffering from a concussion or vomiting from motion sickness ( I had tottally forgotten about the aggressive driving style of NYC cab drivers). Good Lord, it was rough. 

Unlike the Atlanta and High Point markets, the NYC show is housed right on the Hudson River (beautiful), with the largest portion of the show in the Jacob Javit's Center and more spaces in the Piers up the street. (see the picture above). I was blessed with the most amazing weather ever! The park beside the pier was beautiful (see the green area above to the left of Pier 94)...It felt so amazing to have a scone and coffee there before starting the day. 

 

 The third day of my trip was by far my favorite. Waking early, caught a cab to Chelsea Market....after standing starring at the Antrhorpologie window displays for a good 10 minutes I made my way into such an awesome place... First I hit up Buon Italia for some authentic imported pasta, which I used as props in the showroom. The next stop was Amy's Bread for a few other prop items for my tabletop display... I grabbed a oatmeal raisin almond scone while I was there, and oh my God..it was amazing!

With an armful of props, Margaret and I left Chelsea Market and headed to the wholesale flower district (28th street). It was heaven. From dried floral, exotic plants, to herbs, ferns, and ornamental varieties - it was breathtaking. The sidewalks were literally filled with live plants. It was a jungle within the city, and it felt fresh, clean, and simply sense engulfing. After choosing our plants at NYTopiary- we realized that we had way too much stuff to pile into a cab...

 

so....Milton at NY Topiary helped us find an awesome driver to load up our boatload of props and drop us off at the piers...I was actually amazed at how easy it was to get things around in NYC- I was really worried about this being a hard, strenuous task, but I suppose I learned that its actually only a mildly expensive one instead, wink ;)..

 

awful pic, but me and Margaret on the rooftop having drinks after a long day of work

 

when the showroom was styled out and pretty, I had a few extra hours to roam around the city. of course, my first place to visit was the Ralph Lauren Mansion on Madison Avenue, ole Ralph could never bore me, I'll love him until the end of time. on my walk, I stopped and took pictures of all the inspiring window displays...like this Calvin Klein display:

 

and then it was off to rooftop bar DREAM for drinks and nibbles before the most amazing dinner at Balthazers..if you've never eaten there, you should...

all this fun and work for this:

 

Fortunata Showroom entrance. Using a vintage burlap covered sofa as our base for the new Casa Mia Home collection. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Brenton