Hello readers…
Did you know that cigarettes don’t count in Venice? Standing in the courtyard with employees, or out on the street with a spritz, these cigarettes are totally allowed. I don’t make the rules.
My brother is always making me take these post-dinner walks, and he finds the most dreamy corners. On our first night, jet-lagged and still floating around after working all day, he announced that there was a floating cinema around the back of Giudecca. We turned a corner and there it was: a screen on the water, rowboats ferrying people over, and master chefs cooking the most incredible food served on paper plates to round out the scene. Magical does not even begin to describe it.
Venice is unbelievable at this time of year. All the glitterati descend for the film festival, the city is alive, the weather is cooling, and this week I’m going to Homo Faber, Es Devlin’s magnificent celebration of the human hand. I’m super excited. We’ll report back next week.
That brings me to last week’s AI-rendering issue. It was one of our most successful issues ever: lots of opens, clicks and messages. I had a feeling the topic would resonate.
Then I saw the results of our poll. Only a third of you said you’d use an AI-rendered room to market your brand. More than half would keep it inside R&D and testing. Another 13% chose “over my dead body.” I’m surprised by it, but I don’t believe it.
For 30 years, I’ve watched people mock our industry for being behind the times. We’re always the last to adopt technology. We’re the little brother to fashion, years behind on websites, e-commerce, CRM, and back-end systems. We’re a cottage industry made up of tiny companies that couldn’t invest like the giant luxury houses. I think the design industry is like the Orthodox Church, protecting the past, conserving our heritage, keeping things the same.
AI has made these tools available to everyone, even a small company like mine. The question isn’t whether we could, but whether we should use AI. A professional designer can use it to work faster and provide a better service to their clients. But AI alone does not have the taste, training, or cultural memory of its own, or, more importantly, the humanity needed. The opportunity here is with the experts and tastemakers who know what to ask for and can spot the difference between slop and style.
Keep reading to find out which design firm is selling trend reports for just $18, the return of the dining room, and why Wayfair thinks the market for beautiful interiors is enormous.
See you next week!
Mr. Thread
🎲 P.S. Don’t just read—play. Scroll down to find out who guessed right on last week’s item, and enter this week’s challenge.
🏭 INDUSTRY
Good taste gets an entry-level price
The sisters behind a design agency named Goesling Group have turned their boutique forecasting work into a subscription. Business of Home reported a launch price of $22 a month; the live “Deep Cuts” page now shows $18. Subscribers get monthly reports on color, materials, and finishes. It’s not really clear to me how this four-person team spots and analyzes trends, and I’m not critiquing their business, but this did connect to a wider trend I’m seeing in the marketplace.
Los Angeles designer Talia Laconi is doing a cheaper package too. Room Service costs $2,500 for one room, delivered in two weeks or less. The client gets a concept, two layouts, elevations, a shopping list and 30 days of access, then handles the buying. No meetings. In the automotive industry this is called “the Cayenne effect”: Porsche uses the Cayenne to bring in buyers who’d never have considered a 911.
I think there’s a massive latent demand for interior design. When Uber got its crazy valuation, it wasn’t based on the size of the taxi market, but a bet on revolutionizing the entire transportation industry. Designers like Laconi and the Goesling Group are aiming these products at customers who would ordinarily not pay for interior design or trend forecasting, not those who want it cheaper. These smaller services also give a new client access to an expert. The smart ones will turn a $2,500 room into a much bigger relationship.
“A ‘trend’ is more than a TikTok dance; it could be a 10-year movement that is going to impact your customer base, and even if you ignore it, it’s still going to happen.”
— Becca Goesling, director of design, Goesling Group, via Business of Home
The new tastemakers
Nikita Bier is a former product lead at Elon Musk’s X. He spent the weekend feeding simple photos from his home into AI. He uploaded various land and soil surveys, a Zillow listing, and satellite photos into AI and came out with what he called construction‑ready renovation concepts. Menswear critic Derek Guy quoted the post to make an uncomfortable argument: he thinks Bier’s right, but that it’s also bad news for taste.
His example is bespoke tailoring — once custom suits got cheap and easy to order, fewer people trained as tailors, competition thinned out, and even the top end of the trade got worse. His conclusion is that most people have no eye for design and are better off led by an expert who does.
Houzz’s new numbers back him up: 97% of us believe AI will reshape this industry within five years, but 80% of renovating homeowners still hire a pro, and the single biggest reason the rest skip AI tools entirely is that they’d rather have one (38%, true in every generation). The machine can render the room in a few seconds. It just doesn’t know if you deserve a nicer one.
“They would benefit from constraint — an educated group of people, in this case tailors, who gently guide them towards better choices.”
— Derek Guy, via X
Don’t knock the knockoffs
Danish furniture company OMHU has answered the knockoff market with a knockoff of its own. It released 50 bright-orange “Tedy” sofas at $799.99, made with the same materials as the original Teddy, which starts at $1,995. In other words, they sold out. This is a tale as old as time. Tom Dixon tried a similar move with his lights after watching cheaper copies of his Beat range go viral. If you can’t beat them, join them.
I understand the raging internal debate: do we knock ourselves off before someone else does? One of my companies makes fabrics by hand in a 100-year-old factory using original techniques. A digital version might look good in a photograph, but it wouldn’t carry the hand, the texture or the way it looks under different light. That’s not to say people won’t try. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, creating your own dupes is flattering yourself. But it just might save your business… as some people like to say: “Better to knock yourself off before someone else does.”
“With this campaign, we’re saying that being copied is iconic. If you’re a viral product or if you’re popular, then you’re getting copied.”
— Christine Smith, creative director, OMHU, via Business of Home
📈TRENDS
Bad architecture is worse than smoking
Designer Thomas Heatherwick told Monocle that banal buildings are the ultra-processed food of the design industry. His nonprofit, Humanise, is collecting evidence on how buildings affect the health of the people inside them and the poor souls who have to walk past their grim façades every day.
I gave Monocle a hard time last week, but I absolutely love this article. If bad architecture is bad for your health, our industry shouldn’t sell a beautiful home as a decorative indulgence. We sell a long and happy life. Light, proportion, color, craft and materials affect how your clients feel every day. That is an enormous promise. Yet more evidence that cigarettes in Europe are actually good for your health if you enjoy them surrounded by iconic architecture.
“We’re in an industry where, if the public doesn’t like what we do, we say that they’re stupid.”
— Thomas Heatherwick, designer and founder of Humanise, via Monocle
Neo Nouveau is coming for the beige box
Writer Laura Scalco has put a name to the decorative mood she sees forming across fashion, graphics, tattoos, and architecture: “Neo Nouveau.” Think whiplash curves, botanical motifs, elongated forms and delicate ornament, remade in chrome, resin, acrylic and metal mesh.
As you can probably guess, I’m pretty bullish on this. You can see classicism in its DNA, and classic is back everywhere I look. Fashion gets there first, then the ideas slowly trickle into interiors.
Art Nouveau rose when people were uneasy about industrial production. Scalco sees the same reaction to AI slop. This is fantastic news for designers and artisans. Let the machines produce the smooth, sensible milquetoast shit. Bring back the sexy curve, the embroidery and the unnecessary little flourish.
“Ornament is, and I suspect will increasingly become, a differentiator: the more bespoke, crafty and dainty the detail, the more it signals singularity, originality and a move away from the mass-produced.”
— Laura Scalco, The Taste Archive
The scent of Venice
Sanchita, who writes The Other HAFH, a weekly newsletter on hospitality design, argues that scent architecture starts long before a hotel chooses a branded candle. Timber, textiles, detergent, kitchens, pools, plants, humidity, and ventilation have already created an olfactory interior by the time the perfumer arrives.
My brother is an expert on this topic. He’s developing a scent for our company’s showrooms. It’s inspired by Venice and the jasmine and roses in our factory garden. The canals give you… other notes. That’s a little bit of an issue.
Anyway, a good interior should reach every sense, and smell is the one that conjures memory. It’s like a signature. You’ll know it when you step inside Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. The hotel has its own signature scent that is unforgettable and incredibly Californian.
“A hotel’s scent is already forming before a perfumer steps in.”
— Sanchita, The Other HAFH
Walls that demand to be touched
Selected Wallpapers just called tactile wall coverings a “defining force” in luxury interiors. I’m talking woven raffia, raised textile surfaces, and wood veneers that create a calm and serene environment that is good for the soul. After another day spent tapping away at glass screens and keyboards, it turns out people want a wall that makes them feel something when they run a finger across it.
One of my companies has just released a wallpaper collection full of leather, marble, stucco and wood-like textures (everything made by hand, of course), and it feels good to be ahead of the trend. That is one of the nice benefits of running Mr. Thread: we read about something six months ago, put it into the business, and then watch the rest of the world arrive. I hope you’re doing the same.
“Designers increasingly talk about how a room feels and sounds, not only how it looks.”
— Selected Wallpapers, via Dezeen
💰OPPORTUNITIES
The dining room returns
House Beautiful asked designers why clients want formal dining rooms again. I remember the 1990s and early 2000s when every house had a dining room. Now the call is more urgent: People need a place where dinner doesn’t compete with the washing-up, the Knicks, or TikTok.
Clever designers are adding hidden bars and little seating areas, and some rooms double as foyers or reception halls. That gives you permission to use the wallcovering, lighting, and materials that might be too dramatic elsewhere. Go nuts. Sell the dining room as the center of the family home, and, most importantly, ban phones.
“A dedicated dining room invites people to sit down, slow down, and enjoy a meal in a more intentional way.”
— Christopher Boutlier, designer, via House Beautiful
📊ECONOMY
Wayfair is feeling optimistic
Wayfair just told the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference that the home market across its core countries is worth roughly $400 billion to $500 billion. The company made $12.5 billion last year, so I listened to the recording so you don’t have to. Executives kept banging on about Perigold and how they believe online discovery and physical stores can open luxury brands to customers who, ordinarily, would never set foot in a design center.
I’m excited, but I’m not necessarily sure this is true. Many of the things we sell are complicated and can’t be reduced to a thumbnail and a buy-now button. But Wayfair’s confidence proves there’s tons of demand for the beautiful stuff we make. They’re using technology, logistics and shops to open the door a little wider. We should be paying attention to who walks through it.
“We do not believe that an individual consumer is likely to defer to an agent to make all the decisions on their behalf about how they are going to outfit their home.”
— Nir Kossovsky, Chief Executive Officer, Wayfair
LVMH is not enjoying the view
The view from Venice is less cheerful at the giant end of luxury. I just walked past one of LVMH’s biggest stores here and it was absolutely empty. I’m talking tumbleweed-and-a-distant-church-bell empty. One shop is only an anecdote and not a data point (maybe there was a fire drill?), so I checked the numbers: HSBC has downgraded the group after weak fashion and leather-goods trading, and the shares are down about 35% this year. Scarcity works until customers realize scarcity is just a bullshit marketing strategy and there are more LVMH bags on the street these days than Nike sneakers. There’s a really deep lesson in here. It will be amazing to watch if LVMH can turn this around… it feels way too early for me to bet against them.
🧵LOOSE THREADS
London Design Festival opens September 12 with craft and AI sharing the bill.
Homo Faber has filled Venice with all-white Summa poufs. I’ll inspect them personally. Tough job.
Canada’s new tariffs reach 50% on large American furniture. Ouch.
Stainless steel is back in expensive interiors. I absolutely hate it. Begone.
Brompton Design District calls its London program Perfectly Imperfect. At last, a trend name I can live with.
Past Made Present puts student material experiments into 400-year-old Ham House.
On Thursday, the British Museum opened its blockbuster Bayeux Tapestry exhibition.
🎲 PLAYTIME
Last week’s item was the Apollo 15 Hasselblad Lunar Data Camera. It sold at auction for a hammer price of $760,000. The winner was Jeffry W. with $775,000. Congrats!
This week’s item is an original movie poster for the classic Italian movie “La Dolce Vita.” (1960).
Here are some clues:
✅ Italian Style B Quattro Fogli, signed by artist Sandro Simeoni
✅ Linen-backed, unframed: 79 x 55 in. (201 x 140 cm)
✅ Sold at auction last week by Sotheby’s
What was the final HAMMER price? The person who guesses closest to its final price wins!
Reply to this email or click the button below to submit your guess.
Honor system, please—no using Google to look up the answer! (If you do cheat, we still get the engagement, but you’ll have to live with yourself!)
The Stakes
Whoever gets the closest guess each week wins an entry into our grand prize drawing! We’ll be holding the final drawing on October 15th—the more weeks you win, the higher your chances! Our winning threader gets:
A featured spotlight for you/your firm in an upcoming issue of Mr. Thread.
Another special mystery gift from yours truly, Mr. Needle.
Stay sharp,
Mr. Needle
🎨 THIS WEEK’S ART
This week’s art has been chosen by my British West Coast editor. Naturally it’s Canaletto, the master painter of Venice. Over to Mr. Weft:
My grandfather was not an art forger, but he did make a living copying masterpieces. One of my earliest memories is taking one of his paintings with him to Sotheby’s in London to get it appraised. We walked in, and the lady behind the counter was on the telephone. She didn’t even look up or finish her call. She just looked at the painting and said to my grandfather, “The colors are wrong. I can see you’ve painted this from a book, and the calibration is off.” I learned an important lesson that afternoon that is even more urgent today: Even in this age of AI and digital reproductions, the experts, the tastemakers, can always tell a copy from the real thing.
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INTERIOR LIVES
Avner Lapovsky is a veteran of San Francisco’s design-showroom world and a longtime design community advocate. His career has included Kneedler-Fauchère, Randolph & Hein, and Sloan Miyasato, where he became co-principal and president—spending decades connecting designers with exceptional materials, furnishings, and independent makers. For more than 18 years, he has also supported vulnerable young people through At The Crossroads.
My chosen profession was show business. But it was difficult making a living in entertainment, so someone sent me to a job interview in a showroom. I somehow thought a showroom must have something to do with show business. In the end, it did.
Every morning, when I opened the showroom doors, I felt I was raising the curtain on the business. The lights went on, the air conditioning came on, the flowers arrived on Monday, and the displays became settings: living rooms, bedrooms, maids’ rooms, kids’ rooms.
A showroom is a kind of theater. The salespeople are the actors, the clients are part of the theater, and the staff is backstage operations. You are creating a world and inviting people to believe it can exist in their clients’ homes.
