Issue #00010 : January 22, 2026

Hello readers.

I spent last week in Paris for Déco Off, where the weather was unseasonably sparkling, and I promised you a full report. Performance fabrics are hot, Féau Boiseries was on everyone’s lips, while maximalism continues its rise—you know the drill.

But the most captivating moments weren’t on showroom floors. They happened inside centuries-old French workrooms. I visited Phelippeau, a 155-year-old upholstery atelier, and met the brilliant artisans at Declercq Passementier whose work traces back to King Henry VIII. 

These craftsmen aren’t worried about AI. You can’t vibe code hand-stitched pleats or museum-grade artistry that takes hundreds of hours of painstaking handwork for a single tassel. Their real struggle is education and storytelling. Making their work seem relevant and understood by a younger generation living in today’s digital-first world.

Interestingly, these workshops are forming consortiums to combine their powers. They’re teaming up to teach the value of their craft to a new generation, and learning how to survive in a market flooded with fly-by-night brands.

I also ran into more Mr. Thread readers than I expected. Apparently, the newsletter has been flying around Paris faster than I did.

Between meetings, I had the best cassoulet of my life at an off-the-beaten-path Parisian bistro named Benjamin Schmitt, thanks to a tip from the Meenrok List food blog. If you don’t know cassoulet—rich, slow-cooked French stew full of sausage and confit duck—you’re missing out.

Keep reading to find out about Pharrell’s interior design debut, how America invading Greenland might affect furniture prices, and why India might be your next big play.

Think of this newsletter as a cassoulet of interior design news.

See you next week.

Inside the D&D Building’s slow collapse
Charles Cohen owns New York’s D&D Building— the greatest collection of fabrics and wallpaper in the world on display in one place. He also owes Fortress Investment Group $187 million and is slowly losing everything. Cohen has already lost the DCOTA in Florida and the Houston Design Center. According to The Real Deal, Fortress is requesting a court-appointed receiver to sell his assets, saying Cohen “cannot be trusted” to oversee the process himself. I could have told you that 30 years ago. Savage.

Cohen insists the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood must stay untouched, calling it “essential” to his portfolio. Selling it, he claims, would lead to the “collapse” of his business. You don’t even need to talk to anyone to know how badly he ruined the buildings. Just walk into one. You’ll see half-baked vision and neglect. Just like his other properties, he let them deteriorate through lack of care, attention, or respect for the tenants who loyally supported the building.

The D&D Building, where I cut my teeth in the industry over decades, sits dilapidated. Bathrooms look worse than Grand Central’s, the carpets are threadbare, some floors have sat half full for five years. There used to be a waiting list to get in. Now it’s a sinking ship, and nobody I talk to knows what’s going to happen if the banks take over. (If I were a betting man, I would say it's a foregone conclusion.)

Will it turn into condos? Will a new visionary come in and transform it and capture the great potential? The building is filled with the greatest companies and artistic work in the world. Anything is possible.

Perhaps one of our readers has the capital to step in and save the day? If so, let me know!

Battle of the beige
Vogue’s Interior Design Color Trends 2026 report has announced that “the ‘sad beige’ era of interior design is officially over.” The fashion bible predicts earthy umber and pistachio is in, but don’t tell realtors.

AD100 designer Ross Cassidy told Architectural Digest that “50 Shades of Beige” remains the go-to for selling properties. Robert Pini, a New York City real estate agent at Compass Real Estate, added: “I was the seller agent of an apartment on the Upper East Side that needed a lot of work. I had it staged and selected beige for the walls. The space seemed lighter, and it went into contract within 20 days.”

Damn, I wish someone would send them memo…color is cool!

1st Dibs trend report: Comfort is king
And right on cue… according to the 1stDibs Luxury E-Commerce Report, “Art Deco” dominated searches in 2025—including “art deco chandeliers” which jumped 99% in Q1. But the real story is comfort: searches for Stressless chairs rose 41%, de Sede’s snake-like 600 sofa spiked 314%, and “drafting tables” saw double-digit growth. Buyers want vintage Italian glass paired with worn leather recliners. Translation: people are building rooms that balance opulence with the need to actually relax in them.

Robots are coming for upholstery
Last week I was in Paris meeting artisans whose families have spent centuries mastering their craft. I mentioned they weren’t worried about AI. Then I read that a startup named Kathedra has raised $235,000 to build robots that automate upholstery. The founders claim AI can handle what takes humans 10-15 years to master.

Is anyone asking for this? As Rowe’s Bobby Robinson told Business of Home, “machines thrive on rules.” But good upholstery breaks the rules—it’s creative and outstanding.

Get ready for AI slop passing as craftsmanship. This may work for mass production. For everything else, I sincerely hope they fail.

AI won’t replace architects (ever)
Fast Company asked leading architects how AI will change their work in 2026. The consensus: AI is moving from experimentation to everyday use, but it’s not replacing creativity, only friction.

Firms are using AI for rapid test-fitting, climate analysis, massing iterations, and code reviews, they say. As one architect put it, maybe we should call it “augmented intelligence” instead of “artificial intelligence.”

In Memoriam
Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani has died at 93. He described his style as “very beautiful cocktail dresses, very glamorous evening gowns, very small red dresses. Glamorous. Glamorous. Glamorous.” For him, beauty was a tool of power, worn with the gilded glory of a crown, wrote the New York Times.

D’Apostrophe Design founder Francis D'Haene has died after a three-decade career marked by craft, mentorship, and generosity. He lifted up colleagues and collaborators with warmth and creative spirit.

Luxury stocks take a beating
Luxury stocks fell hard this week. LVMH fell 4.2%, Kering down 3.1%, Richemont lost 3%, according to Bloomberg. The problem is, after rallying 21% last year, Morgan Stanley says these companies are overvalued. Investors bet on a recovery that hasn’t materialized. China sales remain weak, profit margins are shrinking, and Trump’s tariffs aren’t helping. 

This problem is hitting all areas of the luxury market. De Beers just cut diamond prices for the first time in over a year. The diamond industry is facing a prolonged crisis—including the same China problems, but also the rise in popularity of synthetic stones, and 50% US tariffs on India, where 90% of diamonds are cut and polished. 

For the luxury interiors industry, this all matters deeply. When luxury conglomerates struggle, high-end interior design projects slow down. Keep an eye on LVMH—it’s a leading indicator for where the money is moving.

I’ve been predicting that a huge 2026 is in the works, let’s hope this is just a blip.

Trump nixes tariffs
The furniture industry has been bracing for supply chain chaos since President Trump threatened tariffs on eight European NATO allies as leverage to gain US control of Greenland. Wednesday brought a reversal. Trump announced on Truth Social he won’t impose tariffs scheduled for February 1st, citing a “productive meeting” with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte about a framework deal for Greenland and the Arctic Region.

Tariffs would have hit European fabrics, furniture, and materials—driving up costs and forcing designers to either absorb margin hits or pass prices to clients. For now, that pressure is off. Access to high-end European products remains intact, and supply chains can breathe. Whether this framework holds or becomes another negotiating tactic remains to be seen. But for February, the threat is gone.

The Gaines fortune: smaller than it looks
Just last week I was speculating on the first billionaire interior design brand. Days later, the Daily Mail reported Chip and Joanna Gaines’ net worth at $50 million following their historic donation to Baylor University’s baseball program. That’s it? $50 million?

The figure, sourced from the somewhat unreputable celebritynetworth.com, must be on the low side if you ask me. I can’t imagine the value of her (privately held) businesses is included in this figure.

Gaines has a massive audience and a real brand with Magnolia. I’m guessing the real number is in the hundreds of millions, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she hits a billion by the time she retires.

The real estate market’s split personality
The American real estate market is telling two very different stories right now. At the top, luxury is starting to boom. At the bottom, everyone else is stuck.

South Florida posted 361 closings of homes priced at $10 million or more in 2025—the second-highest year on record, trailing only the pandemic buying frenzy of 2021, according to Realtor.com. Cash sales accounted for 81% of these ultra-luxury deals. Billionaires are fleeing California’s proposed wealth tax and relocating to Miami, with Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin leading the charge. Ana Bozovic of Analytics Miami said that “this is not a bubble—new price points are here to stay.”

Meanwhile, the broader market is barely moving. Home sales are expected to rise just 1.7% in 2026, also according to Realtor.com. Total home values fell $360 billion in Q3 2025 to $48 trillion, while mortgage debt hit a record $13.6 trillion, according to Federal Reserve data. Home equity dropped to $34.4 trillion from previous all-time highs. The overall picture: wealthy buyers are scooping up trophy properties with cash, while most folks can’t even get on the ladder. Two Americas, one market.

Homeowners stay put and spend on upgrades
Home sales are expected to rise just 1.7% in 2026, with mortgage rates hovering around 6.3%, according to Realtor.com. The lock-in effect is real. Homeowners with 3% mortgages refuse to trade up to 6%. So they’re staying put and using equity for room-by-room upgrades instead of full-home resets.

Scott Eckman of Andmore told Furniture Today that retailers are seeing steady interest in high-quality, US-made pieces and flexible furniture for multigenerational living. Fewer moves mean fewer big-ticket buying sprees, but consumers are investing more intentionally in durability and comfort (As 1stDibs told us earlier).

There’s a new opportunity in helping clients furnish their “forever home,” and they’re choosing materials without resale value in mind.

The rise of branded properties
Branded properties—residential developments designed or endorsed by luxury fashion houses, hotels, or celebrity architects—are on the rise. Can slapping a recognizable name on a building really command higher prices? Miami thinks so. It ranks second globally in branded residences after Dubai, according to Sotheby’s International Realty. Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Armani/Casa, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz all have luxury towers underway.

Real estate agent Robert Pini told Architectural Digest that “luxury buyers are very savvy about architects and decorators. Robert Stern, for instance, was one of those rare architects who became a brand.” In Los Angeles, celebrity culture has made boldface-name designers standard in MLS listings.

In the AI era, I think a brand name might pack some extra punch. Who do you think will be the first company in our industry to have a luxury branded condo?

To render, or not to render
California just became the first state to outlaw undisclosed digitally altered images in real estate listings (bill AB723, January 2026). AI has made digital staging so convincing that, according to Architectural Digest, “doctored images are now almost impossible to distinguish from photographs.” Agent Jed Weisman called it “very misleading.”

Here’s my take: Digital renderings are everything. I’m working on a showroom redesign right now. If the architect can’t produce detailed renders, I won’t work with them. Visualizing the design prevents delays, budget overruns, and hard feelings down the road.

I’m seeing renderings everywhere in our industry. Within a year, the tech will be so good that anyone can make a fabric collection look like it was used in a Cortney Bishop interior. Renders don’t replace human designers—they make their ideas faster to communicate. The problem California is trying to solve isn't technology, its transparency. Disclose the rendering, and buyers can make informed decisions.

(In related news: I hear that Home Depot kitchen consultants in California are frustrated with customers bringing them renderings they made on Chat GPT.)

Readers asked us to dig deeper and uncover real opportunities. So we’re launching a new weekly section worth forwarding to your sales team—opportunities for the brave and hungry to pursue.

If you find your next million dollar opportunity in Mr. Thread, drop us a note. We would love to hear your story and share it with our community!

How to capture a $3 million decorating budget
This $30 million sale at the Dakota means someone’s about to spend $3 million on interiors—minimum. I’ve been hearing from colleagues that the best sales teams are already hunting down the builder’s, architect’s, and designer’s names before the ink is even dry.

You must have very creative and hungry sales teams to get ahead on these deals. This is how you capture those massive decorating budgets. These deals don’t come to you. You have to be the detective who figures out who’s running this project and get on their radar at least six months before they start work. From what I’m seeing, the firms that go into this like secret agents are the ones landing the contracts. The ones waiting for the phone to ring are already too late.

Chipperfield bets on Miami’s rise
David Chipperfield, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect just unveiled Miami Design Residences, a 26-story tower with 143 condominiums nestled in Miami’s Design District. The project marks Chipperfield's first foray into Florida and features ceramic columns designed to capture Miami’s distinct light, custom pale-champagne mullions, and floor-to-ceiling windows.

Find the gatekeeper to this project, and you will find the gold.

Masala meatballs for IKEA?
Sweden’s IKEA will more than double its investment in India to $2.20 billion over five years, expanding from six stores to 30, according to Reuters. The strategy involves launching online operations before opening physical stores—a first for IKEA globally.

Online sales already account for 30% of IKEA’s India revenue. Indian consumers prioritize convenience over the showroom experience in ways Western markets don’t. With Trump’s tariffs pushing companies to diversify supply chains, India is positioning itself as the manufacturing alternative to China. As production shifts East, so does design influence.

Find a way to start building a market in India. Research big vendor sites and see where they sell. Pull on that thread, and see where it leads you.

Twitter/X users are speculating that being offline is going to become the new luxury activity in the coming years. “It will be considered low class and uncouth to be on the Internet. There will be a boom in outdoor activities/supper clubs.” En masse, we will begin rejecting AI consumption.

The US government wants travelers to dress well on planes. Do we have a responsibility to dress well in public?

What do you think about the new Washington stadium design? I like the idea in concept, but the execution seems clunky and inelegant.

Pharrell just designed an entire house for his Louis Vuitton FW26 set. Should he stick to fashion?

Enjoying Mr Thread?
How can we make this better? Reply to this email and tell us. We read every message and genuinely want to know what you think.

Thanks for reading!