Issue #00003 : December 4th, 2025

This week I found myself in my usual spot at P.J. Clarke’s. It’s one of my favorite bars in New York City, because sometimes it can feel like the epicenter of the design industry. As I ordered their legendary burger, I noticed that my phone kept lighting up. Every time it dinged, we’d made another sale on Shopify. I co-own a 100-year-old design company, and for the first time in a century, we’re offering a curated collection directly to consumers—limited-edition ornaments and objets that complement our trade work.

Normally, our business moves at the pace of designer timelines. But this was different. Every bite of burger, another ding. Some customers were buying several items at once. It was intoxicating. Because for years, I’ve watched Black Friday go crazy while our industry sat on the sidelines. This year, we finally got in the game.

The other thing lighting up my phone that night: the AD100 announcements. Martyn Lawrence Bullard made it for the twentieth consecutive year, an wild feat. The list has its skeptics, but it’s as close to the Oscars as this industry gets, and it celebrates the people who’ve genuinely shaped how we live.

I’ll raise a glass to that.

Black Friday 2025: The numbers that really matter
The pundits have been predicting a big holiday period for sales, and they were right: Black Friday 2025 hit a record $11.8 billion in online sales, up 9.1% from last year. Nearly 203 million people shopped over Thanksgiving weekend through Cyber Monday, the highest turnout since they started tracking it in 2017. 

Shopify merchants just posted $14.6 billion in sales over Black Friday and Cyber Monday, up from $11.5 billion last year (according to its president on Twitter/X.) That's a 27% jump. The growth is undeniable. But here's the split you need to understand: the top 10 percent of households now account for nearly half of all U.S. consumer spending, according to Moody's Analytics. Wealthier households—buoyed by strong markets and healthy savings—are still spending on discretionary items and luxury goods. 

For our industry, that divide is actually good news, even if it’s troubling for society as a whole. According to the New York Times, retailers selling luxury, high-ticket items have posted revenue increases in recent quarters, and even Walmart’s CEO noted increased traffic from higher-income families. Sure, lower and middle-income consumers are pulling back. But the top earners—the people who spend millions renovating homes—continue to open their purses, which can only be a good sign for our industry.

My takeaway: Consumer sentiment will remain strong, especially for luxury customers.

Eye on the markets
I’m obsessed with the stock market because watching certain bellwether companies helps design entrepreneurs see where the economy is headed—and plan before everyone else catches on. Knowledge is power.

The Oscars for designers
Now that I’ve had a chance to review the list in full, the significance settles in. The AD100—Architectural Digest's annual ranking of the top 100 designers, interior designers, and architects—is the Who's Who of the industry. Some names are newcomers, others are repeat appearances. Either way, making the list means you’ve arrived.

I’ve been lucky to work with 90% of the names on this list. But in an art form as subjective as ours, the whole thing can be called bullshit. Things aren’t the same as the days when Margaret Russell reigned supreme at AD. Back then, it was obvious who decided on the final cut. Now, the criteria is murkier. And that invites the inevitable speculation about politics and favoritism.

This year’s names are legit. But there are thousands of other deserving artists who could also make it. That’s the paradox of a list like this—it matters, and it doesn’t. 

A bad week for architecture
The U.S. Department of Education just announced a major policy shift: starting July 2026, architecture—along with nursing, accounting, and social work—will no longer be classified as a “professional degree.” I really enjoyed the comments section on this Instagram post about the news. One architect asked, “Can I return my degrees and get a refund?” Someone else pointed out the obvious: “We went through a Bachelor’s, internship, board exams, and a Master’s… and it’s not a profession? That’s news to us!”

It gets worse: Dezeen is reporting that architecture fees have been declining for years—blaming competition laws that eliminated fee schedules, architects’ weak business skills, and their failure to communicate value to clients. According to Yale professor Peggy Deamer, “architecture is a weak profession” where “people accept low wages because they know the firms they want to work for have low fees.” What have architects ever done to deserve this?

Look, if architects—with their engineering degrees and structural expertise—can’t defend their fees, interior designers need to pay attention. The designers who thrive in the future won’t be the ones who lower their fees to stay competitive. They’ll be the ones who figure out how to articulate value so clearly that price becomes irrelevant.

The hottest ticket in 2026. 
Homo Faber is back September 1-30, 2026 in Venice, and in my mind, it's the must-see show of our industry. This isn’t your average trade fair. It’s a mind-boggling level of craftsmanship presented like a Broadway production, on the impossibly beautiful Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore. 

The artistic direction is by Es Devlin (currently a big hit at Miami Art Week), and if past events are any indication, it will deliver. Here’s what's interesting: Homo Faber is sponsored by the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship, a non-profit co-founded by Richemont chairman Johann Rupert, and this feels like part of a larger strategy to build a marketplace—think Artemest, but backed by serious capital and curatorial muscle. Tickets go on sale spring 2026 but click that link and you can subscribe for early bird tickets. Don’t snooze on this, because even for insiders, this show sells out fast. Lots more to talk about as we get closer to the show. 

Live and unplugged.
Talking of live events. Elon Musk just gave a wide-ranging interview to entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath, in which he lamented the state of digital media. “When digital media is ubiquitous, and you can have essentially anything digitally for free, or very close to free, then the scarce commodity becomes live events,” he said. 

Elon’s probably right. Producing digital content has become cheap and free which will make fatigue set in for the masses. As live experiences become more valuable, who better to deliver them than us? We design spaces. We understand how to create an environment that makes people feel something. Designers should add event experiences to their resumes. Brands should emphasize experiential marketing—opening pop-up stores, creating moments people can't stream or download. 

I’m calling it now: AI fatigue will lead to a Renaissance.

The lure of the Far East
Martha Stewart pioneers again, opening her first standalone retail stores in Dubai, partnering with Marquee Brands and Apparel Group at three locations: City Centre Mirdif, Dubai Hills Mall, and Mall of the Emirates. 

On her brand’s new performance in the Far East, Stewart told Women’s Wear Daily, “I love vibrancy and luxury and fast growth and we are doing really nicely here in Dubai.” 

Regular readers know I’m bullish on the Middle East, especially the opportunity for the interior design industry to expand there. With one of my luxury brands, we’ve been looking for ways to enter these markets. It feels like the potential is there, but truthfully, building something lucrative in this emerging market requires financial capital that few but Martha have.

A new modern art record
After a 20-minute bidding war at Sotheby’s, a Gustav Klimt portrait just sold for $236.4 million, setting a record for modern art. The painting helped save its Jewish subject during the Holocaust when she claimed Klimt was her father, allowing her to remain safely in Vienna with Nazi documentation until her death in 1944, making this a historically significant piece. 

The painting got me thinking about the lasting value of interior design. Even Yves Saint Laurent’s legendary rue de Babylone apartment—an Art Deco masterpiece filled with Mondrians, Matisses, and Jean Dunand lacquer—was broken down and sold piece by piece at Christie’s in 2009. The collection brought in $373 million across 700 lots, but the interior itself, the composition, the curation, has been lost to time.

KEVIN!
This photo is making the rounds on social media—side-by-side shots of the famous McCallister house during the 1990 Home Alone filming versus how it looks today after a recent sale. It’s a masterclass in how modern design trends have completely lost the plot. 

The original home radiates warmth and character. Rich jewel tones, layered textures, traditional furnishings—it just felt so lived in. The 2025 version is a nightmare in Millennial Grey. The house has been gutted of character to maximize sale-ability. This is short-sighted: You can absolutely modernize traditional spaces without bleaching their soul. Good interior design evokes feelings. Thank God the world is trending towards warmth and color again.

Thanks for reading. See you next week!