LA Design Week/end Was the Comeback the City Needs Right Now

This story is part of Fair Take, our reporting on global design events that looks up close at the newest ideas in fixtures, furnishings, and more.

I’ve been to Los Angeles countless times—and even lived there briefly—but I’ve never seen LA like I did when I flew out from New York for LA Design Week/end last week. I saw the spacious workspace of Ravenhill Studio, packed to the gills with works by California artists and designers in the show Los Angeles Sets A Table. I saw the private home of Paul McCobb collector Yogi Proctor, which operates part-time as a museum for the midcentury designer. Proctor lives there with his wife, but it’s furnished almost entirely with McCobb pieces, supplemented by books and printed research that provide context for the work. I stayed in the Downtown LA Proper, a former YWCA transformed by Kelly Wearstler into a charming hotel. I saw Eric Wareheim’s plant and outdoor furnishings emporium, Serpentine, transformed for Halloween with a haunted house outback.

The fair was founded by Holland Denvir, a design industry professional who also works for the lighting company Gantri and cofounded Nomadory, a custom-order rug company; creative director Meghan McNeer joined as cofounder in the fair’s second year. Everyone involved still has a day job, making the weekend a true labor of love. It’s quite an undertaking with 140 shows this year, up from 46 in the first year.

Just in its third year, LA Design Week/end is coming of age in a city in transition. The past handful of years have not been easy, between the Hollywood strikes, the Altadena and Palisades fires, the shrinking pool of opportunities in film and television as production companies chase tax credits and cheaper labor abroad, and continuing ICE raids. You can add to the list recent comments from President Trump, where he suggests using the city as sacrifice for the ongoing war in Iran.

When I mention to Denvir that it’s great to see people coming together for the fair, and how clear the community desire for the events are, they point out that this readiness to help is in part because of what the city has gone through in the past few years, not in spite of it. "I think all of that has actually shown how resilient Los Angeles is, and how much we support each other. I think LA Design Week/end lets us focus on joy, so we don’t have to think about those things for a minute, but it's that same energy that’s already here," Denvir says. "We’re just coming together to celebrate rather than to rebuild per se."

That sense of community is what made the biggest impression on me throughout the show—whether it was new bonds being forged, existing communities opening up their spaces, or just a level of openness that felt more casual than network-y. (As the Serpentine spooktacular exemplified, nothing was being taken too seriously.) My time in LA began at Jason Koharik’s studio and home, where he displayed his latest collection for Alora Lighting, which will be sold via Lumens next year. There was an open door policy in the truest sense of the words, as visitors were welcome to explore every nook and cranny of his space. I did take the opportunity to wind up the spiral staircase and peer into his bedroom, complete with an elegantly organized selection of ties.