Luxury is in flux. This year, consumers questioned why luxury prices are continuing to skyrocket as quality seemingly dwindles. Creative directors shuffled from house to house. Fashion merged more than ever with industries from film to art. 2025 was, by all accounts, a major reset.
It’s with this in mind that founder Jesse Lee built the second edition of his luxury shopping platform Basic.Space’s IRL to URL sales fair, which brings the marketplace’s design, art and fashion offerings to a physical space for a limited, few-day run. Up the elevator at SoHo’s 575 Broadway — Prada occupies the ground floor — is where Basic.Space’s second fair will take place, from November 14, following its inaugural edition at Los Angeles’s Pacific Design Center in May.
On Thursday night, a mix of New York’s fashion, design and art crowd mixed in the space for the fair’s opening night, lounging on the multi-thousand dollar sofas, steel benches and one blow up bean bag with martinis and margaritas in hand. Actor Danny Trejo, photographer Ellen Von Unwerth, artist Dustin Yellin and designer Heron Preston were in the mix. In one room, attendees played poker and blackjack in hopes of winning a $25,000 piece of art. Sales associates were at hand throughout the space.
The idea that young consumers are seeking out a more expansive version of luxury has been a consistent inspiration for Lee, who founded Basic.Space five years ago. In 2020, Basic.Space launched with vintage fashion, sourcing from Lee’s circle of well-heeled friends. “Whether it’s [Sporty & Rich founder] Emily Oberg, [tennis player] Naomi Osaka or [DJ] Diplo, [tapping the wardrobes of influential figures] was the easiest way to get inventory,” Lee says. Since, the platform has evolved to sell design and furniture pieces, as well as art.
The Basic.Space universe has expanded, too. In 2023, Lee acquired Design Miami design fair, which runs parallel to Art Basel. And earlier this year, he acquired Platform, David Zwirner’s lower-priced gallery. Investors in Basic.Space include former Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri, Tao Capital, Tom Ford chair Domenico De Sole and former Louis Vuitton CEO Michael Burke.
“For us, [Basic.Space] was always about finding people that we think have good taste and then whatever they want to do, we help make that happen,” he says. This includes cross-industry collabs, with Lee recalling an early furniture tie-up between Virgil Abloh and Vitra. The New York fair will feature collaborations between fashion designer Kris Van Assche and François Laffanour’s Galerie Downtown. A-Cold-Wall’s Samuel Ross is exhibiting furniture with Friedman Benda, via the former’s industrial design studio SR_A.
