Basic.Space launches its first IRL shopping event – in an empty West Hollywood mall

Art and design fairs are a dime a dozen these days. Though held in different parts of the globe, most follow the same homogeneous format: rows of white-walled booths with installations and brand activations scattered in between. Though this approach remains familiar and comfortable to collectors, there’s also an appetite for something fresh and more engaging. Basic.Space – the e-commerce platform that acquired leading gallery fair Design Miami in 2023 – wants to shake things up.

From 29 to 30 March 2025, the collectibles marketplace is hosting a brick-and-mortar shopping event in a West Hollywood, California mall. The event, dubbed Design.Space LA, promises to be a new type of experience, delivering an ‘IRL-to-URL shopping experience’ (referring to the fact that there will be an accompanying online sale from 27 March to 2 April) and making the most of an under-utilised, and surprising urban space.

Design.Space LA: a ‘one-stop-shop’ for obsessive collectors

Like the e-commerce platform itself, the West Hollywood showcase will dispense with the disciplinary boundaries that often differentiate fairs and instead present a hyper-curated selection of works from different fields – from fashion to collectible design.

The roster of exhibitors will include Alexander May, Brain Thoreen, Clara Jorisch, Gufram, Lily Clark, Marcin Rusak, Sam Klemick, The Future Perfect, USM, Vince Skelly and Wexler Gallery, among many entities. Even Nike will be exhibiting.

‘We’re simply doubling down on what curation really means to us, which has nothing to do with conventional classifications. While design is the leading category, art and archival fashion are what consumers want as well,’ says Basic.Space founder Jesse Lee. From the centralised location of the venue to a seamless transaction process, Design.Space is meant to be more convenient, less hierarchical, and draw in a younger crowd.

‘We’re really trying to establish a different kind of market,’ Lee adds. ‘There’ll be a mix of familiarity and discovery. Fashion might not be on everyone's radar but buying vintage, outright, is cool.’

Notable highlights from the first edition of Design.Space

Art and design highlights include Sabine Marcelis’ stackable ‘Stedelijk’ chairs for BD Barcelona (a limited, lavender-coloured edition will be exclusive to Basic.Space); armchairs developed by British talent Max Lamb with New York gallery Salon 94 Design; and Wilo Perron’s modular, cast glass fibre ‘Porthole’ mirror, a design that’s been making waves waves since its debut earlier this year. Celebrated Japanese artist Keiko Moriuchi’s recent, almost talismanic sculptures-on-canvas will also be making an appearance, as will Stickymonger’s aerosol-on-canvas works.

‘Like we’ve done with Basic.Space and Design Miami, it all comes down to the work we love; both recent and vintage pieces,’ Lee explains. ‘It’s hard to pick favourites but what will likely resonate a lot in LA is Jean Prouvé’s gas station from 1969 that Laffanour I Galerie Downtown is installing as no one in the US has seen something like that in person. Pierre Paulin and Christo and Jean-Claude’s ‘Chirac’ sofa – reprised in an edition of eight using the material used to wrap the Arc de Triomphe in 2021 by Paulin Paulin Paulin in partnership with environmental organisation Parley for the Oceans – will be shown in an all-red room. It's going to be amazing.’

Another design from the past getting its second wind is the emphatically Memphis Milano-style phone Ettore Sottsass and David Kelley – founder of renowned product design studio IDEO – co-conceived in 1985. It even has a dedicated (and cheeky) website. Basic.Space is selling 500 versions, purportedly, exhumed from a time capsule.

Can’t make the LA edition? Lee teases that Design.Space will be expanding to other cities in the coming months. ‘As long as we remain obsessively curated and unapologetically commercial, I’m confident that both the partners showing and selling, as well as the customers discovering and buying, will continue to be a part of our journey.’

For more information and to register attendance, visit designspace.la