Last night I went to The Armory Show, an art show where dealers from around the world show their art – anything from contemporary to mid-century, early 20th century paintings, photographs and sculpture. Some amazing De Koning work was being exhibited at one stall and another one was all Henry Moore drawings and sculpture. Guests consisted of a lot of really pretty, tall, thin women and short men (it was a benefit, after all)  and it was a real pleasant evening.

Straight after that event, I went on to the launch party for the Kips Bay show house where all the designers gathered. It is a daunting task to put this room together with major requirements that whatever you do, you have to bring it back to the way you find it. And then you have to try to knock the viewers’ socks off and be conservative with budget without having to show it. Not an easy task.

In addition to these I’ve been to a few other industry events in the last week as well and from talking to the people there, everyone seem to be much more hopeful about the economy. Though from watching the news I feel like it’s getting worse, I think that people with money are relaxing a little in how they spend it. That doesn’t help the middleclass and how they deal with their problems, of course. I’m torn between the fact that I want people to spend money and thinking of people who don’t have any. At least today they allowed the bill to extend unemployment to go through and stopped payments for the unemployed. I don’t know if it’s about the rich still getting richer and the poor getting poorer, but on the flipside, if you have 10 people working for you and you have to pay salaries and insurance, you hope the rich get richer and spend it with you.

Maybe I am just a capitalist pig at heart?

Before I left on the trip I saw the light, but after traveling around the world I feel like there’s a global kind of gloom…it’s a central decay. Governments not really being able to do anything and other governments that are just destroying their societies – be that in South-East Asia or Africa…I don’t believe in Armageddon, but so many of those signs are being written on the wall. I’m sure it’ll pass, but we need some sort of hope and we need some sort of unity, globally, that will lift our spirits.

And I think we are all responsible, because you listen to the tea parties here in the US and you can’t help but thinking that people are getting dumber, not smarter.

In general there are all these wonderful things like Kip’s Bay, the new book etc. None of them are money makers, but I think that we as designers need to put ourselves out there this year to benefit our businesses. Last year, nothing would have helped – even standing naked in Times Square, depending on what you look like, of course. My sense is that it is time to go public again. People are starting to come out of hibernation and get on with their lives. What is your sense of it all?