Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, the New York based stylist and fashion editor. As the curator of the New York Fashion section for 2024, she reveals her approach to fashion that celebrates joy, expression, and diversity, blending playful elements with a commitment to inclusivity and a seamless integration of fashion and design.

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COLLECTIBLE: How do your background and values inform your approach to curating this new Fashion section at COLLECTIBLE?

Gabriella Karefa-Johnson: The way I approach fashion has always been to come from a place of centering joy, expression, and diversity. This is why my selection very strongly communicates a focus on color and texture. There is also a childlike sensibility to my taste— fun has to exist in the work. Fun is one of the most powerful experiential tools at our disposal. Fun does not have to mean unseriousness; fun does not have to mean frivolity— fun can just be about joy. And, I wanted this curration to speak to my fidelity to fun.

C: This Section is about encouraging more collectible designers to create fashion retail furniture. How do you see this crossover between fashion and design?

G K-J: Fashion sits at that cozy little intersection between art and commerce that can be on one end of the spectrum hollow and vapid, and at the other, profound and emotional. I think, for this reason, retail concepts— at least the good ones— should feel experiential. You should be able to experience taste, experience the beauty, step inside the world these designers build for their fashion to inhabit. For an aesthete, taste is taste is taste. So, the crossover between fashion and design is almost indistinguishable to me. They both exist as expressions of taste and both have incredible communicative power in that regard.

C: What impact do you hope the Fashion section at COLLECTIBLE will have on recognizing diversity and inclusion in design and fashion?

G K-J: I hope that the fashion section of the COLLECTIBLE fair connects fashion designers and retailers to members of the design community who are not often platformed in the biggest, most powerful fairs. I hope POC designers, young designers, women designers, queer designers are showcased in a way that proves blue chip status does not always have to be the alignment that brands aspire to— authentically engaging with artists whose values align— even if they are the little guy—is the goal.