Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic The first time I met Jesse Lee was in a Japanese restaurant in Paris in October 2023. In the middle of lunch, the fresh-faced American in a baseball hat announced that he had acquired Design Miami, the fair founded in 2005 by the Miami real estate entrepreneur Craig Robins. “Gen Z and millennials are increasingly interested in this sector,” he said at the time. “Previously, people were posting selfies of themselves in the mirror, now they’re posting the mirror. Fashion used to matter more, but now people are working at home in sweats and they care more about the chair they’re sitting in.”According to Lee, fashion — by which he means the high-end, fancy-label variety — is in a lull (in October, LVMH shares dropped 7 per cent), with savvy, young, cash-rich customers preferring their Chanel or Vuitton to be exceptional and vintage. Design, he says, is the new luxury. “Owning a Dune sofa is more of a status symbol,” he asserts, referring to the modular topological landscape designed by Pierre Paulin in 1970, now re-editioned by Paulin’s son, Benjamin. Lee’s opinions are based on more than anecdote. He is the founder of Basic.Space, an invitation-only website (buyers and sellers apply through the app, and have included celebrity interior designer Kelly Wearstler and the late Virgil Abloh) that offers up design, fashion and art. “Basic.Space is very focused,” he says, “80 per cent of the customers are based in New York and Los Angeles, and that way we spot trends early. They are the 1 per cent of that generation [Gen Z to millennial] and we take that data. That’s how we build up our information.” A visit to the Basic.Space website, where the design category begins with a $50 Shrek mask and shiny brass candleholders, doesn’t make the connection with Design Miami very clear, though further scrolling does lead to more serious fare. A limited-edition circular table in concrete and bronze by Angeleno designer James De Wulf retails at $39,500. The fair, which has editions in Miami and Basel that coincide with contemporary art behemoth that is Art Basel and share its elevated collector base, specialises in collectible design from the 20th to 21st centuries at sometimes stratospheric figures. In Paris this October, where the fair is now in its second year, a 1946 Jean Prouvé prefabricated house sold for over €1mn at Francois Laffanour’s Downtown Gallery. A rare Palladio cabinet by the Italian designer Gaetano Pesce — a prototype made in 2007 — reportedly made something in the region of €150,000–£180,000 for Salon 94, a gallery based in New York.Equally Lee, in his baggy Acne trousers and vintage Vetements sweatshirt, doesn’t seem like an instant fit in a world where if trainers are worn, they are paired with finely cut suits. But one year on from his acquisition, he says: “My overall vision remains the same, to expand Design Miami as a business, and broaden the ecosystem.” By this he means to make stronger connections with other sectors, particularly fashion. “It would be good to expand on some of the fashion relationships which have come in organically over the years, such as the one with Bottega Veneta,” says Design Miami’s CEO of 10 years, Jen Roberts. “In Miami, they will be showing the Zanotta animal beanbag chairs that they used in the recent catwalk show.” (Lulls apart, then, fashion still seems to have a particular allure.)Fashion used to matter more, but now people are working at home in sweats and they care more about the chair they’re sitting inLee grew up in Chicago — his parents had moved there from South Korea to study — and took a degree at its university in political science. “The real lesson I learnt there was being entrepreneurial,” he says. “I used to DJ and throw club nights, playing jungle and drum and bass.” He moved to Los Angeles after graduating in 2004, working on magazines and in marketing agencies, before setting up his own creative agency in 2008. “My parents said I should get another job and try to learn more, but I thought I should get going in my 20s when I had no responsibilities,” he says. (He is now the father of three children — aged nine, seven and 18 months — with his partner Erica.)Lee’s talent was for matchmaking brands to cool experiences and compelling names in the music industry like FKA Twigs. “We worked with Nike and Gucci to reach younger audiences. We produced Coachella after-parties, when Coachella was still cool,” he says. “We were really doing influencer marketing before it was called that.” His Grammy after-parties have included one for Mark Ronson and Jamie xx at the Lautner-designed Goldstein house in Los Angeles. (The name Basic.Space comes from a crisp and chilly boy-girl duet on the first xx album. The band’s manager, Caius Pawson, son of British architect John Pawson, is also a good friend.) Lee’s agency, was called dFm, or Dub Frequency Media, a title with more vibe than meaning. It is now the name of the holding company which owns Design Miami, as well as Basic.Space, Period Correct (a fashion and vintage car company) and Aquatic Leisure Center (a specialist in funky baseball hats). It has clearly been successful enough for him to pursue these further ventures. Home is in Hancock Park in Los Angeles, where the houses are old and highly desirable. Holidays are taken in Hawaii. Lee declines to state his age — perhaps understandable for someone whose key currency is his connection to an ineffable youth zeitgeist — but must be in his early 40s. It is the dFm idea of experience that Lee wants to bring to Design Miami — what he calls the subtle touches, like staging its first Los Angeles edition in a lavish 1930s Hollywood party house, and engaging Sqirl, the hip Silver Lake café, as caterers. “We brought the East side to Beverly Hills. That’s what people will remember. Fairs can get caught up with being too transactional,” he says.The dealers who can now spend around £90,000 presenting a booth at a fair might not want to hear that last statement. At Design Miami in December, these will include the London-based specialist in mid-20th Century Brazilian design Luiz Kessler — a young dealer coming to Miami for the first time — who is showing rare furniture pieces by Lina Bo Bardi. But Lee is learning on the job. Like other design fairs — the upmarket Nomad, a peripatetic outfit that flits between Capri and St Moritz; or the French Pavilion of Art and Design which is heading to St Tropez next summer — Lee is also talking about following the money. “Aspen is a possible location,” he says. “Or the south of France. And of course Seoul. Because we need to go where the collectors want to go.”But before that, he is on his way to Amsterdam, for a gala dinner at the Stedelijk Museum. “It’s a black tie event,” he tells me. “I’m going to be wearing a tuxedo, and I won’t be wearing a hat.” Lee, it seems, is very much on his way. Design Miami, December 3–8, 2024Find out about our latest stories first — follow FTWeekend on Instagram and X, and subscribe to our podcast Life and Art wherever you listen
