Summer Design Fairs Head to Saint-Tropez and the Hamptons
Two of the collectible design world’s most closely watched fairs are trading major cities for resort settings this summer. The Pavilion of Art and Design, better known as PAD, will return to Saint-Tropez from July 12 to 20, while Nomad will stage its Hamptons edition from June 25 to 28 at The Watermill Centre in Water Mill, the arts venue founded by Robert Wilson.
The pairing says as much about the market as it does about the season. PAD, long established as a fixture in the collectible design calendar, is leaning into Saint-Tropez’s discreet concentration of serious collectors. Patrick Perrin, the fair’s president, noted that behind the town’s polished image lies a substantial collector base and a network of substantial houses. For visitors arriving by boat, the fair is only a short walk away.
Nomad, meanwhile, continues to build a format that is deliberately removed from urban centers. Co-founder and director Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte described it as a “resort concept,” emphasizing that the fair is designed around destinations rather than capitals. Founded in Saint Moritz in 2017, Nomad has already held editions in Capri and, for the first time last November, in Abu Dhabi.
For the Hamptons edition, Bellavance-Lecompte said the goal is to introduce the Nomad community to “another side of America” — one he characterized as intellectual, romantic, and creative. He added that collectors from the Middle East and parts of Europe will be encountering the Hamptons for the first time.
Together, the two fairs point to a broader shift in collectible design: prestige is increasingly being framed through place, atmosphere, and access as much as through the objects on view. In Saint-Tropez and Water Mill, the setting is part of the proposition.
