Design as a way of life. Community as our medium. The world as our studio.
2025 was not a year of expansion in the traditional sense, it was a year of deepening.
Deepening relationships.
Deepening ideas.
Deepening our foundations.
Deepening our sense of what Hudson Wilder is, and what it can become.
We widened our community, invited more people into our universe, and expanded our perspectives, across disciplines, cultures, cities, and ways of living. What began a decade ago as a design studio grounded in New American Design has grown into something more fluid: A cultural platform shaped by people, ideas, food, objects, movement, and conversation.
This year reminded us that design is not a category. It’s a way of seeing, a way of living, and a way of being in the world.
DUMBO, the Cultural Epicenter
In 2025, Hudson Wilder in DUMBO became more than a studio or storefront, it became a gathering point.
A place where design, art, food, fashion, music, and conversation converge.
A place where global ideas meet local community.
A place where people come not only to shop, but to spend time, to connect.
During NYC Design Week, DUMBO formally emerged as a Design District with Hudson Wilder standing at its center. Not as a monument, but as a living room for the creative community: Hosting, listening, sharing, and building together.
From design weeks in Milan and Copenhagen to intimate gatherings back home in Brooklyn, we felt part of a global dialogue, one that moves across borders, but always returns to people.
People Over Products
This year affirmed something we’ve always believed: People come before products. Culture comes before commerce.
We don’t design objects in isolation, we shape conversations, host experiences, and create platforms for creative exchange.
From launching our first furniture collection to hosting conversations between artists, designers, writers, chefs, technologists, and cultural thinkers. The throughline was not output, but connection.
Design is a global community.
And community is our most meaningful material.
Design, Movement, and Living Well
Design at Hudson Wilder extends beyond objects into how we live, growing the rhythm of active, intentional living.
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Group bike rides and runs hosted with Pas Normal Studios
Because design isn’t only what we make, it’s how we move through the world.
Food as Design
Food continued to become one of our most meaningful design languages.
Ephemeral Matter evolved into one of the most coveted pastry design residencies of the year, a fleeting, sensorial exploration of taste, seasonality, craft, and cultural memory. In 2026, it becomes international.
We merged food and design not as novelty, but as philosophy: taste as form, time as an ingredient, and experience as the object. We hosted Franco Fubini and Natoora on a conversation centered around 'Good Taste'.
Our coffee program deepened too, expanding from pour-overs into a full, intentional menu still only enjoyed in-house. No cups to go. No disposables. A slower, more sustainable ritual.
And with Olivee Floral, Groundcycle, we hosted Re-flora, exploring the circularity in practice, upcycling flowers from events into new arrangements, extending their life, beauty, and meaning.
Culture, Art, and Collaboration
2025 was rich with cultural partnerships and moments:
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Hosting Yoko Ono’s artwork in collaboration with Artspace/Phaidon.
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The Butter Dish show in Milan led by Simple Flair, a simple tabletop object becoming a global conversation of decadence.
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Started in September of 2024, we cemented our design exhibition series, SOFT–POWER: Counterpoint, by following up in May 2025 with an all female designer/artist group featuring works from Eny Lee Parker, Cara Marie Piazza, Ananas Ananas, and Maja Dlugolecki.
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Design spotlight on Copenhagen at Hudson Wilder featuring Akua Objects, Pas Normal Studios, and Tekla.
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Cait Oppermann’s IBM book launch with Actual Source.
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Partnerships with Aplós and Chandon.
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A decade-marking anniversary celebrating 10 years of New American Design.
Each collaboration expanded our understanding of what Hudson Wilder can hold and who it can hold space for.
Sustainability as a Foundation
Sustainability isn’t a program for us, it’s an intentional foundation.
From reducing single-use waste in our coffee program, to circular floral practices, to material and production decisions across our collections, environmental responsibility remains woven into how we think, design, and operate.
Not as a statement, but as a responsibility.
Looking Toward 2026
If 2025 was about deepening, 2026 is about expanding; thoughtfully, globally, and with intention.
New cities.
New cultural dialogues.
New formats for Ephemeral Matter.
New objects. New experiences. New relationships.
Always with the same center:
Design as a way of life.
Community as the medium.
Culture as the outcome.
Thank you for being part of this world with us, whether you joined us for a coffee, a bike ride, a conversation, a show, a dinner, a launch, or simply followed along from afar.
Hudson Wilder is not a brand. We're a community and we’re just getting started.
— Conway C. Liao
Founder / Chief Culture Officer