Q&A: Anna Brockway – Antiques And The Arts Weekly

Anna Brockway is the co-founder and president of Chairish, a chicly curated online marketplace for antiques, fine art and decorative arts. To celebrate the recent openings of the Chairish Villa at The Colony Hotel in Palm Beach and the Chairish Art Gallery at Bergdorf Goodman, Antiques and The Arts Weekly connected with Anna to learn more about her company and its mission.

What was the light bulb in your head that led you to co-found Chairish?

I am an admitted compulsive redecorator! And I adore vintage pieces because they’re unique and one-of-kind, ready to ship, less costly and often better quality than newly made pieces, and of course, kinder to the planet. Before Chairish, there was really no resource that aggregated really chic stuff from around the world in one site that made it easy to search, enabled price negotiation and purchase and managed shipping. Chairish was conceived to solve that.

How does Chairish differ from other online antiques and fine art marketplaces?

In addition to bringing more than 12,000 small businesses, practicing artists and makers to one platform, everything you see on Chairish has been screened by our curators — ensuring our unique and sharply edited inventory includes only the most exceptional pieces. Our product offering is incredibly vast so curation is a huge part of our platform — outside of just shopping by category or brand, our team develops thoughtful shopping guides for any aesthetic, vision or topic you could think of to create a personalized and fun shopping experience that isn’t typically available when sourcing vintage.

As you mentioned, one of the draws to Chairish is the dedication to curation and presenting style and shopping guides rather than simply offering goods. What goes into curating a featured collection? Do you track items down to feature them in a collection, or do you work with pieces already in the Chairish inventory?

Chairish is the design world’s ultimate destination for home furnishings and art. It’s beloved by interior designers and tastemakers — who come for the rare vintage, antique and contemporary pieces, and stay for, well, lots more of that, with 2,000-plus expertly edited items added daily. All items listed on Chairish are prescreened by our team of sharp-eyed curators to be sure Chairish’s inventory meets our high-style standards. To make shopping a streamlined experience, our merchandise team curates collections by category, style and seasonal offerings, so our design-loving audience can easily find a fantastic selection.

Another unique aspect to your platform is the Chairish Trade Program. Could you tell our readers a little about that?

Interior designers are important customers at Chairish, playing a key role in our business as design-obsessed and repeat buyers. For registered trade members, we offer fantastic benefits, including net pricing, 48-hour hold requests, a loyalty program with trade rewards and a trade-only hotline for customer service. We also have the most generous return policy in the industry. Our trade team is at-the-ready to assist design pros with our “only for the trade” concierge services.

I want to ask about your recently launched initiative: the Chairish Villa at The Colony Hotel. Is it true that Chairish dealers, local to Palm Beach, supplied fine and decorative art objects to furnish Palm Beach’s legendary Colony Hotel?

That’s right! Nearly all of the furnishings were locally sourced from Chairish dealers within just a few miles of the hotel, allowing us to work with experts who understand the town’s design history and help us create a space with a one-of-a-kind, “only in Palm Beach” experience. We also commissioned a group of 20 artists to create works that evoke the spirit of Palm Beach and The Colony Hotel.

Are objects available for guests to purchase straight from the hotel?

Should a guest want a similar piece to what they’ve seen in the Chairish Villa, they can simply scan the QR code provided in the room, which will direct them to a curated collection of similar items available for purchase through the Chairish website. Even if you’re unable to visit the Villa, anyone can shop from that same curated collection to bring a little bit of Palm Beach into their homes!

And what has the response been like?

Vintage and one-of-a-kind pieces are not something you typically see in hospitality, so we’ve been thrilled to see guests interacting with the pieces in a space that feels like a home away from home. We had the pleasure of hosting a cocktail event to celebrate the opening of the Villa in January, and guests were so excited to tour the space and experience a whole new kind of luxury hospitality space that we only could have achieved alongside the iconic Colony Hotel.

Do you have plans to replicate this initiative at other hotels?

This collaboration was a natural fit — both Chairish and the team at The Colony Hotel have a deep love and appreciation for great design. It was an incredibly joyful and rewarding process. We love these fresh and fun ways to show our passion for design and fine antiques and would love to explore similar partnerships in hospitality, fashion and beyond!

You’ve also launched a new iteration of “Chairish Art Gallery at Bergdorf Goodman.” What was the inspiration for a pop-up exhibition and how many of these have you done?

This was our second annual gallery at Bergdorf Goodman, the first debuted in 2023. We work with so many talented artists who have such a diverse range of mediums and styles, so we wanted to create a space that celebrated their work in an immersive and fun way — of course, with our classic Chairish twist and playful irreverence. As a digital marketplace, we love to create these special in-person experiences with such storied brands as Bergdorf’s, to celebrate our dealers and artists and introduce them to a whole new audience. To curate the gallery, we worked directly with the artists as well as a group of wonderful private dealers.

The gallery spans five connected but distinct themes. Could you share a little about these themes and how they were selected to represent Chairish?

The Chairish Art Gallery features a special collection of more than 300 original artworks from 30 artists, including Brock DeBoer, Alice Ford, Liz Marsh, Manuel Santelices, Kate Schelter, Jenny Walton and more, only available for purchase in-store until April 8. We are presenting a collection of shoppable pieces ranging from $1,000 to $30,000 in a series of imaginative vignettes across five connected, themed galleries that play on the themes and subject matter of the artists as well as our classic Charish playful irreverence, including The Chairish Patisserie at Bergdorf Goodman, Hotel Chairish, Tennis Anyone? Veruca’s Nightcap and Daffy Delft. Featured artists come from across 10 states and four countries working in mediums ranging from oil painting to illustration, ceramics, watercolor, sculpture and beyond.

Can people shop both in person at Bergdorf Goodman as well as online through Chairish?

The Chairish Art Gallery at Bergdorf Goodman will be on view until April 8. In addition to purchasing the original works in person, you can shop for similar pieces from our participating artists on our website. Similar to the Chairish Villa, we’ve created a curated collection of art, decor, jewelry and more that evokes the vibe we’ve created across the five galleries that have taken over Bergdorf’s seventh floor.

As Chairish has grown, its influence on the zeitgeist has as well. The brand is not only an online storefront but is now also accompanied by a curated magazine (Magazinish), a design podcast, a style blog and an antique pricing resource. Chairish is consistently ranked among the top online furniture sellers. How does it feel knowing that your passion project for vintage design has become a hub for décor and design?

Thank you! It’s been a deeply rewarding experience working alongside such a diverse and expert group of dealers and artists as we share our love for fine vintage and antique design with the world.

Thanks to Chairish, more people are comfortable buying antiques for their homes. What trends have you observed as Chairish’s influence has expanded to make antiquing more inclusive?

I think there is an increasing appreciation for individual style. The looks and products offered by big newly made companies are often undistinguishable and lack the character high-end design lovers crave. As in fashion, home design has become an expression of personal style.

Many people are turning to antiques for both environmental and economic reasons right now, how do you see Chairish playing a role in this shift?

As you mentioned, our platform allows clientele to meet dealers from all over the world and learn about vintage and antique pieces in an accessible way. You don’t have to be an antiques expert to shop on Chairish — we’re creating an experience that makes shopping fun and approachable for everyone. I think consumers are tired of the poor quality and lack of craftsmanship that is ever present in “fast furniture” brands.

If you’re going to invest in something, you want to know it’s going to last you a lifetime and that you’re purchasing it from someone who cares about their craft.

What is next for Chairish? Any plans to work with contemporary designers? Could a Chairish design line be in the future?

We are experimenting with this via the Chairish Print Shop, where we take our best-selling original artists on Chairish and offer their work in print form. So far, it’s been really successful and we are able to do it quite efficiently. We are selectively looking at opportunities like this in other categories too.

Pending the success of the shoppable initiatives at The Colony Hotel and Bergdorf’s… Would you consider pairing with other local curators to open brick-and-mortar Chairish storefronts?

Chairish’s “in real life” manifestations have been fantastic for the brand and our team, both in terms of connecting with shoppers and in dollars and cents. We intend to build on these successes and hope to have more news to share in the coming year.

—Carly Timpson

[Editor’s note: You can view the curated collections for the Chairish Villa at www.chairish.com/collection/chairish-villa and the Chairish Art Gallery at Bergdorf Goodman at www.chairish.com/collection/bg-x-chairish]