The design industry descended on High Point, North Carolina, last week with low expectations. Amid ongoing tariff chaos , a troubled housing market and challenging economic headwinds, who could be blamed for thinking that Fall Market would be a dud? But those glass-half-empty prognostications couldn’t have been further from the reality. In fact, the prevailing attitude this season seemed to be—of all things—optimism.

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Let’s start with the bad news: The event was not jam-packed, and most showrooms reported their attendance being down slightly or flat compared to Spring Market . The official registration data pegged the total number of attendees at down less than 1 percent from the April show, with large retailers and new buying companies up 6.9 percent and new buyers u

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