Trade Secrets · From the other side
How a showroom decides which interior designers to feature
It's rarely about follower counts. Here's what actually gets an interior designer invited to host, speak or show at a showroom.
By Anderson Somerselle · Nov 2026 · 7 min read
Built Here: A Century of American Making, at Dennis Miller New York for WNWN 2026. Photography by Pratya “PJ” Jankong.
Every season I get some version of the same question from a designer: "How do I get on that panel?" Or that window. Or that Instagram takeover. Usually it's asked with a little side-eye, like there's a list somewhere and someone forgot to add them.
Here's the tea: there is a list. It's just not the one you think. I spend a good part of my week with showrooms and the makers on their floors, and I've sat in a lot of rooms where these decisions get made. Nobody in those rooms has ever opened a spreadsheet of follower counts.
Case in point: how Anjali Pollack got the seat at WNWN
For WNWN 2026, Dennis Miller New York hosted a panel with LUXE called Built Here: A Century of American Making. Three American makers on the couch, Hilliard, Altura and Boyd, talking about what it takes to build things here. And one seat for a designer.
One seat. You can imagine how many names came up. Big names, very pretty Instagram names, names with publicists. The seat went to Anjali Pollack.
Here's why. Anjali had used Altura and Boyd on her own recent projects. So when the conversation turned to why American making matters, she wasn't reciting a press release. She was talking about rooms she'd actually finished, with pieces made by the people sitting next to her. She was also a WNWN Ambassador that year, which means she was already showing up for the week, not just for her own moment in it.
The designer who specs the makers gets the mic. That's the whole list.
That's the part designers miss. The panel wasn't a prize for being famous. It was a conversation, and the showroom needed the person who could hold up her end of it with real projects. Anjali could. That's how she got the seat.
What showrooms look for in a designer
- Who specifies. The designers who order, and who bring their clients in to sit on things, stay top of mind. A showroom remembers who uses it as a resource, not just as a lobby.
- Who shows up. Launch nights, market weeks, the breakfast nobody wanted to get up for. The faces that keep appearing become the faces people think of first.
- Who gives credit. When you post an install and tag the showroom and the maker, someone on that team sees it and screenshots it. It gets passed around. That's how your name ends up in a meeting you weren't in.
- Who has a point of view. A panel needs a designer who will actually say something. "I love all of it" is lovely at a dinner party and useless on a stage.
- Who is easy. Answers the email, sends the headshot, shows up on time, doesn't need nine reminders. Glamorous? No. Decisive? Very.
How to get featured by a showroom, starting this week
- Tag the showroom and the maker every time you post a piece you sourced there. Credit the workroom too, if they did the upholstery. Makers repost, and showrooms notice who made their makers look good.
- Send install photos to your showroom rep with the credits written out. You've just handed them content for their feed and newsletter, and they'll remember who did.
- Go to one event a month and actually talk to the showroom team, not just your friends by the bar.
- Have a short bio and a good headshot ready to send in five minutes (and a website that shows your work, which is its own Trade Secrets story). When a panel spot opens up, the designer who replies first with everything attached usually gets it.
- Pick a lane and say it out loud. "I'm the designer for clients who collect" or "I do kitchens people actually cook in." Showrooms build programs around a story, so give them one.
What not to do when you want a showroom's attention
Don't pitch yourself with your follower count. Don't ask to be featured before you've ever specified anything. And please don't DM the showroom's Instagram asking to "collab." The person reading that is often the same person deciding who gets the panel, and they have a memory like an elephant in a cashmere sweater.
The good news is that none of this costs money. It costs attention, a little generosity with credit, and showing up more than once. Ask Anjali. That's the whole secret, and now it's yours.
If someone forwarded this to you, first of all, they like you. Second, you can get THE STRIKE-OFF yourself right here.
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