Pagoda Red Comes to New York After 15 years in Chicago, Pagoda Red has opened a showroom on the 1st Dibs floor of the New York Design Center, adding Asian flair to the predominantly midcentury modernist mix. "People who aren't familiar with Chinese furniture think of highly ornate lacquered pieces, but those were for export," said the owner, Betsy Nathan, of her offerings, 19th-century Chinese furniture and decorative arts as well as new work by contemporary Chinese designers. The pieces the Chinese designed and built for themselves are very simple, more reserved and more along the Ming principles. Her 400-square-foot space is filled with many such items, as well as limited-edition Ming-inspired Lucite furniture by July Zhou, and porcelain cola bottles by Taikkun Li. "Things changed radically once we got on 1st Dibs - we started shipping so much to the East Coast," Ms. Nathan said. It's important to be in New York. Pagoda Red, 200 Lexington Avenue (33rd Street), (646) 293-6633, pagodared.com.