Thousands of design junkies descended on the Palm Springs Convention Center last week for the gala preview of the Modernism Show and Sale, which brought together 80 exhibitors from across the United States. The mood in the cavernous hall was decidedly upbeat, buoyed by attendees who used the occasion to don their vintage poodle skirts, Hawaiian shirts, and other artifacts of 20th-century fashion. The event attracted a coterie of elite design talent from both coasts, with Michael S. Smith, Vance Burke, Michael Berman, and Jamie Bush representing the Golden State, and Robert Stilin, Amy Lau, Craig Bassam, and Scott Fellows bringing the love from the East.

Los Angeles dealer Patrick Dragonette wowed the opening-night crowd with a booth that mixed signature seating and table designs by Billy Haines with Picasso ceramics and a suite of black-and-white photographs of fetching male nudes by Jim French. It was a showstopper.

Robert Willson and David Serrano of L.A.’s treasure-laden showroom Downtown took an esoteric approach to modernist design, displaying rare midcentury furniture—notably a set of Scimitar chairs and a slate-and-teak cocktail table by Denmark’s Fabricius and Kastholm—alongside aesthetically sympathetic sculptures and decorative objects from Africa, Tibet, and Peru. The booth provided a welcome relief from the more predictable Atomic Age finery on view.

The fair is a cornerstone of Modernism Week (February 14–24), an annual celebration of Palm Springs’ fertile design history featuring a lengthy schedule of lectures, house tours, films, and, of course, parties. This year’s highlight was a preconstruction preview of the Palm Springs Art Museum’s new Edwards Harris Pavilion for Architecture and Design, which will inhabit architect E. Stewart Williams’s landmark 1961 Santa Fe Federal Savings & Loan building. A quintessential midcentury modernist gem, the noble yet neglected structure will soon be transformed by L.A.’s Marmol Radziner, the design firm responsible for the renovation of Richard Neutra’s historic Kaufmann House just across town.

No official opening date has been set, but fundraising for the project is off and running. Philanthropically minded design aficionados, however, need not despair—founding memberships and naming opportunities are still available.