Corey Damen Jenkins: A New Generation of Icon
Designer Corey Damen Jenkins is having more than a moment. After three decades of relationship-building, brand discipline, and an unstoppable work ethic, the New York-based designer is traveling the globe for projects with international clients, lending his expertise to a MasterClass series, and continuing to expand his product licensing portfolio into new categories in home furnishings. Between meetings and installations worldwide, Jenkins is also weaving in appearances and signings for Design Reimagined, his latest design tome that takes readers behind the scenes of 10 New York City interiors and breaks new ground with a complementary 4K streaming series that brings featured homes to life on screen.
After working in Detroit for more than a decade, Jenkins moved Corey Damen Jenkins & Associates to New York in 2008, quickly expanding his voice as a leader in luxury interior design and launching numerous successful collaborations with leading furniture and décor manufacturers.
Home Accents Today, Designers Today and Furniture Today first covered Jenkins’s move into product back in 2016, when Leathercraft introduced “Corey Damen Jenkins Exclusively for Leathercraft,” a couture upholstery collection the manufacturer says has continued to perform well with retailers. Home Accents Today picked the story back up in 2021 for his first bedding collection, a DownTown Company collaboration built around two Art Deco-influenced patterns, Alyvia and Storm, unveiled to retailers during market week in High Point.
After those initial collaborations, Jenkins launched a furniture line with Hancock & Moore — “Where Antiquity and Modernity Meet,” a collection pulling references from Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman architecture alongside Art Deco and Viennese Secessionist influences. The collection has grown alongside a companion collection with Maitland-Smith, most recently expanded to include a new category of bespoke accessories. By Fall High Point Market 2025, both lines had become successful enough to warrant their own dedicated, room-by-room presentation, giving retailers and designers a fully realized visual experience to walk through while sourcing at market.
As the furniture collections continued to do well, Jenkins once again broke new ground in 2025, becoming the first interior designer collaborator to work with Eichholtz, a European luxury home furnishings brand. Jenkins unveiled his signature luxury lighting collection at Maison & Objet this past January.
“For years, I’ve been searching for the right partner to bring my unique vision to life in the lighting category,” Jenkins said, calling out Eichholtz’s craftsmanship as the deciding factor. Edwin van der Gun, the brand’s chief creative officer, said at the time that Jenkins brings “a distinct, highly personal perspective” the company was eager to build around.
Add in an expanding Kravet relationship — now stretching into wallcoverings — and a partnership with art publisher LeftBank Art, and the impressive and diversified licensing portfolio takes shape, a nod to Jenkins’ creativity, talent and business acumen.
Through his career that has moved, step by step, from a Detroit upbringing to the top tier of American interior design, and now into an expanding portfolio of furniture, lighting and textile licenses, Jenkins represents a new generation of Icon, one where talent, perseverance and giving back to the community count as much, if not more, than financial barometers. Beyond the studio, his MasterClass course has been viewed by millions. He continues mentoring the next generation of designers at NYSID and Parsons, a nod, Jenkins has said, to never pulling up the ladder behind him. He also remains deeply involved in charitable, community-based initiatives and currently serves on the Foundational Board of Directors for FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) and the Board of Trustees for the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club of New York.
Designers Today|Home Accents Today will recognize Jenkins during the Icon & Innovators celebration at High Point Market on Sunday, Oct. 18, from 4 to 6 p.m. The event will include an interactive audience activity as well as the recognition of the 2026 40-under-40 honorees for Designers Today|Home Accents Today.
Congratulations to Corey Damen Jenkins!
