Meet Your Maker

by Jesse James

Published in the December/January 2022/23 issue of Tableware Today. Guest columnist Jesse James, founder of the innovative trade show Shoppe Object, understands the importance of forging connections and the stories they inspire, and he intends to keep conversations flourishing for a diverse group of voices.

Fifteen years ago, my husband Kostas brought his favorite shirt to a tailor in our neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens and asked to have it recreated in a different fabric. He selected a red and white cotton pinstripe and returned to pick it up a week later. The tailor, Sham Lal, who immigrated to New York from India in 1996, replicated the shape perfectly but added surprises: mother of pearl buttons down the front placket with tiny little red buttons at the cuffs, each buttonhole beautifully stitched by hand. Sham’s hand sewn buttonholes and colorful button selections were skills he brought from India. He went on to make dozens of shirts for Kostas over the years, always adding his signature touches, each one taking over as the new favorite. Kostas, whose mother is a seamstress, shared with Sham the unique patching style she brought to the States from Greece and over time a cross-cultural collaboration blossomed between them, with friendship, respect, craft, creative exchange, and very special buttons at its heart.

Jackson Heights is heralded as the most diverse community on the planet, home to 167 languages, with over half the population being foreign born. There are multilingual houses of worship of every denomination and a walk along the avenue brings you face to face with halal fast food windows, an Irish pub or two, sari shops, half a dozen Latinx gay bars, and twice as many Peruvian pollo a la brasa restaurants. But it wasn’t always this way. First developed at the turn of the 20th century as an exclusive community for middle class whites, it was built to exclude Jews, African-Americans, and Catholics precisely on the founding principle of a lack of diversity.

Reinvention inevitably comes and Jackson Heights now proudly reflects the essence of The New Colossus, a sonnet by Emma Lazarus inscribed on the plaque at the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty: “... from her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome.” For Kostas and me — two Chicago transplants raising an adopted daughter — our neighborhood represents the American ideal.

Objects, foods, tailor shops, and retail establishments are directly informed by people — the culture of their origins, and the sounds, stitches and spices carried from far away or long ago. In a homogenous global economy and in my line of work where chain stores tend to write the rules and where products are often designed in one place and made in another, I have always been drawn to tactile representations of the stories, histories, and crafts that inform creation. Commercialized perfectionism, scrubbed clean of a human touch, may have its place, but for me that place is rarely at the table. I prefer to be surrounded by things that tell a tale, that are imbued with the imprint of the ingredients from which they came and of details that speak to origin. Knowing who made the bowl is as enlightening as knowing who made the soup, and I like to think that at any table the more people, locations, influence, and tastes, the merrier.

Shoppe Object, the trade show I helped to launch in 2018, began with a clear set of beliefs: quality should be celebrated, discovery should be fun, and creators and merchants should get to know one another, learn from each other, and be friends. Our goal was to create a space where seminal design brands with an established market presence could sit beside young designers full of fresh ideas, both seeking an opportunity to build upon their businesses. We wanted to provide an environment where the best retailers from around the country and beyond could meet people that inspire them and find products that add to the narrative in their stores. We firmly believe that discovery, inspiration, learning, and the sharing of ideas isn’t truly possible in a market without diversity of product, of style, and, at the heart of it all, people.

This past August marked our fourth anniversary and our first show post-acquisition by our new partners at International Market Centers (IMC). We celebrated our biggest event yet with doubled attendance from the previous year, in a hybrid market — physical and digital — that brought 500 exceptional brands together with top retailers from places near and far. In February we will expand our footprint by close to 50%, constructing a pavilion adjacent to our waterside home on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, bringing more buyers and sellers face to face. We’ll see the return of favorite Shoppe Object highlights including Showcase Japan — presenting 25 handpicked brands that represent a cross section of Japan’s incredible craft heritage and aesthetic sensibility, and Made In Ireland, returning with a selection of Irish artisans embodying the country’s deep creative roots and vibrant, contemporary design. And we’re particularly excited about the launch of some brand new collaborations including those with our friends at Aid to Artisans and ByHand, bringing more than a dozen new makers to the floor from Ethiopia, India, Madagascar, Mexico, and Uganda, among others.

This year, Shoppe Object’s Black Lives Matter Action Initiative (BLMAI) also expands as we continue to work toward fostering a more representational community in the home and gift market. Black lives, perspectives, and businesses matter and we seek to uplift and amplify them by sponsoring the cost of participation at Shoppe Object and on Shoppe Online for a growing number of talented independent Black designers and makers each season. First launched in 2020 during a summer of social justice protests, we’re honored to have hosted dozens of incredible brands through this program across all home and gift categories, from textiles to tabletop, and we now look forward to introducing more Black-owned businesses to our community by increasing the program’s capacity to 20 brands per season, via our expanded hybrid format.

The paths we take and the company we keep, the friends we make, the lives we touch, the objects we collect, the buttons we choose, and the things we bring to the table are all reflections of the part we play in the constant invention and reinvention of the world. It’s important to make real connections as often as possible. It’s important to meet your maker.

One more interesting detail about Jackson Heights. Scrabble was invented here in 1933 — apropos for a neighborhood so uniquely full of language. The rules were quite restrictive at first; no foreign words allowed. Over the years the game has changed making room for more voices and today the official rules embrace all words labeled as a part of speech, including those listed as archaic, obsolete, colloquial, slang, and words from other languages that have made their way into the American lexicon. You can now play bocce or bezique, mahjong or mancala, and score points with bibimbap, spanakopita, jollof, and ceviche. Reinvention — when it inevitably comes — is almost always a good thing.

Jesse James is founder and creative director of Shoppe Object, a home and gift trade show held semi-annually in New York City, and Shoppe Online, its complimentary digital marketplace. Following the market’s acquisition by International Market Centers (IMC) in February, James now serves as IMC V.P. and show director. He is also the founder of Aesthetic Movement, a national showroom, design firm, and creative consultancy, with locations in New York, Atlanta, Las Vegas, and L.A.