THE EDIT

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A Rose Is A Rose

A Rose Is A Rose

Oh Rose, you beloved of all alpha Goddesses, forever Empress of flowers – we may say you’re not our favorite, but of course we’d be lying. In the Tarot you’re considered a symbol of balance, expressing promise, new beginnings, and hope in your blossoms and defense, physicality, loss, and thoughtlessness in your thorns. You’re edible, your oil heals, your scent intoxicates, and you bloom in a dazzling array of every shape and size. Depending on your color, you represent innocence and purity or secrets and shadows, the very deepest bottom of the well of true love. You encompass everything, complete like a human soul. Devastatingly intense or sweetly ditzy, we honor you, Rose, in all of your magnificent, multifaceted glory. Across tattoos or tea towels, a rose is a rose is a rose, and by any other name let’s face it – you’re downright iconic.

Shoppe Online, EditorialHillaryFebruary 9, 20214

Gender Fluid

Gender Fluid

Expression, identity and expression of identity is all up for grabs now; and being of a certain age, we can’t help but be a little jealous of the freedoms being afforded and instilled in our younger generations. How should a woman or man feel and how should they look? The answers can be myriad, because life is never as simple as any social construct would have you believe. We are all two-spirit, there lies the whole spectrum of male to female and back again within us all. Choose your own adventure, be like water, and take a cue from Madonna; Express Yourself.

Shoppe Online, EditorialHillaryFebruary 9, 20214

Soiree

Soiree

We’re dreaming of parties, literally. Reality has us home, apart, separated, masked and prepared but what we really want to do is swan around a sparkling room with a view, lifted by a cacophony of tinkling glasses and laughter. Parties sometimes mean swishy fabrics, good shoes, sneaking cigs, passed hor d’oeuvres, making out, working up a sweat on the dancefloor, bantering into the wee hours of the morning…but most importantly, no matter the setting, they always mean togetherness – and that’s what we miss most of all. For now, both hosting and attending exist only in our dreams, but we’re looking forward to better days. When the time comes to do it like we used to, we’ll be so ready, with the most swell accouterments for drinking, dining, dancing, and everything in between. Cheers!

Shoppe Online, EditorialHillaryFebruary 8, 20214

Golden Hour

Golden Hour

After sunrise, before sunset – you decide. The Golden Time of Day – the one Frankie Beverly and Maze sang about, that photographers endlessly try to chase and capture – casts a glow that deepens feelings. The golden hour is when the veil between everything right in front of you and the deepest recesses of your mind thins, when knowingness flows like honey from a spout. It is wheat fields and expansive plains, it is goldenrod and 24 karats, honeybees and citrine. It is wisdom, wealth and knowledge and we’re lucky to get a taste of it on every sunny day. When clouds come in to cover, get in the zone with treasures in every shade of yellow and gold.

Shoppe Online, EditorialHillaryFebruary 7, 20214

Beautiful Absurd

Beautiful Absurd

Sometimes bucking good old common sense and going against the grain can be a bad thing – think wild conspiracy theories that undermine evidence-based science or America’s love affair with guns (why?). But sometimes embracing the absurd, or antithesis of common sense, can be a path to freedom. Life itself is pure absurdity on parade. Planet earth too. How else to consider the Weedy Sea Dragon of the Australian coral reefs – have you ever seen them? Simply absurd! The unbelievable is all around us, as we look up into the night sky and even when two colors sit beside each other in smaller applications and bring each other to life. Veering completely off the expected course lends food for thought, fun, and allows us to think differently. Without the absurd we can’t imagine, and we can’t dream.

Shoppe Online, EditorialHillaryFebruary 7, 20214

Shoppe Object’s Black Lives Matter Action Initiative

Shoppe Object’s Black Lives Matter Action Initiative

In May 2020 the world bore witness to George Floyd murdered at the hands of police in Minneapolis – an event that ignited a global uprising of demonstrations demanding the end of police brutality and a dismantling of systemic racism. While the work for freedom and equality has been happening in movements for hundreds of years, the events of last summer fueled a new rallying cry for individuals, institutions and companies across the spectrum of American life to confront a necessary and ongoing, urgent reckoning to build a better, anti-racist society. In solidarity with the movement, Shoppe Object launched a Black Lives Matter Action Initiative (BLMAI) to support, foster and proactively showcase Black-owned brands. We understand deeply that black perspectives, voices, dreams, economies, and businesses matter, and that a more representational community for the home and gift market, means a better market for all of us…

Shoppe Online, At The ShowHillaryFebruary 7, 20214

MMXXI

MMXXI

Here we are, on the precipice of Earth's next orbit around the Sun, and this much we know: we made it. We did good. We slowed down, took stock and found our footing. We pivoted, found strength in our resolve, and supported our friends and neighbors. There are so many things to ponder as we leave this lemon of a year behind us… so much to untangle and to process, to reinvent and reimagine. It is daunting and formidable, and frankly quite exciting. It will take hard work and patience, sure, but rest assured – we have learned a ton, and there will be more lemonade. We will continue to create new ways of being, new ways of seeing, and new ways of working that make room for what’s most important: more quality, more living, more time.

We welcome you, 2021. We look forward to getting to know you. One day at a time.

Shoppe Online, EditorialHillaryDecember 31, 20204

Play For Keeps

Play For Keeps

Games, puzzles and playing cards took on a new role in our lives in 2020, providing focus, connection and escape through an often rough, always unconventional year. No matter how you’ve lived your lockdown... indoors, working remotely while simultaneously homeschooling the kids, or passing the time alone, with friends and family at a distance and long stretches of unoccupied time, it’s a safe bet that honing your jigsaw skills or playing a few rounds of solitaire proved a great way to punctuate the weeks and months that seemed to stretch on forever. As we round out the year, let’s keep hold of these mindful acts of engagement that helped beguile the time while keeping us sharp and sane. Whether satisfyingly solo or all together around a multigenerational table — play on, players. Play on.

Shoppe Online, EditorialHillaryDecember 22, 20204

Out Of The Woods

Out Of The Woods

We’re not quite there yet, but in this season of great transition we can finally start to see the forest for the trees. As we approach the end of 2020, placing one particularly hard-earned ring around the tree of life, we celebrate all things dendrological; the intrinsic flexibility and elemental beauty, the scent and sensuality, the innate symbol of growth and stalwart strength that is, wood. Whether smooth or rough-hewn, uniquely against the grain or plainly presented in olive, oak, ash, alder, mango or mahogany, we are tree huggers through and through, in love with the precious properties of this most natural element. This source of fire, this most ancient and replenishable material that has been bent and burnt, chamfered and chiseled, drilled, dovetailed, patched, planed, sanded and stained by the artist and the artisan for as far back as civilization has been recorded. Its roots run deep. We want it now, and always. We’re going out on a limb and guessing you feel the same.

Shoppe Online, EditorialHillaryDecember 17, 20204

Six Picks: Thomas O'Brien of Aero Studios & Copper Beech

Six Picks: Thomas O'Brien of Aero Studios & Copper Beech

Thomas O’Brien is an interior and home furnishings designer and author based in New York City and Long Island. He is the founder of Aero Studios, one of America’s leading design firms, and the creator of popular home furnishings from lighting, furniture, and carpets to tableware and unique ranges of accessories. At heart, he is a lifelong collector who brings together things old, new, and from all parts of the globe, as a shopkeeper in his own stores. In 1992 Thomas opened Aero, his original store, as the retail extension of his studio. In 2016 he and his husband, designer Dan Fink, opened a modern country general store and gourmet market, Copper Beech, in the seaside Long Island village of Bellport. Equal parts hometown, nautical and classically French in inspiration, Copper Beech celebrates the pairing of home and travel in a hand-picked assortment of goods, gifts, and culinary favorites for the household, kitchen, and garden.

Six Picks, Shoppe OnlineHillaryDecember 14, 20204

Soft & Sumptuous

Soft & Sumptuous

What would we do without the warp and the weft? What would we sleep in, dress up in, or curl up by the fire in? What would we dry ourselves off with, and what soft surfaces would we walk upon? Without these two basic ingredients that fashion thread or yarn into fabric, what would we make our beds with, cover our cushions in, or rest our silverware upon? Seriously – textiles define practically everything we love and rely on in our daily lives… from our underwear to the drapes that give us privacy, from the macrame objet that dress up our walls and hanging plants, to the ubiquitous masks we now wear upon our faces. This week we celebrate all things woven, spun, knit or loomed, stitched, crocheted, knotted and tatted or felted and braided, with a special appreciation for the conscious effort to develop sustainable production practices that support both the planet and the maker, in soft and sumptuous harmony.

Textiles, Shoppe Online, EditorialHillaryDecember 13, 20204

Six Picks: Michele Varian

Six Picks: Michele Varian

Michele Varian is a designer and shop owner based in New York. Having launched her first shop in SoHo almost 20 years ago, she recently moved both her shop and fabrication studio to Brooklyn's Atlantic Ave, where she joined a robust community of independent, owner operated design and retail businesses. She designs her own collections of textiles, lighting, wallpaper and furniture, which are made locally.

Six Picks, Shoppe OnlineHillaryDecember 12, 20204

Charmed Life, Jewelry Forever

Charmed Life, Jewelry Forever

Wearing jewelry is more personal and imbued with more pleasure and sentiment than anything else we put on our bodies. Humans decorated themselves with beads of shell and bits of bone long before wearing clothing, and the meanings, symbols and reasons behind wearing jewelry still resonate today, more than 100,000 years later. To adorn oneself with jewelry can be a ritualistic act of creating beauty, like painting or composing, on an intimate scale. Jewelry carries love, culture, belief, protection, memory, accomplishment, worth, esteem and so many of the things that drive and connect us in our human existence. Whether knotted, beaded, metal, gemstone, bright, bold, rare, sculptural, discreet, expensive, costume, or purely sentimental, we can’t get enough of jewelry. Never have, never will.

Jewelry, Shoppe Online, EditorialHillaryDecember 11, 20204

Six Picks: Paul Niski of GOOD

Six Picks: Paul Niski of GOOD

Paul is a former Creative Director and Design Consultant, with a background in architecture and graphic design. He has worked in-house for Bloomingdale’s and the Gap Inc. And has consulted on numerous design projects across the globe including Mulberry (London), Anthropologie (Philadelphia), Gucci, Trussardi, (Italy), Wave (Bangkok), and Crabtree & Evelyn (London/CT). A native of Chicago, he has always had wanderlust, and through his extensive travel, has searched for beauty and design inspiration in the cities, towns and places that he has lived in and traveled to. When he came to Boston from NYC on a one-year design project, he could never imagine that we would be living here 20 years later — deciding to leave corporate life for a smaller more intimate project of his own. Over time the design history of New England drew him in, and influenced his design approach, aesthetic and the current evolution of his shop “good”.

Six Picks, Shoppe OnlineHillaryDecember 10, 20204

Modernist Forms, MGG Studio

Modernist Forms, MGG Studio

“All of my pieces start with an idea or a form that’s compelling to me, something that buzzes in the back of my mind until I figure out how it’s supposed to transform into jewelry. I’m always working to create pieces that are not only visually compelling but that also feel like they belong on the body – they should just feel good when you wear them. My favorite part is the wax carving process. It requires a combination of vision, technique and patience that challenges my abilities in a way I find very satisfying. I love putting the final smoothing touches on a wax original before sending it off to my caster to transform into recycled bronze, silver, or 14k gold.”

Designer Spotlight, Shoppe Online, At The ShowHillaryDecember 3, 20204

Daydream Weaver’s Sara Titone

Daydream Weaver’s Sara Titone

“Knotting and weaving have been passions of mine dating back to my friendship bracelet making days in grade school and the love of sailing growing up with my dad. I’ve always been fascinated by nautical knots and the designs that can be created. Daydream Weaver started as a creative and therapeutic outlet for me and has quickly shaped into a stylish collection of accessories. Choosing shapes are the starting point and where my knotting will evolve. I lean towards bold shapes to give my pieces a modern look so my knotting will either compliment or contrast to stand out. My color palette is chosen seasonally which is always fun (and a bit stressful) to find. My favorite part by far is the prototyping of the knot design to create the piece and to see where the pattern unfolds.”

Designer Spotlight, Shoppe Online, At The ShowHillaryDecember 2, 20204

Trouw's Coastal Cliff Creations

Trouw's Coastal Cliff Creations

TROUW by Kate Trouw is a collection of elegant yet playful statement pieces which can be worn every day. Made by hand in our cliff-top studio in Scotland we use non-precious materials to make jewellery inspired by our coastal location. It’s important to me that what I make is wearable and accessible – I don’t want to make art jewellery that no one can afford, but at the same time I want to be experimental and try new things, so its about getting a balance between the two. The end product has to be something that I can make in volume and a wide enough audience will want to wear! I make everything by hand here in my studio. At the moment my favourite thing is pairing up pieces of sea glass from the beach to make the Found collection earrings. A coating of resin brings the glass back to life and the colour combinations are ace.

Designer Spotlight, Shoppe Online, At The ShowHillaryDecember 1, 20204

Thank You, Shop Small

Thank You, Shop Small

If gratitude had a shape it would be a spiral — and we’re lost in a labyrinth of appreciation for our Shoppe Object community. This Small Business Saturday and everyday, we’re thinking of our independent brands, our inspired makers and artists, our peerless retailers, and everyone among us who works to keep the wheels of creation, commerce, and gift giving spinning. We’re so thankful to have enough and more, so that our spirals can expand outward to spread love and cheer this season. Give, receive, turn, turn, turn.

Shoppe Online, EditorialHillaryNovember 28, 20204

Six Picks: Howard Thornton of SFMOMA

Six Picks: Howard Thornton of SFMOMA

Pollock had his first show here, as did Gorky — and some of our favorite brands for home and gift have gotten their start or made their way into the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s famed Museum Shop over the years. Known for being one of the most imitated and pace-setting museum stores in the country, the shop carries an extensive array of complementary souvenirs to the museum’s collection of more than 33,000 pieces of contemporary masterworks, as well as the best selection of brands and designers from around the world. SFMoMA and the Museum Store are both open now, with COVID precautions and limited capacity in place, so book a time and enjoy the serenity of social distancing if you’re local. We’re always keen to know what catches their buying team’s eyes at Shoppe Object, so we’re pleased to present six standouts from the Shoppe On Marketplace selected by SFMoMA’s Interim Museum Store Director Howard Thornton.

Six Picks, Shoppe OnlineHillaryNovember 24, 20204

The Giggles

The Giggles

It’s Sagittarius season, and we need all the comic and carefree relief we can get. Take a cue from the archer’s signature hilarious, IDGAF and ready-for-anything traits, because when the world’s turned upside down, there’s no better soul medicine than laughter. From chortles to roars, laughter is up there with diet and exercise for optimum health, so we’re comfort-watching reruns of old sitcoms and finding solace in Twitter’s wittiest quips as part of our self-care this week. Winks and clever nods across cards, novelties and grin-making shapes are just what the doctor ordered.

Shoppe Online, EditorialHillaryNovember 23, 20204