Shelter Offers a Compelling Alternative to Traditional Design Fairs
Deirdre Maloney and Minya Quirk, the co-founders of Shoppe Object, are debuting an immersive three-day event during NYCxDesign that combines shopping, culture, and real conversation into something new
During their stints in the fashion industry, Deirdre Maloney and Minya Quirk found themselves growing frustrated at the difficulty of discovering standout brands at trade shows. The longtime business partners even operated their own for several years before co-founding Shoppe Object, the closely watched homewares and gift show with editions in New York City and High Point. “That show really went gangbusters because the industry needed it,” Quirk explains of the stylish mix of elevated brands and makers that established Shoppe Object as a resource for tastemaking merchants and editors. Now, as co-founders of Afternoon Light, a curated e-commerce destination for home décor and furniture, the duo is harnessing their decades of trade show experience and design-industry insights to launch Shelter, which is officially debuting during NYCxDesign at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea on Saturday, May 17.
Maloney and Quirk are billing Shelter as an immersive showcase of tastefully curated furniture, home decor, art, and collectible design from more than 100 best-in-class brands and designers at a range of price points. That means wonderfully intricate lighting sculptures by Galerie Creative Mind Andreea Avram Rusu neighbor items at lower price points like streamlined clocks by Lemnos and rechargeable table lamps by Tom Dixon. And everything is shoppable directly from the source.
“The [fairs] we think are most successful capture the highest-level professional buyer, the aspiring buyer, and everyone in between,” Maloney tells Galerie. “Shelter feels primed for that because we have every high-end, aspirational, and expensive items in our show but also objects that appeal to someone who likes good design and might not be ready to shell out $10,000 for furniture, but can walk away feeling inspired and part of something.”
Shelter’s all-encompassing purview and ambition to rethink the possibilities of a design-week event informs the debut edition’s tongue-in-cheek theme of “Mart Nouveau.” To that end, the three-day event aims to offer what’s perhaps best described as a “vibe” by mixing the polish of a professional event with the energy and tone of a cultural experience: “not a tedious trade show, not another forgettable cocktail party,” Quirk explains, “but a joyful, real-life experience where creativity, community, and business collide.” Beyond shopping for furniture and homewares, visitors can expect high-octane programming, music, food, and a show floor designed to keep the experience continuously engrossing. “We’ve taken great care in making sure the space—a beautiful open-windowed rectangle—will be interesting,” Quirk says. “It’s important that there’s new discovery at every turn.”
The design to discover runs the gamut. Shelter smartly places bold-faced furniture brands near smaller showcases by independent designers to help level the playing field and maintain an unexpected mix as one wanders. “In a larger show, it’s predictable that you walk in and are confronted immediately with the biggest budgets,” Quirk says. “We’re not just putting ceramicists in the back.” No matter where one ends up, thrilling discoveries await. Swiss favorite USM Modular Furniture is debuting a line with industrial designer Henry Julier while ergonomic office furniture staple Humanscale is venturing into home goods—its first foray outside the workspace category where it dominates. Freewheeling satellite show JonaldDudd is presenting a record-shattering mix of 65 independent designers—Steven Bukowski, Micah Rosenblatt, Hamilton Holmes, Hannah Bigeleisen—in a compelling presentation curated by the equally mischievous Chen Chen & Kai Williams to toast the exhibition’s tenth anniversary.
One of the biggest parts of the fair’s appeal also lies in simply coming together and experiencing design up close. “We told our brands to not bring your average trade show booth and think outside the box,” Quirk says. “What can you do in your booth that’s going to make people want to come in and ask questions or interact with the product somehow?” RS Barcelona is staging a foosball tournament on their game tables, which includes a collector-grade collaboration by Hebru Brantley in a stunning vermilion red shade. Carl Hansen & Søn will host a live demonstration of how one of the Scandinavian brand’s Wishbone Chairs is meticulously woven.
Throughout the fair, a lineup of panel discussions will also broach topics the industry rarely treads. Curated in partnership with Jean Lin, founder of local design gallery Colony, the dialogues encompass “Curation as Culture” featuring Good Black Art founder Phillip Collins and “Is Good Design Trans?” with a lineup of exclusively trans and nonbinary designers such as Joey Zeledón, Sloan Leo Cowan of Flox Studio, and Stuart Getty of IDEO.
Taking a giant leap and launching such an ambitious venture naturally comes with anxiety, but both Quirk and Maloney are staying optimistic and letting their instincts guide. “If we weren’t a little nervous, it wouldn’t be right,” Quirk says. “No fair offers what Shelter promises to offer. We really built what we wanted to go to.”
Shelter will be on view at the Starrett-Lehigh Building (601 West 26th St) from May 17–19.