Twice a year in New York City, hundreds of brands showcase their designs, products, and next season’s styles at Shoppe Object, a trade show unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Think of the greatest museum gift shop in the world mixed with your favorite bookstore, jewelry shop, and specialty pharmacy, all in one building for one glorious long weekend (once in the summer and once in winter)—that is Shoppe Object in a nutshell.

From February 2-5 we joined over 800 brands at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea for four days of showing off our latest designs, meeting Yamazaki Home fans, discovering new home and gift brands, and making friends with fellow lovers of good design and beautiful objects.

Reflecting on the show, Sayuri M., the senior marketing manager at Yamazaki Home, said, “Our white products look striking against a gray background. For the first time, we had a magnetic wall, which allowed us to display many magnetic items—this was an amazing experience. Additionally, I included more props than usual to help clarify the various items. I hope it enhanced the customers' understanding of our offerings.”

Shoko G., Yamazaki Home's sales and marketing assistant manager, thought that it was interesting "how popular the magnetic collection was with a wide range of buyers." He said, similarly, the traceless adhesive presentation attracted buyers' attention. He reported that among the most popular items at the Yamazaki Home booth were our kitchen items and under-sink organization solutions.

Throughout the show, our team saw people experiment with different magnetic item placements (one of our favorite activities at our showroom), examine the wood grain on the TOWER collection, and be delighted by our Yellow Pear and Forest Green collaborations (with Apartment Therapy and the Strategist, respectively).

Having learned so much and seen so many showcases throughout Shoppe Object, we thought we should share a few of our favorite finds from the long weekend! Below, you’ll find a not-at-all-conclusive list of products we loved, booths that drew our attention, and brands we felt aligned with the Yamazaki Home philosophy.

Hachiman Buckets were displayed beautifully against a green wall. Sold by Chilewich, these delightful Japanese buckets are multi-purpose, multi-colored, and multi-sized.

We loved seeing Hasami Porcelain, a fellow Japanese brand dedicated to clean lines and high-quality material, at Shoppe Object. We often use Hasami Porcelain dishware when displaying our kitchen solutions because of our complimentary design philosophies.

With our U.S. headquarters in Brooklyn, any fellow Brooklyn-based brands immediately caught many of our team members’ eyes. One of which, Brooklyn Candle Studio, had a particularly eye-catching booth. Their eco-friendly, small batch candles are handmade in Brooklyn, look particularly elegant (we think their Valentine’s Day Love Potion candle would look perfect atop our PLAIN Storage Table), and smell heavenly to boot.

Another booth we couldn’t get enough of, Sunhouse Craft, got us excited about cleaning and crafting with their collection of handmade brooms and cleaning tools.

The POTR booth was especially exciting for our team as it utilizes the principles of origami to provide sustainable, hassle free botanical care. In simpler terms, POTR creates beautiful planters and vases out of waste fishing nets which keeps plants alive longer, uses less water, and are packed flat for delivery, significantly reducing shipping-related carbon emission.

By the time we started packing up our booth, the Yamazaki Home Team was exhausted but happy with the connections we made with partners, customers, both old and new, fellow brand representatives, and with Shoppe Object as a whole. And, we’re already looking forward to our next showing.