Bradford Shellhammer works in the business of taste. Before joining 1stDibs as chief marketing & product officer for 1stDibs, his career had traversed everything from editorial to entrepreneurship; he founded three companies, most notably Fab.com, a flash sale site for homeware and design once valued at $1 billion. Bradford is a tastemaker, but he sees his job more as a facilitator than a dictator, helping collectors find what they love in the big bad world of design on the World Wide Web. More importantly, he’s a collector himself. His Manhattan apartment doubles as a shrine to his idols and obsessions — early Warhol prints, vintage IKEA furniture, original posters from Depeche Mode, Erasure and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Perhaps Bradford’s greatest competitive edge is that he fully inhabits his own taste.
Which early work experiences influenced you most?
⎯⎯⎯ There were two that defined the arcs of my career. The first was building my own company. I love that you said I am in the business of taste, because I was the ultimate curator and tastemaker in that business. We created something that struck a nerve, and I was on top of the world. I was having dinner with Pharrell Williams and travelling the world first class and on magazine covers. But when you sell taste, the world is fickle, and a business that put me on the map ultimately failed. It's really hard to run a business on a person's POV, and we probably needed a little more help and time to make it successful. The last 10 years of my career have been dedicated to helping people find the things that they covet, as opposed to telling them what to covet. I get joy collecting art, decorating my home, and having 500 pairs of shoes — I want to help other people collect things with meaning and nostalgia in their own lives.
So you’re a collector first?
⎯⎯⎯ Without a doubt. My friends like to say I'm a modern hoarder, but the other way of saying that is I am a collector. I think someone who's a serious art collector would roll their eyes hearing me say that, because I collect vintage IKEA, prints and posters.
What are some of your most prized possessions?
⎯⎯⎯ I have 40 to 50 original Warhols in my collection, including a ton of Polaroids he’s taken, a few drawings that he did and dozens of prints.
And besides the Warhols?
⎯⎯⎯ A vintage IKEA collection. My whole aesthetic was very much informed by mid 90s IKEA catalogues that I read as a child. That was my first foray into appreciating design. So, I still live with IKEA mixed with more collectible and higher-end furniture. I have a really amazing toy collection too—it's probably 1,000 pieces deep—and that’s everything from the toys I had as a kid to those I have collected everywhere I travel. I have over 1,000 books. I have a cake stand collection—dozens of cake stands.
You said your job is to help people find their own taste. Is it fair to say you’re still a curator, not a gatekeeper?
⎯⎯⎯ The role of curation, to me, is to invite people to find what they love. I’m aware that the price points on 1stDibs are out of reach for many. But at the same time, we have helped with democratizing design. The objects we sell are beautiful, and they invite you into a world that you may not know about. We are working on new ways to encourage a younger class of connoisseurship, as good design, by design, should be welcoming, not elitist. Confusing design with luxury, I think, is inappropriate. Things can become luxury for a myriad of reasons: material, provenance, scarcity, and craftsmanship. I like the idea of telling the story of why something is worth its value, and then letting people decide, do I want one chair that's gonna last me a lifetime, or do I want to buy a chair every five years? When I was hired at eBay, my title was chief curator. I wondered, "What the hell does that even mean?" I realized very quickly that what I actually wanted to build were the tools to let people curate their own version of eBay, as opposed to me trying to figure out what others should buy on eBay. Like, eBay has no business telling you what to buy. eBay should invite you to find what you're looking for. That was an epiphany of my career. I realized it wasn't about me. It was actually about helping other people find their thing. I don't care if you collect Hermès bags, snow globes or coins. If that makes you happy, awesome.
What’s the focus of your role at 1stDibs?
⎯⎯⎯ At 1stDibs, my team is called Customer Experience. We use technology and creativity to solve customer problems. A problem I am actively working on is how to make vintage, antiques, and collectible design more accessible. We’ve been creating videos with influencers to teach people how to search on 1stDibs, how to score great deals, and how to start collecting.
There's a really great video of an interior designer named Molly Kidd teaching people how to search on our platform and what she does to find what she’s looking for. She says she comes to 1stDibs to shop “vibes.” This is the best marketing you could come up with! Teaching people how to use our platform to find beautiful objects is one of our top focuses. I want 1stDibs to be welcoming, inviting and fun.
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