“Curious goods for curious people,” reads the slogan for The Shopkeepers, a carefully curated retail, gallery, and event boutique in the Funk Zone. “We wanted it to be weird and changing and unscripted,” explained Patti Pagliei Simpson, who opened the space last summer with husband and entrepreneur John Simpson.
As the cofounder of Waxing Poetic, a jewelry and fine-goods shop launched in 2002, Pagliei Simpson has expanded her finely tuned artistic eye into the new venture, which aims to provide shoppers with not only something neat to take home but also a meaningful experience to remember. “It’s really a process of reconnecting to how we make things, and why we buy things, and why we want to be in community with each other,” she said.
A dream team of Santa Barbara renaissance people has helped take the store to new heights, including buyer Susan Pitcher, referred to by Pagliei Simpson as “the master collaborator.” “Nothing is cookie-cutter in this place. Instead of bringing in whole collections, we’re bringing in items,” Pagliei Simpson said.