{"id":164523,"date":"2025-11-11T14:30:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T13:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.apartamentomagazine.com\/?p=164523"},"modified":"2025-11-11T15:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T14:18:11","slug":"a-conversation-with-jesse-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.apartamentomagazine.com\/stories\/a-conversation-with-jesse-lee\/","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with Jesse Lee"},"content":{"rendered":" \t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tTo access this post, you must purchase Apartamento Membership<\/a><\/span>.\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\t\t\t\tTo access this post, you must purchase Apartamento Membership<\/a><\/span>.\t\t <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":20246,"featured_media":170521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","text_author-jordan-blumetti","photo_author-daniel-dorsa","membership-content","access-restricted"],"acf":{"link_archive":false,"archive_story":null,"archive_bg":"#F5F4EE","archive_title_color":"#000000","cover_bg":"#F5F4EE","cover_title_color":"#ffffff","body_bg":"#ffffff","body_text_color":"#000000","body_captions_color":"#666666","related_bg":"#ffffff","related_text_color":"#000000","stories_bg":"#EDECEC","alternative_image":"","hover_image":"","credits":"","title_format":"center","font_size":"medium","image_format":"cover","hero_image_mobile":169883,"video":"","video_excerpt":"","video_format":"regular","content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"two_blocks","block_sizes":"half_40_60","content_type_left":"credits","image_size_left":"regular","image_left":null,"video_left_url":"","video_caption_left":"","video_left_type":false,"text_left":"","credit_image":170523,"credit_link_left":"","content_type_right":"text","image_size_right":"regular","image_right":"","video_right_url":"","video_caption_right":"","video_right_type":false,"text_right":"Los Angeles: You could be forgiven for expecting a whiff of pretension in the presence of a man who was recently called \u2018LA\u2019s new hype king\u2019 in a Bloomberg<\/em> headline. Instead, Jesse Lee exhibits a disarming ease\u2014a welcome reminder that influence doesn\u2019t always come wrapped in affectation.\r\nOver the last 20 years, Lee\u2019s list of accomplishments seems too extensive to number; these range from founding a creative agency and an e-commerce platform to producing highbrow music, fashion, and art events for the likes of SXSW, Art Basel, and New York Fashion Week. But his awareness of design and cultural exchange goes back much further. His father owned a leather goods company, and his mother was an artist; moving back and forth between Korea and America in his formative years taught him the value of absorbing and translating influences into his own unique aesthetic.\r\nHe is a deep thinker, but practical, a person whose nonpareil taste for rare and highly collectible fashion, art, and design has been validated by both the market and his peers. Instead of coveting those objects, he\u2019s in the business of sharing them as widely as possible. Following the launch of his much-lauded Basic.Space online marketplace in 2020, Lee acquired Design Miami in 2023, and he was tasked with repackaging the functional art companion to Art Basel for a younger audience, a challenge squarely in Lee\u2019s wheelhouse.\r\nLee often works out of his home-office studio in a princely neighbourhood in Central Los Angeles with his wife and three young children nearby. He doesn\u2019t stay out all night like he used to, but the quiet life with his family seems to have sharpened his focus. Seated at a white banquette, wearing his trademark ball cap, he extols the virtues of work and living spaces that feel useful and lived-in, never staged. The choice of interiors makes the case for him: antique cedar joists and original stone detailing alongside landmark furniture from 20th-century masters. His wooden worktable is crowded with objects, papers, and books, illuminated by the arm of a powder-blue Virgil Abloh x Vitra lamp.\r\nThere\u2019s a boundless curiosity and humility to the way he speaks about both his personal and commercial projects, all circling the same mission: to raise design consciousness among younger generations and build a tent big enough for anyone interested in demystifying the occasionally stuffy and esoteric worlds of art and design. Despite a brimming resume, Lee is still, in spirit, the same college kid who used to host club night parties out of his dorm room.<\/strong>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image_size":"full","gallery":[170387]},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image_size":"regular","gallery":[170391]},{"acf_fc_layout":"interview","interview":[{"question":"When did you first start paying attention to aesthetics and design?","answer":"I haven\u2019t really talked much about this before, but I grew up between Seoul, Chicago, and Southern California. I spent my elementary school years in Korea, but every summer I visited family in the States. That\u2019s how I kept in touch with American pop culture like music, sports, and sneakers in particular. I would take those things back to Korea with me. But when we moved back to the States, to the suburbs of Chicago, the reverse happened. I\u2019d have cool stuff from Korea that the kids here didn\u2019t have. I didn\u2019t know anybody when we moved back, and I was starting middle school, which was intimidating. But I remember a classmate offered me money for a backpack that I bought in Korea."},{"question":"So you\u2019ve had an eye for this from early on.","answer":"Yes, it was early. And my parents had really great style too; they always dressed well. I was definitely inspired by them. Fast-forwarding a bit, my style evolved more with music. I started DJing in high school and throwing club nights in college. Being a club promoter and having a music blog and telling people what music to listen to meant I had to dress the part. The aesthetic is sonic but also sartorial. Back then, it was North Face puffy coats, East Coast hip-hop style, and rave clothing all mixed together. That was my early iteration of streetwear. Design didn\u2019t really come to mind with regards to my aesthetic sensibility until the last 10 years or so\u2014the second half of my time in LA. During those early years, I wasn\u2019t making enough money to afford nice things in my apartment, and I didn\u2019t know anyone when I first moved here."},{"question":"How does a person make it in LA without knowing anyone?","answer":"I started at the bottom: internships, mailroom, retail, assistant\u2014you name it. I kept moving up in these odd jobs because I never said no to anything. I drove people to the airport, ran errands. I went out every night to network. I wasn\u2019t trying to be conniving or have some ulterior motive. I had to meet people in order to get jobs. I was transparent, and people seemed to like it."}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"two_blocks","block_sizes":"half_50_50","content_type_left":"image","image_size_left":"regular","image_left":170395,"video_left_url":"","video_caption_left":"","video_left_type":false,"text_left":"","credit_image":null,"credit_link_left":null,"content_type_right":"image","image_size_right":"regular","image_right":170396,"video_right_url":"","video_caption_right":"","video_right_type":false,"text_right":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"interview","interview":[{"question":"So the \u2018forever intern\u2019 thing isn\u2019t just false modesty?","answer":"I had no choice but to start that way. I never said no. I\u2019d always answer my phone, seven days a week. I\u2019m still trying to do that 20 years later. I try not to ignore DMs or people asking for a meeting or a job recommendation because so many people helped me along in those early years. I landed my first full-time job as a marketing manager for a magazine, which ended up going out of business during the recession, so I was forced to start my own business. I brought back my old music blog and started throwing parties again, and a promotion business was born out of that. We\u2019d throw invite-only parties downtown. DJs who became famous started out there. That\u2019s how I met people like Virgil [Abloh]\u2014he was DJing back then\u2014and that\u2019s how my network grew. From there, I started producing content, events, and strategy for fashion companies because they wanted to be in front of young crowds at New York Fashion Week, Coachella, SXSW, and Art Basel. Everything started melding together\u2014fashion, design, art, music, youth culture. That was my life during my 20s and 30s."},{"question":"At what point did your focus expand beyond fashion into furniture and design?","answer":"At a certain point, fashion sort of hit its peak for me, and I felt less interested in buying luxury fashion and slowly started collecting vintage clothes and furniture, learning from other friends and people who had good taste. I probably learnt aesthetics through my parents as a child, but as an adult, LA was the epicentre for vintage. You\u2019ve got the flea markets and the Rose Bowl. So many people I know in LA have really cool vintage furniture collections. It\u2019s not always just about price; it\u2019s knowing what to look for, and having a vision for how pieces from different styles or eras can fit together."},{"question":"Did Basic.Space grow out of this increasing sense of boredom with the fashion industry?","answer":"To be honest, I was just getting a little bored of being a creative agency for other clients. And I had this network of amazingly talented creatives\u2014musicians, artists, and designers. I thought, why don\u2019t I create my own platform and let my friends sell whatever they want?"}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image_size":"full","gallery":[170532]},{"acf_fc_layout":"interview","interview":[{"question":"Did you always spend a lot of time on resale platforms online?","answer":"I completely attribute that to my wife. She was an early consumer and seller of luxury vintage fashion when we first met 12 years ago. She was always buying and selling things, and a lot of well-known fashion stylists would buy directly from her. I guess I noticed that what she was doing could be a real career for a lot of other people who aren\u2019t necessarily influencers, celebrities, or early adopters. She was making money selling vintage furs and Escada blazers. I started buying vintage personally, influenced by my wife, and that\u2019s literally all I wear now. People used to think vintage was a trend, but I\u2019d say this is a structural shift. I think younger generations from now on will always buy vintage. Scarcity matters, and people want things no one else has. When I was in Seoul last month, I found this pristine Ralph Lauren polo windbreaker, probably made in the \u201880s. I\u2019d rather have that than any new jacket from a luxury brand off the rack."},{"question":"I spend countless hours scouring eBay. I\u2019m proud and a little protective of my search terms at this point.","answer":"Right? And I think furniture is the same thing. But provenance is a bigger issue with furniture because there are so many fakes and dupes. That\u2019s why I only work with certain galleries. Even if it\u2019s a little more expensive, I\u2019d rather have peace of mind that it\u2019s coming from the right provenance."},{"question":"Has the premise with respect to what types of sellers and items you want to host changed at all over the years?","answer":"The premise still remains the same: It\u2019s all about curation. But there have been different iterations. A few months ago, we sold an original Jean Prouv\u00e9 gas station at an event in LA. It was flown in from France and installed here. A collector from San Francisco bought it for her family house in Palm Springs. We can sell a hat for $45 or a Prouv\u00e9 for $1.5 million, and everything in between. At the core of all the fashion, design, and art is our careful curation. What connects the curation and discovery aspects of anything worthwhile is authenticity. Not just the authenticity of a product being real, but the authenticity of individual sellers. We trust the tastes of our people. I think design and furniture showcase a person\u2019s style in an understated way. It goes beyond clothing. We\u2019ve gotten used to how we dress as an outward form of expression, but if you go to someone\u2019s home, it\u2019s the subtle things that can make you really understand a person\u2019s taste."}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image_size":"regular","gallery":[170389]},{"acf_fc_layout":"interview","interview":[{"question":"With so much time dedicated to curating collections for Basic.Space, how do you think about curating your own space, especially this home office?","answer":"We moved into this house a couple years ago, and it came with this pool house that\u2019s pretty big, so I turned it into my studio and office. I wanted it to look and feel like a beach house in Formentera, an island off the coast of Spain, so I had some of the finishing on the walls bring out these original stone elements when we renovated. It came with the original sauna, which still has that nice, warm cedar smell. As much as I wanted the rest of the space to have a clean aesthetic, it felt a little fake to me. I work here a lot, and my desk is messy. I like the impromptu look of just stacking things on shelves. It\u2019s a mix of maximalist and minimalist. I\u2019m not trying to make things look too pretty. I have a Max Lamb chair that\u2019s made out of cardboard\u2014he\u2019s one of my favorite designers. But then you\u2019ll also see the Prouv\u00e9 daybed mixed in. I have the Devon Turnbull Ojas speakers that are just on the floor, and books and random things everywhere."},{"question":"There\u2019s a certain romance to that.","answer":"I\u2019d rather those things just be sitting here, where I actually use them. And our interior designer hated this, but I insisted we put a hideous, huge TV up on the wall because I like watching and listening to things while I\u2019m working."},{"question":"What\u2019s a piece in your own collection that you\u2019re particularly fond of right now?","answer":"A Jean Prouv\u00e9 daybed with a [Charlotte] Perriand swivel. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve been eyeing for a couple years, and I finally got it from one of our dealers, Fran\u00e7ois Laffanour of Galerie Downtown. He\u2019s one of the most significant Prouv\u00e9 and Perriand collectors in the world."}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image_size":"full","gallery":[170528]},{"acf_fc_layout":"interview","interview":[{"question":"In terms of creating a narrative through curation, how do you think about the notion of gatekeeping?","answer":"I\u2019ve never been a gatekeeper. We want to be exclusive but inclusionary. We like to say that we\u2019re the cool table, but you can sit with us. It all comes down to whether or not someone wants to learn about design in a genuine way."},{"question":"How do you weigh the difference between what\u2019s of the moment and what has real timeless appeal?","answer":"During the post-Covid ZIRP era, where everyone was spending money like crazy, I think we felt pressure to grow by doing as many drops as possible. That whole era was the epitome of hype."},{"question":"The NFT bull run.","answer":"That\u2019s right. And we were in the thick of all that, but it didn\u2019t feel right. You could sense that it was all fake, and we got out pretty early. We stopped making and releasing NFTs at the end of 2021, so we avoided all of 2022, fortunately. We\u2019re not going to chase trends and hype. That\u2019s ultimately what led to acquiring Design Miami. We felt like design was still a very nascent industry."}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image_size":"regular","gallery":[170397]},{"acf_fc_layout":"interview","interview":[{"question":"What do you mean by that?","answer":"The younger generations maybe don\u2019t have a lot of disposable income right now, but eventually they\u2019re going to grow up and into this market. That\u2019s exactly what happened with me. It went from streetwear to luxury fashion to design\u2014a mix of vintage and collectable design. That\u2019s what I mean by \u2018nascent\u2019, and that\u2019s why we\u2019ve taken the long view instead of just trying to create hype."},{"question":"I\u2019ve heard you say that we live in a \u2018designed world\u2019. Is this a reference to design being everywhere we look now, in real life and in online spaces?","answer":"Even though we launched during Covid, I always knew you can never let go of IRL experiences. The first in-person event we did was with Harmony Korine. We live-streamed Korine and his daughter walking around a gallery, and then a month later, we did a project with Virgil and Vitra. We expanded on this idea of IRL-to-URL where we created a set design at a pop-up in Miami Design District, and we live-streamed the store globally on Basic.Space because we wanted to allow people who couldn\u2019t be there access to that experience. The real thing is equally important to the online convenience of a transaction. Since then, we\u2019ve done over 30 pop-ups in LA, New York, Miami, and Paris. And we\u2019re expanding further into Europe and Asia next year."},{"question":"With respect to online shopping, I often think about something I read in Jonah Weiner\u2019s fantastic newsletter, Blackbird Spyplane<\/em>: We can build a provenance of our own when we buy something in person because we \u2018encountered it in a living, breathing, physical space\u2019 and interacted with another human in the process. It\u2019s imbued with a story that would be otherwise lost online. Your work seems to be an attempt to bridge that gap.","answer":"That\u2019s the way I shop for anything important, whether it\u2019s art or clothing. I have to go see it, touch it, and think about it. That\u2019s our logic. We want people to be able to touch, feel, see everything, but we want people to be able to go home and buy it on their laptop if they\u2019re still thinking about it. Seeing these things in person is how you learn too, right? Just as I learn something new every time I go to an art fair. I\u2019ve always had an affinity for creating events and experiences. It\u2019s different than just scrolling through your Instagram. A lot of fake communities are built online, but I think you can only form these types of relationships in real life."}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image_size":"full","gallery":[170392]},{"acf_fc_layout":"interview","interview":[{"question":"Is there a certain pressure in taking over Design Miami to maintain tradition and prestige while also inviting younger generations into the tent?","answer":"In the case of Design Miami, the fair had always gone hand-in-hand with Art Basel. We made a difficult decision to not do Basel Switzerland this past summer. It was a controversial thing, but I just felt like we needed to try something new. Instead, we hosted exploratory events in Aspen and Seoul. Aspen is kind of old money. That hits on the traditional, seasoned collector base and prestige. And Korea\u2014Seoul in particular\u2014is kind of the opposite. It\u2019s a young, fast-paced, and futuristic city. I just got back from Seoul last week. One of my favourite experiences this year is Gentle Monster\u2019s new headquarters. I considerGentle Monster to be one of the best luxury eyewear brands to come up in the last decade. They\u2019re in this brutalist building with multiple floors and multiple shops on each floor. Every detail was thoughtful: the interiors, lighting, scent, bathrooms, and all the art installations. I could just sense the vision of the brand without reading about it. There are a lot of forward-thinking movements in Seoul. There\u2019s a vibrant energy that feels like LA or New York City [did] when I was younger."},{"question":"Miami has had its cycles too, but there was something of a renaissance in art and design transplants a couple years ago. How do you find the creative community there, and has it evolved?","answer":"There was a huge rush down there a few years ago, mostly with crypto and tech, and then a lot of people just left. It seems like it\u2019s settled now and moving forward with more artists and designers who are bringing back that same energy and youthfulness. We\u2019re trying to connect those dots with Design Miami."},{"question":"What do you think the future holds for the design world?","answer":"Historically, fashion, art, and design were all sold separately. But younger generations don\u2019t like that separation. They want experiences. Even people who don\u2019t have money are travelling to Europe on summer vacation. That\u2019s why many malls and department stores are struggling. I think there\u2019s a new definition for luxury now. Time is the luxury. There has to be an amazing experience on tap for people to dedicate their time. If these experiences include exposure to art and design, the interest will naturally grow. And we want to help redefine luxury. That\u2019s the vision."}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image_size":"regular","gallery":[170393]}],"related_text":"","issue":"","button_text":""},"yoast_head":"\nA conversation with Jesse Lee<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jesse Lee exhibits a disarming ease\u2014a welcome reminder that influence doesn\u2019t always come wrapped in affectation.Over the last 20 years, Lee\u2019s list of accomplishments seems too extensive to number; these range from founding a creative agency and an e-commerce platform to producing highbrow music, fashion, and art events for the likes of SXSW, Art Basel, and New York Fashion Week.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.apartamentomagazine.com\/stories\/a-conversation-with-jesse-lee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A conversation with Jesse Lee\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jesse Lee exhibits a disarming ease\u2014a welcome reminder that influence doesn\u2019t always come wrapped in affectation.Over the last 20 years, Lee\u2019s list of accomplishments seems too extensive to number; 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