Emma Lewis

Small Business Owner, Toddler Mom, and PhD

I am toddler mom and an art historian with a PhD obsessed with all old things, including architecture, archives and of course, historical objects. My art deco inspired brand The Twentieth combines historical maximalist design with sarcasm and contemporary to give my one hundred year-old image archives a new life as an unapologetic stationery and gift line. I started The Twentieth as a "pandemic pivot" after becoming a mother three weeks before Chicago shut down in 2020. In the two years I have grown my business to include both retail and wholesale, selling the antiques I love to collect alongside my modern interpretations. I have been operating as a pop-up store at markets and festivals, sometimes two or three in one weekend, and as a part of a local artist collective store. Rare Form is my new brick and mortar where I sell the antiques I love, all of The Twentieth products I make, and other vintage-inspired homewares as an early 20th design concept store.