If you’ve started holiday shopping but haven’t ventured out to Stranger & Co. in Edina yet, get ready to have your mind blown. Minnevangelist co-founder Ashlea Halpern profiled the store in the new issue of Dwell magazine, which named it one of America’s Best Independent Design Shops.

In the article, shop founder Maura Doyle waxes poetic about form and function—an obsession she traces back to Marcel Breuer and growing up near the hulking concrete church he designed for Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville. Her curatorial tastes were further shaped at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where she studied sculpture.

Photo: Cameron Wittig

After working at local galleries and retail shops, Doyle launched Stranger & Co. online in December 2019. The following summer, she was invited to open a brick-and-mortar shop in the swanky Nolan Mains development at 50th and France in Edina, home to Billy Reid, Scout, Pacifier, Grethen House, and Pajarito.

Her store’s eclectic selection includes a mix of statement ceramics, avant-garde coffee table books, imported Moroccan rugs, and small-batch apothecary goods. Doyle purposely scouts brands helmed by women and people of color, immigrants, and LGBTQIA+ makers—ideally ones that can’t be found elsewhere in the Twin Cities.

Photo: Cameron Wittig

“I try to find things that are sculptural and functional at the same time,” Doyle says. “I’m interested in the line between what is a useful object and what is art.”

To read the full story — and shop Doyle’s top picks from such local makers as Louise Gray, Zoe Powell, Brendan Barrett, and Kristen Kaas — head over to dwell.com.

Stranger & Co.
3929 Market St., Edina, MN; no phone.