Shinola and artist Maxine McCrann host an unconventional dinner

Shinola and the artist Maxine McCrann have conceived The Untraditional Dinner Party, a collaboration that discards the rulebook of formal entertaining in favour of something altogether more spirited. The invitation itself, rendered in McCrann’s distinctive hand drawn style on pale yellow card stock, becomes the message: an illustration teeming with black inked stars, wine glasses and tableware rendered with deliberate naïveté, accompanied by instructions to arrive at a time of one’s choosing, dress code described simply as “your call,” and the assurance that unexpected guests are welcome.

This partnership between the Detroit watchmaker and the illustrator sits comfortably within Shinola’s broader sensibility. The brand has long drawn inspiration from American craft and the idea of doing things differently. McCrann’s hand is unmistakably present in every line of the invitation, from the playful arrangement of stars surrounding the central text to the deliberately imperfect rendering of dining essentials. The message itself resists the ceremonial solemnity that dinner parties traditionally demand, instead extending an arm to those who might feel overlooked by convention.

The yellow field of the invitation catches the light in the photographs, creating warmth against the silvered textural background. Hands holding the card appear at ease, unencumbered by formality. This is McCrann’s gift to the project: a visual language that makes gathering feel less like obligation and more like genuine pleasure. The dinner party begins on November 10th. The details, like the spirit of the thing, remain pleasantly uncertain.

Imagery courtesy of Shinola (@shinola).