This talk will explore the ways that late Ottoman Jews came to define themselves as oriental through their engagement with “oriental” products, both within the empire and beyond its borders. Moving from a carpet shop in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar to the streets of Chicago and from dance halls to the interiors of Ottoman Jews’ homes, this talk explores the themes of performative identity, Orientalism, patriotism, and purchasing power in order to better understand how late Ottoman Jews fashioned themselves alaturka through their engagement with material culture. It is equally concerned with asking the following questions: how, when, and where did Ottoman Jews come to think of themselves as “easterners” and in which respects did this self-ascriptive identity coincide with their consumption habits or occupational profiles? Although much has been made of Middle Eastern non-Muslims’ propensity to “westernize” during the modern era, my talk will ask how Ottoman Jews’ expressions of taste for things oriental helped them announce their local, class, and imperial identities, to Ottoman and foreign audiences alike.