Catching up on “Man Shops Globe,” plus apartment porn

I had a chance to catch up on “Man Shops Globe” over the weekend. My complaints remain the same as from the first episode review but I think the show is starting to settle into a nice rhythm. Mr. Johnson talks to Patty Isen, Director of Special Projects for Anthropologie. Mr. Johnson goes somewhere amazing and looks for inspiration for Anthro’s stores. Oohs and aahs ensue.

This past week Mr. Johnson traveled to Belgium and Holland, where he met up with former Anthropologie buyer Leslie Oschmann. Ms. Oschmann has started her own company where she affixes old paintings to furniture, in essence recycling and repurposing the paintings. Late in the episode they showed quite a few of her chairs on display in the Rockefeller Center (NYC) store’s art gallery. From the looks of it I think this was back in April — I faintly remember this and only wish I’d known more at the time!

This episode was all about the search for modern pieces that could be Anthropologized. I laughed out loud when Mr. Johnson described modern thusly: “It’s not practical, it’s not comfortable, it’s not affordable!” Amen! Modern in this case meaning less Ikea and more the mid-century minimalistic (and expensive) shapes Apartment Therapy and such swoon over. Anyone remember the crazy yellow chrome Keiny Rocker Anthropologie carried in 2006? They mentioned it on the episode as a misstep. No argument from me!

Needless to say Mr. Johnson was having trouble finding what he wanted. Modern tends to read as masculine, and to paraphrase Mr. Johnson, Anthropologie traditionally does sweet and pretty things. It did allow time for a couple of distractions, such as visiting one of the design studios of Axel Vervoordt. It was nothing short of remarkable. Lots of strategically placed objects that play as mind teasers — why is this here? What do the few objects placed with it mean? There was strong use of negative space and that’s something you don’t find much of at Anthropologie! An interesting contrast to be sure.

A vignette also took Mr. Johnson to a small street market in Brussels. I loved his remark: “A great way to disconnect from what shops are telling you is good.” This reinforced another reason why I love Anthropologie’s stores — they find inspiration rather than deriving from the market.

On the episode a couple of weeks ago Mr. Johnson was in Turkey and he took a small group of employees with him. Among the group was Executive Creative Director Kristin Norris and European Managing Director James Bidwell. They were on the hunt for suzanis, fabrics and textiles.

They found some incredible stuff at Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, which has been around since 1464! It was funny when Mr. Johnson remarked that the prices he was given were “tourist prices.” Anthropologie Buyers, they’re just like us! After a few detours (including a trip up the Bosphorus) the team found a textile artist named Engin Demirkol from whom Mr. Johnson ordered 5 mixed textile pillow samples. Through her “One of a Kind” vignette I learned that Ms. Demirkol collects textiles made almost exclusively by women around Turkey. Pretty fascinating stuff. My question is did her samples make it into stores? We know they at least made it to Mr. Johnson’s NYC apartment.

photo by William Waldron for Elle Decor

Speaking of which, at the beginning of the episode there were a few shots weaved in of a production interview at Mr. Johnson’s Upper East Side apartment in NYC (my old neighborhood! Not that I lived on 5th Ave with a park view though…). While they were showing the interview I couldn’t help but wish they’d do a full tour of the apartment. Turns out my wish has already been granted! The apartment was featured in Elle Decor’s October 2009 issue. There’s a slideshow and a short article at the link. Ahh, apartment porn. I love it!