If you've ever been inside an Anthropologie, you know that the store is about so much more than clothes. Specifically, furniture and home goods, the kind that look like the ultimate finds from a far-flung flea market-and that's because most of them are. Keith Johnson, Anthro's buyer-at-large, searches fairs from Paris to Tunisia, Argentina to Turkey, for the unique pieces that set the stores' displays. His treasure hunts are the subject of a new Sundance Channel series entitled Man Shops Globe, premiering October 7. We caught up with Johnson during a rare New York moment.
Is there a strategy or science to scouring flea markets?
It's amazing how people who have one good thing often have another. There is also efficiency about the market. If there is one good thing in a bad stall, it usually disappears pretty quickly, so you have a short time frame. People with good taste are consistent.
Can you talk to us about flea market rules of etiquette?
The classic one is you put your finger on
Blog Posts by W Magazine
Anthropologie's Buying Expert: Tips for Getting What You Want at the Flea Market
By W Magazine | Fashion – Thu, Oct 1, 2009 9:39 PM EDTExercise in Humility: My workout with Gwyneth Paltrow and celeb trainer Tracy Anderson!
By W Magazine | Healthy Living – Fri, Apr 17, 2009 7:59 PM EDTP.T., or pre-Tracy Anderson, my dance moves had been confined to wedding receptions and dinner parties gone wild. [See "Gwyneth, Madonna and Me" in the May issue.] But to get the numbers on the scale moving down, Tracy believes boogying is a must. And I don't mean a sloppy side step -- her choreographed combinations are highly aerobic and involve endless bounces, pivots and spins that take me weeks to remember.
Read More »from Exercise in Humility: My workout with Gwyneth Paltrow and celeb trainer Tracy Anderson!
One morning, as I'm in the middle of doing my "standing abs" (it involves sharply rotating your torso in unnatural directions) with trainers Vanessa Kiely and Courtney Ortiz, Tracy glides in with none other than star pupil Gwyneth Paltrow.
Red-faced and feeling rounder than ever, I am introduced to the ponytailed star, who, in her leather jacket and skintight jeans, still looks like the coolest high school senior at Spence. Tracy explains to Gwyneth that, like the two of them (the 97-pound Anderson actually does like to eat), I don't exactly enjoy dieting. The actress nods
