man shops globe

My husband made a fabulous discovery last week. There's a new show on the Sundance Channel called Man Shops Globe. Of course we don't get this lovely channel, but there are free episodes through OnDemand. It's about the buyer at large, Keith Johnson, from Anthropologie, traveling around the world looking for unique items for the stores. Are you kidding me? This must be the best job ever! I'm so envious. Some of the stuff he picks is a bit odd, but I guess that's the point. He's looking for items you can't buy anywhere else.

The first one I watched is in South Africa. They're traveling down this dirt road with a guide and see this tiny wood working shop on the side of the road. It's a very poor family that uses reclaimed wood to build these really beautiful benches and chairs. Well, he falls in love with the Van Gogh chairs and needless to say this lucky little man will be busy for the rest of the year producing hundreds of these beauties.



Next, he's off to the Grand Baazar in Turkey. I've actually been before and remember the awe I felt walking through the halls of this enormous market. There were barrels of these colorful spices I'd never seen before, tons of rugs and just aisles and aisles of anything you can imagine. It was me and 3 friends in college on the trip of a lifetime. We kept pinching ourselves going, I can't believe we're in Turkey - it was wild! Anyway… for the Anthro trip they were in search of textiles of some sort. Of course they found gorgeous, huge suzanis with these amazing color combinations. But they weren't just there for inspiration, they were looking for ways to incorporate some of these ideas into actual wares. These suzanis were in fact antiques and therefore really expensive. So they moved on to find someone who could actually produce such items for their stores. After a few unsuccessful stops, they happened upon the perfect person. She has her own designs, but could also take their ideas and create new pillow designs that were totally unique. I loved how at the end of the show they fast forward to production and the pillows in stores to show their success. This all just furthers my love of this fabulous store that I can't stay away from. Of course they don't show the prices on all these wonderful items - I'm sure we'd freak if we found out their markup!