John Derian has built a beautiful business with his magpie eye. His decoupage line is built upon lovely snippets from prints, postcards, and other ephemera gleaned at flea markets around the world, and the weathered nineteenth-century furniture and rugs that he brings back from France and Morocco have defined a certain whimsical downtown-uptown elegance over the past two decades (and counting).
With the recent addition of a fourth shop—his first beyond the East Village in New York, if you don’t count the garage space attached to his weekend home in coastal Provincetown, Massachusetts—there’s even more wide-planked floor space to fill with his finds.
And so, several times a year, Derian travels to fairs, markets, and souks for stock and inspiration. As one can imagine, he is not only a seasoned flea-marketer with a well-honed eye—he’ll only pause if a few things wink at him from a booth as he rushes past—he is also an expert packer, of cars and carry-on bags alike.
Like his shops, his approach to travel and sourcing is elegantly eccentric, and always done with a sense of humor and style. We recently sat with him in the parlor of his new West Village store—surrounded by stacks of colorful textiles and rough linens, vases of exotic arrangements, and a three-foot-tall Steiff penguin—to learn more about his travels.
How do you hunt for treasures? My boyfriend says I’m much taller when I’m shopping for antiques because I’m super happy, excited and stand up straight like a little kid. When I go to a big fair for the store, I race through and look for big things, and then I go back for “smalls.” If you go too slow, you just lose all your energy.
What are your favorite flea markets and fairs? There’s a group of them in the South of France over a four-day period, usually in Avignon, Montpellier, and Bezier. In Paris, I always go to the Clignancourt flea market, of course, but Porte de Vanves is my favorite.
How do you know when you’ve found a great booth or shop? You just have to see a couple of things that click with you, and then you move in!
How do you build the rest of your day around sourcing? I try to pace myself and enjoy wherever I am, and try to eat something delicious nearby. At the Clignancourt market in Paris, I like Ma Cocotte restaurant, which is designed by Philippe Starck. It’s really trendy, but they have a good roast chicken and mashed potatoes.
