Meet Anthropologie's Head Shopper

This month the Sundance Channel will debut Man Shops Globe, a television show that follows Keith Johnson, buyer-at-large for Anthropologie on his journeys around the globe in search of beautiful objects. Anthropologie and Sundance threw a party on Tuesday night at the Anthropologie store in Rockefeller Center to celebrate the venture.

I caught up with Keith earlier this week to ask him about the show. "The whole thing is one big surprise," said the incredibly modest host of the show. "The fact that I am standing in a store and looking at a screen with me walking around in France is completely shocking to me."

However, just a few minutes with Keith revealed that he is an excellent storyteller, who makes shopping sound like an incredible adventure.
On the show, Keith travels to a new locale in each episode (Season One takes him everywhere from Paris to Turkey to Tunisia.) In Keith's own words the show is "kind of experiential." The still images from upcoming episodes alone are eye-candy, so we think we understand what he means: It's like being a fly on the wall on a really great trip "It may be less fun to watch me and more fun to look around because I am in all these great places," he laughed.

When asked what his favorite country was from Season One's travels, Keith said, "I usually love the place where I find myself...I hate to leave home and wherever I go I hate to leave there too." When pressed to pick a fave, he did concede, "I always love India -- It's so filled with possibilities. And of course, Paris." Of course, Paris!

When I inquired if he had any shopping advice for ShelterPop readers, Keith told me, "The consistent thing that I hear is people tell me that they regret the things that they didn't buy. I rarely heard people complaining about something that they bought, but I always hear about the thing they left behind."

"I think you just have to have courage sometimes," said Keith. "I wouldn't worry so much about the bargain all the time." His final words of advice: Put the question, "Do I love this?" first and foremost and you'll always be satisfied with your choices.

Man Shops Globe debuts on the Sundance Channel on October 7 at 10:00 pm ET/PT