Sophisticated Sell

Fresh from a two-week trip to Europe, Johnson is standing among years' worth of finds (including a massive antique wooden refrigerator rescued from a French butcher shop and restored to working order) in his Chestnut Hill kitchen. He is holding his latest: an English plate featuring a black-and-white drawing of a large, steaming pie. The inscription reads: "Denby Dale Pie in Aid of the Huddsfield Royal Infirmary" and lists the pie's measurements: "16 feet long; 5 feet wide and 15 inches deep; 4 August 1928."

The plate in his hands fits his criteria for an Anthropologie find: "Beyond quality, it has to have a lot of personality. It has to be homey. Maybe it has a sense of humor. It has to have a little quirk. People respond to fun -- a little whimsy goes a long way." Johnson thinks that with a few tweaks (he would replace the word "infirmary" and add color), the plate could make it into the Anthropologie collection.

His thinking is confirmed later that day at lunch with Polly Dickens, the design director of the home-furnishings division. Dickens (yes, she's Charles Dickens's great-granddaughter) is a recent transplant from London, where she ran Terence Conran's home business. She and Johnson work in concert, talking in shorthand about stenciled Italian pasta bowls, making quick decisions about adding the English plate as well as a small iron rooster from Parma to the collection. She's planning a Christmas trip to Eastern Europe with special attention to the ceramics factories of Hungary, partly inspired by a book on folkloric pottery that Johnson picked up in an old bookstore.

Of course, the home business isn't based entirely on arbitrary wanderings. All Anthropologie buyers -- in both the home and apparel divisions -- organize their collections around three high-level concepts: a multicultural or ethnic look; a pretty, feminine look; and a clean, modern look. Each season they flesh out those categories into three unique collections. For fall 2003, Dickens's team envisioned three distinct women as inspiration for the collections. "Estella" is based on the character in Great Expectations and is "a very grown-up and feminine" line of bedding in smoky pastel colors and cobwebby fabrics. "Licia" is a blend of wares from Turkey and Morocco. And "Sonia" is a very clean, Swedish-inspired line of furnishings.

Dickens not only works the mix for style and personality, she also maintains a healthy, ever-changing assortment of commodities and more-unique items. "Our mix includes unique things in small volumes, things that sell in large volumes, and the things we invent or produce that are unique but which we can sell in large volumes at a competitive price," she says. She thinks nothing of buying a limited edition of 75 blank books made from a gorgeous textile recovered from old print tables in India. And she adds new color choices to a longtime hot-selling commodity -- for example, a $4 reproduction French ceramic latte bowl that sells by the thousands each week.

Beyond smart merchandising, the critical factor in keeping the mix fresh is maintaining fresh eyes. At Anthropologie headquarters in Philadelphia, everyone travels. Everyone visits markets, museums, and cultural events. In fact, "cultural events" (from movies to art exhibits to sporting events) are a critical item on the agenda of the Monday-morning meeting attended by all 60 staffers in the home office. "The Anthropologie gift," says Ron Pompei, "is that they can look at the creative edge of a culture and see how it relates to a more mainstream experience. They're always trying to find the common language, materials, textures, and patterns that reach people."

Nowhere does Anthropologie connect the fringe to the mainstream more skillfully than in the apparel business. Found objects, home furnishings, and visual merchandising make a huge impact, but what keeps women fanatically loyal to Anthropologie is the store's approach to fit and fashion. For all of the fantasies of Tuscan dining porches and pillow-strewn Moroccan-inspired living rooms, what women really want are jeans that make their butts look great.

Wendy Wurtzburger, head merchant for the women's apparel and accessories business, maintains a fashion philosophy based on a close reading of the Anthropologie customer: "Young thinkers who are interested in trend and fashion but don't want to look victimy. We always want you to feel you're buying something fresh, and new, and right. Not necessarily trendy, just fresh. And we want to make it curve in if it's supposed to curve in -- we don't ever want to look dumpy."

The women's division works with Anthropologie's three-concept framework every season. (The clothing is currently primarily feminine, with a smaller amount of ethnic and modern.) "We create a story: Who is she? Where does she live? What does her favorite sweater look like?" says Wurtzburger. For spring 2003, the modern concept is named "Johannes" -- after the midsummer's night festival in Finland -- and is a casual concept that mixes a preppy look with old-world detail.