The Receipts: John Derian on the Subtle Art of Collecting

It’s not always easy knowing how to spend your money. Even on the indulgences and luxuries people can come to afford after working hard at the office, finding the pieces to buy that can have the most impact in your home or wardrobe can be a tough ask. SPY reached out to some of the most stylish people we know to ask how—when they first found some success—they spent their hard earned dollars in a new series called The Receipts. 

SPY spoke to John Derian—the designer and founder of the eponymous homewares brand. Derian’s style is quintessentially New England, full of antiques, textiles, and products that even when bought new, feel like they hold a nostalgic place in our hearts. His advice on collecting, building the first few elements of a home, and his experience with his own first major purchases, are a masterclass in collecting pieces for any apartment.

SPY: Your sense of style is so distinct now. But that takes time. When you were younger, what were your home buying habits like?

John Derian: I basically just cobbled things together as seemed fit. I lived in multiple locations in Cambridge, Massachusetts before I moved to New York, and I had a room and a roommate. My room was just a bed and a desk to work at — nothing that elaborate. But I was very into making things. I’ve always been attracted to antiques, especially in my early 20s. Teaching myself that kind of curation felt good. For me, it just felt like something antique was more authentic, and therefore more worth investing money in.

SPY: Do you remember what the first big item you spent money on was? How did that item influence your purchases after that and your taste going forward?

JD: I was at a flea market in Salem in 1982. I used to go to on Sundays. My roommates and I bought a sofa together. We put it in our kitchen. It was great. It’s still in my life.

Money was always simple. Whatever money I didn’t have, I didn’t have. Because I never had an investor in my shop, I would buy things for the shop myself and have a couple of nice things. If we sold those things I would invest that money towards something nicer. I just kept going like that until I had money. 

SPY: Are there certain things that people should start to acquire that you learned to do in your experience?

JD: Maybe like 20 years ago, there was a guy who kept coming by the store and asking, pleading with me to come by his place to help him decorate. He wanted to buy a whole wall’s worth of decorative plates. Finally I gave in and I went over there and he didn’t have anything in his apartment. I said, “You don’t have a chest of drawers! You don’t have a kitchen table! You don’t have a sofa! All you have is a bed and you want to buy a wall of plates?” I said I wouldn’t suggest buying a lot of plates first. I gave him a list of things to buy first. 

The most basic things I think everybody needs: a chair, a sofa bed, a desk, a chest of drawers. You can add to that, but you can also live comfortably. There are people who spend $1,200 of their paycheck on a scarf or a sweater or something and then have holes in their sneakers. It really is such a funny place to be.

SPY: Where you do you recommend people look when starting to design their own spaces?

JD: When shopping for your home, you’ve got to shop for you. If you wear patterns and stripes in clothes, then by all means get patterns and stripes in your furniture. But if you are more subtle, or if you have a basic store you shop at because there’s lots of good solid, basic stuff out there, just get started. There’s always trash picking. That can be fun. Find a flea market. If you want to go mid century, there’s tons of stores now that sell that kind of look.  

SPY: What about for people who don’t have a lot of money going into the process at first?

JD: Buy for comfort. Buy for function. Those are the most important things. And buy what you’re able to afford. For the collaboration I did with Cisco Brothers, this small business that’s been making furniture in North Carolina for years, there was a range of prices for different sofas. Depending on who you are, and what’s expensive to you, you could buy $30,000 one or you could buy a $3,000 sofa, or you could be a five by a $500 sofa. It just depends who you are. I was happy to be part of that, because I feel like it does offer nice medium priced furniture.

SPY: Is there anything currently in your shopping cart you’re looking to buy?

JD: I have my eye open for a good table right now. The one it’d be replacing is currently in the store. I think I’m going to bring it back to my house on the Cape because I miss it. It just has too many legs though which kind of drives me crazy, but I love it. At the Cape we can play ping pong on it. My current table up there is round so we can’t play on it.

SPY: What’s your favorite affordable, everyday thing?

JD: There’s a calligraphy pen I’ve been using for 20 years. I keep them in the store too because we write our price tags with them so they’re all standardized. It’s called a Zig Caligraphy Pen.

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