Business of the Month: John Derian Company, 6, 8, and 10 East 2nd Street
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Most businesses don’t inspire the morbid fantasy of having a Wizard of Oz-like tornado blow away your home, so that you could use the insurance money to refurnish a new one from scratch. But our November Business of the month does. John Derian at 6, 8, and 10 E 2nd St. (just east of the Bowery) is part-ephemera emporium, part-antiquarium, and part-design shop specializing in home furnishings that tend toward the unique, the authentic, and the curious. And you get three storefronts’ worth of them, enough to decorate your new home, and leave you yearning for a second one.
The improbable story of John Derian is best told as a series of seemingly serendipitous episodes that were, in reality, opportunities that John had the inspiration to seize and the perspiration capacity to see through.
John was a creative, young flea-market habitué and college dropout in Boston, holding down odd jobs making crafty things, when a realtor who was going to rent his apartment noticed some wreaths that he had just finished and asked if they were for sale. John said, why not, and decided to start making things and selling them at local home furnishing stores.
John’s early work consisted of one-of-a-kind items, such as collages made with antique maps and 18th and 19th century imagery, toward which he gravitated. One day, a colleague at a furniture painting gig came in with a bunch of clear plates to which she had been gluing pictures and said that she no longer had time to work on them, but that John might want to give them a try. He did, sold a few, and got his first experience with découpage.
John came to New York for the summer in 1990 and, while looking for a job, thought back to those plates and realized that, unlike his typical creations, those were easy to reproduce. So he made some and started shopping them around. After a frustrating meeting with Barneys, he called an agent, who agreed to take them to a tradeshow. Three days later, John had $40,000 worth of orders.
John moved soon afterwards to the Lower East Side to a place that also became and remained his production center. When he outgrew it, he heard of a nearby space available on a charming, quiet block on 2nd Street which became his new workshop. Once there, he thought, why not do a little store on the front? And thus, 30 years ago at 6 E 2nd Street was born the first John Derian storefront. It sold only découpage and antiques, but things snowballed from there.
The retail store soon crowded out the découpage-making studio. So John moved the workshop a few blocks away, where it remains to this day. Then, a few years later, the neighboring storefront became available and was offered to John. He thought, “why not?,” and tried to figure out what he would put in it. Some years later, it happened again. So by the mid-00s, John found himself with an operation that included a wholesale business and three storefronts, but no CEO, no investors, and no loans — just him. Along the way, his product lines kept apace, as more antique acquisitions inspired more new designs and applications, and as John kept seemingly stumbling into new designers, collaborations, and curios.
About a decade ago, for instance, John took an extemporaneous detour to visit a Christmas fair in Frankfurt, Germany, from which he brought back a wide assortment of ornaments. Within a few seasons, these new lines had transformed one of the storefronts from October through December into the city’s premier Christmas decoration destination.
Fast forward to the present, and one is presented with the quandary of how to describe merchandise at John’s stores that ranges from eye cushions and 1930s mannequin heads to giant cake shaped candles and fabrics based on 18th century Chinese panels. It’s impossible. If anything ties it all together, it’s the sense of surprise and mystery that the products collectively inspire.
John’s designs themselves cover a wide range of classic and eclectic motifs, ranging from skeleton keys and bats to eyes and frogs, all in a style rendered evocative by its anachronism. Originally featured only in a variety of découpage items, they’re now found in everything from lampshades and sofas to matchboxes, as well as collected in a best-selling book and in its sticker book spinoff.
An idiosyncratic assortment of antiques and handmade products by other designers dovetail with John’s designs and round out the store’s selection. Here are a few highlights:
During our visit, an out-of-town customer, thrilled to learn that the gentleman being interviewed was John himself, called out to him.
Hey, John. I just want to say that everything you do is beyond amazing. Thank you. I’m a huge fan. You just keep working. Keep producing. Keep making things. I was walking out of the other store, and I saw it and I said, “It’s just amazing the impact that you have made on the visual art world.”
We had a complementary thought during our visit: that it’s amazing the impact that John has had on a quiet corner of our neighborhood, turning it into a destination for people from throughout the world with an appreciation for the oddly beautiful.
For 30 years of channeling John’s aesthetic sensibility and bringing a touch of wonder to our lives, we’re thrilled to name John Derian our November, 2025 Village Preservation Business of the Month.
What special small business would you like to see featured next? Just click here to nominate our next one. Thank you! #shoplocalnyc
Here is a map of all our Businesses of the Month: