Are you a postmodernist? A pop-culture cognoscente? Even if you're just a regular ol' consumer, you'll find yourself a home at Pop Deluxe on State Street ' "The best place to be, period," as store co-owner Amber Westerman says of the famous thoroughfare.
Amber and her husband, John Westerman, both one-time indie rockers back in Ann Arbor, have carved out a retail niche blending elements of high design and pop culture, and they've done so with the dexterity and wit that only two self-declared "amateur guerrilla design people" could pull off.
Decidedly the avenue's busiest store on any Saturday afternoon, Pop Deluxe offers up kitsch, humor and art in various forms, from books and cards to Kit Kat clocks, Lomography cameras to Warhol wrapping paper. The two-story selection is mind blowing.
For you: Angela Adams mod-print handbags ($55-$250) and local artist Maureen O'Grady "Word Drop" glass bauble rings (try "swank" for $5.99). For them: super-funny action figures from Accoutrements (pick Albert Einstein, $9.99) and Pimpnosis, a book about pimp-dom ($34.95). For home: FLOR, the modular carpet tile everyone is raving about ($5.99-$25 for a 20"-by-20" square) and bright, whimsical kitchen gadgets from Koziol ($2.99-$14.99), which infuse household drudgery with a bit of sunshine. Well, they're worth a try.
