INT: On the site you say that P&C is a showcase for the things we have enjoyed since you were kids: “A long-term obsession with stationery has culminated in a constantly evolving store. Paper and office objects which are inspired by homework, the post office and school.” Is this element of nostalgia something you are chasing in all the things you collect – what feels so precious to you about design objects and print ephemera of the past?
NW:It’s a bit magical that you could find, for example, a bundle of 30 notebooks that are from the 1960s, take them home, put them in your shop and know that they are limited. Once they’re gone that’s it. In an age where there is a lot of the same all over the place we chase that feeling for ourselves and for P&C.
On a different level we find things where the style and production seems way ahead of the time, largely because modern day work harks back to it. I got some 1920s brand promotional stamps in Munich in the spring, the typography was great but also the die cutting and embossing was insanely good. The illustrations on old stamps, lottery tickets, hotel luggage labels have also set the bench mark for so many modern day illustrative styles. There can be too much nostalgia but we definitely believe in having elements that invoke that feeling. It can be comforting or fun, or clever if worked into something new.
INT: One of the things that makes the store so unique is that it stocks some of your own designs as well as those finds you have both come across on your travels. You’re always foraging for vintage items around the world (many of which we keep up with on your instagram highlights and stories). How do you know where to find all the best stuff! Can you tell us a bit about your research process?
NW:Having done this for so long I know which markets and shops will have the goods, largely around France, Germany and Belgium. And there are some collectors and stall holders which I know will be there, whose email addresses I have. I try new markets when I can, some I will go back to, but others I can see aren’t going to be right for us.
Aside from this there is a great deal of luck and research involved. We went to Mexico City in February and pinpointed dead stock paper stores, old book shops and flea markets. Usually found by asking people or Googling in the language of where you are. In Tokyo last year I trekked way out of town to the most insane store that I will never share because it will be ruined by social media! I found that by Googling different phrases in Japanese.
And we love to walk, that’s important. So much walking (a recent flea market took 8.5 hours to complete one lap). In cities is when you see a random looking run down spot that could deliver – in Venice the other year we saw a dense, dusty place that we could see was full of old stationery. It was closed the whole time we were there and that was absolute torture. And in Puglia one evening, quite late at night, we went into a cigarette shop where there was a glass cabinet full of 1960s graph paper books. Crazy luck. I bought them all! That was a summer holiday, not a buying trip, but we’re always looking.
Finally – a recent development since our physical shop moved to a more prominent location – is that customers bring us things. Recently a visitor from Kuwait brought loads of old computer punch cards, and another handed over a box of old paperclips her dad had collected throughout the years. One, from Portugal, wrote down the name of a shop in a small town that allegedly has lots of deadstock… We hope to go soon!