Lifestyle Mirror

NAME: Michael Perry

OCCUPATION: Furniture designer and owner of Walk the Plank, a design collective that manufactures furniture using reclaimed materials. They’re in the process of launching a collection called Aellon with Uhuru Design, which will hit the site soon. 

STYLE ICONS: John Lennon, Fleetwood Mac or anyone shot by Jeff Divine in the seventies.

MOST RECENT THING YOU'VE PURCHASED: I stepped out of Haneda Airport in Tokyo a few weeks ago during a layover and stumbled across a Minox (35GL) 35mm point-and-shoot camera.

CARRY ON OR CHECK IN? Carry on whenever possible, but you need to know your limits. Traipsing the airport for hours with oversized bags is never a good look. 

FAVORITE SHOPS/STORES ONLINE: Bassike ticks all the boxes and now ships globally. Otherwise Mr. Porter is pretty much complete. 

REQUIRED READING: Usually a magazine or two: Surface, Wallpaper and Elle Decoration UK are always on point for interiors, Monster Children magazine for general interest and Bullett magazine recently became a fave. 

REQUIRED LISTENING: Jaques Greene has been on high rotation lately. We had a friend, Onnie Lennox, put together some mix tapes for us recently. You can check them here. I spend a fair amount of time in transit, so good tunes are essential.

TRAVEL INDULGENCE: Good ideas always pop into my head while I travel, I suppose that's my indulgence… a vivid imagination.  

PACKING STRATEGY: Pretty much last minute, generally I like to have something ready on the day, then make the crucial decisions before flying out the door.

TRAVEL UNIFORM: I run a pro casual vibe—I was literally on the way to the airport when we shot—clean or dirty jeans, Vans shoes, cotton T-shirt, button-down shirt or some kind of light over shirt. If I'm heading into winter I'll ditch the button-down, add some traditional fabric to warm the neck, a light hoodie and a coat….It's pretty much a comfortable, universal look so, regardless off the destination, you never look out of place and can slide into any situation.

UPCOMING ITINERARY: I'm currently in Central Java, Indonesia—I'm heading to Vietnam late August, then Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong in September before Sydney in November (summer time!), with nothing confirmed after that. I'll be sure to head to Bali sometime soon for a wave, along with another trip to New York City early next year. —Interview by Nandita Khanna (@dresslikenan)