WANDERING STAR: For Philip Andelman, the best travel advice is the kind you won’t find in a guidebook.
Over a 20-year career shooting music videos for stars including Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Taylor Swift, the director and photographer has amassed a proverbial Rolodex of insider tips that he’s happy to share on his travel website, Tripping With Phil.
“It’s from the heart. I’m gonna tell you, ‘Here’s a good driver to get in Mexico City.’ ‘Definitely don’t park here in East Hampton, because you’ll get a ticket,’” he said.
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Now he’s bringing his chronic wanderlust to life with a pop-up at Paris concept store Merci that carries items ranging from the useful (a Leatherman multitool to cut kindling for your campfire) to the entertaining (a vintage book about human-dolphin communication) — and of course, everything you might need to trip along the way.
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A dedicated Deadhead, Andelman tapped pal Seth Rogen’s home and lifestyle brand Houseplant for a portable ashtray, which is displayed next to a vinyl edition of the Grateful Dead’s 1976 live album “Steal Your Face” at Merci’s flagship on Boulevard Beaumarchais.
Film canisters from Japanese Camera Hunter sit alongside T-shirts and skateboards by artist Geoff McFetridge’s streetwear label Acid Snow, and homey coffee mugs from Palace Diner in Biddeford, Maine. “If you ever make it to Maine, this is the greatest restaurant in the galaxy,” Andelman exclaims in typically ebullient style.
Alongside many objects is an explanatory note handwritten on hotel stationery with his trusty Lamy pen, which is available for purchase for 55 euros.
At the core of the selection is a line of products developed with Au Vieux Campeur. T-shirts, socks, lighters, stickers, bandanas and water bottles feature the French outdoor brand’s logo — a white-bearded hiker — alongside Andelman’s signature psychedelic mushroom visual.
Visitors will also find a selection of his prints and travel photography books, the most recent of which documents his ill-fated trek to K2 Base Camp in Pakistan in 1998.
“While we were doing that, Bin Laden put a hit out on all Americans, and all Americans were evacuated out of the country. And I was part of, like, the last 14 civilians in Pakistan, or whatever,” he chuckled. “Each one is like a crazy yarn like that.”
His next book will be about upstate New York, where he now spends summers with his wife Sarah Andelman, the founder of consulting agency Just an Idea, and their son Woody.
Andelman will share a taste of their holidays near Woodstock by whipping up a batch of homemade granola to sell at the store. “It’s how we start our day every day. I’ve tasted so many of them, and they’re never quite right, and you’ll taste this one, and it’s just perfect,” he pledged.