It started like art: with a white canvas.

Except that this time it was a real wall, actually four, in a backyard in Berlin-Mitte, and that in this white cube stood a man in his early forties who, exactly 20 years ago, came up with a shop that hadn't existed in Germany until then had given.

His credo: only sell beautiful things that corresponded to his personal taste.

Perfumes by Comme des Garçons, chocolate by Erich Hamann and scarves by Jil Sander.

Some Berliners said behind closed doors: The man has a bang.

In the summer of 2022, Andreas Murkudis will once again be standing in a backyard, this time near Potsdamer Platz, and the initial 150 square meters of retail space have now grown to more than 1,000 square meters.

As before, there are only articles that have been checked by the owner, but the range has increased considerably.

Shirts from Officine General, trousers from Dries van Noten, porcelain from Nymphenburg and still the Berlin chocolate from the Hamann factory.

There are still people who think Murkudis is crazy, but they mean it in a positive way.

There's someone in the shop - and the 61-year-old actually does that very often - and has a vision.

Does his thing, sells hand-sewn coats from small Italian manufacturers, refuses to offer anything from the three luxury conglomerates Kering, LVMH and Richemont - i.e. no Gucci, Vuitton or Balenciaga - and prefers to talk in a soft voice about Japanese tailors and Neapolitan shoemakers.

As a listener, one imagines oneself in a fairytale land full of eccentric backroom characters who struggle in the service of good taste.

The concept store as a curated preselection

Andreas Murkudis has what is probably the most important concept store in the country.

The "New York Times" recommends the shop, and design lovers whisper its name on trips to Amsterdam, Cape Town and London, just as club kids dream of Berghain.

You might not be able to afford anything when you're visiting, as some parts cost as much as 1000 euros, but it's like walking through a museum of things.

What was the concept from the beginning: Murkudis had previously run a mini shop in what is now the Martin-Gropius-Bau;

he consistently continues this approach over a wide area.

Hangar-high ceilings, wooden floors, chipboard panels on which individual parts, no, objects are enthroned.

Concept store, there was something there?

A revolution in the shopping experience, a curated pre-selection for and by stylists.

In the best case scenario, each article should tell a story, reveal the personality of the founder and, at the same time, oppose the cheap and not-so-cheap chains with a personal power.

Will this still apply after the pandemic?

Can the concept store still be saved if every small boutique on Paros that sells more than three unknown labels and a few bottles of olive oil buys the label - and actually has no concept?

At the end of the 1990s, this idea of ​​a general store was still innovative, as a dwarf rebellion against the up-and-coming chain stores of Zara & Co. However, it was not entirely new.

With the flowering of pop culture and the serious concern with design in the mainstream, there were the first shops that shared different product worlds in a small sales space.

Mary Quant, who would go on to invent the miniskirt, opened Shop Bazaar on London's King's Road in 1955, where the designer sold jewellery, music and clothing.

The small boutique developed into the epicenter of the "Chelsea Set", that party- and fashion-loving mix of people that later got the Swinging Sixties going.