My introduction to Pottery Barn, like most British people I've talked to, was via a particular episode of Friends — The One With the Apothecary Table — where Rachel has to trick Phoebe into shopping at the store as someone with, let's say, less mainstream design taste. What it did in the process was set up Pottery Barn, globally, as a shop that's associated with Rachel's undoubtedly very chic style. It might just have made it America's best known home decor stores at the same time, too.
However, in the time since that episode aired, we Brits haven't ever been able to shop from the store, apart from popping in when on our vacation (something of which I can admit I've done any time I've visited the States). Its website is even blocked to UK traffic, so we can't even live vicariously with a scroll through the site for inspiration.
