Julien Thery and Amanda Spiers in profile
With Julien Thery being French and Amanda Spiers a Kiwi, one can’t help but wonder about some quixotic holiday romance, but Spiers is quick to explain that the two met in pragmatic circumstances – through friends when Thery was working in New Zealand.
Previously Thery had worked at the famed Paris antique flea market in logistics. The Paris flea market isn’t some small car-boot sale, this is a powerhouse centre of worldwide antique and furniture dealing and Thery forged close relationships with some of the world’s top interior designers and auction houses such as Christie’s. He returned to the flea market when the couple moved to Paris a few years ago.
Searching for a project that would allow them to live between the two countries, they started thinking about the possibility of importing European industrial antiques to New Zealand. Dipping their toes into the concept, they planned on opening a pop-up shop in Auckland to see how it went and proceeded to purchase objects for that shop over two years, storing them all in their 20 sqm Paris apartment. When pop-up shop opened last September, it sold out almost immediately, giving them the confidence to open The Vitrine, a showroom of French industrial antiques in Grey Lynn. With a bach-like space in the showroom, the couple’s living area has started to merge with it; they host dinner parties on the antique tables, and arrange their objects on the showroom shelves. In the midst of the five shipments of sourced antiques they are bringing in a year, the couple pick out a few of their favourite pieces from their home/shop.