Industry Interview – Trish Hunter and “The Vintage Post”

Alistair McLean

Category: From the Studio, Industry Interviews, Interiors, Interviews

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Trish Hunter who was good enough to give me some of her time to talk to me about “The Vintage Post”.

Photo courtesy of Trish Hunter and “The Vintage Post”

When did Trish Hunter first become interested in vintage?

I’d love to say I have always been interested in vintage but that would be a flat out lie. I was dragged from opshop to opshop as a kid and hated them. It wasn’t until 2011 when I did a ‘modeling’ (I say that very lightly) job for my local country opshop to raise awareness of the cool things they had, and I wore a 1980’s prom dress down the stage.
The quality for the price, along with the fact that no one else would have anything like this got me excited and I became an opshopper since then. Opshops are where most vintage enthusiasts begin, however sadly the things I now chase can never be found in opshops anymore (without a massive amount of luck!) so vintage shops are where I frequent, and what I’m really passionate about. So much so I opened two of my own shops, both of which I’ve sold, and now host a website that promotes vintage shops and vintage places alike!

Photo courtesy of Trish Hunter and “The Vintage Post”

How did the idea of your mobile vintage pop-up caravan shop originate?

After I opened my online store, I needed another avenue to sell, so I started having stalls at Camberwell market once a fortnight. I did that for a year or so and was forever disheartened by the weather, with a few odd warm days amongst. My stock would get wet and ruined, and I was a bit over it. I also wanted to charge more for my stock, but felt that being just another market stall holder, I couldn’t do it without doing something different.
The dream of having my own bricks and mortar vintage store was always lingering in the back of my mind, but I just wasn’t ready for it yet. I started thinking of concepts outside of the square that might get me noticed, while also protecting my stock.

Photo courtesy of Trish Hunter and “The Vintage Post”

Then, the caravan popped into my head. At the time however, it felt really silly. Surely that couldn’t work? Could it? I put it in the back of my head, but it kept coming up. I was designing my shop inside a caravan. I was starting to obsess over it, so I hit up google and typed in something like ‘converting a caravan into a shop.’
I thought the results would leave me just as stuck as I already was, but to my delight, someone in America had done exactly what I wanted. Some people might have been disappointed to find out that their idea wasn’t original, but I was pumped! It meant my idea wasn’t ridiculous, it meant it was completely possible, and someone was making a career out of it. I wasn’t nuts! This could work!

So off I went planning, and researching restoring vintage caravans. (I have actually written two blogs that might help others wanting to start doing this process too!

http://www.thevintagepost.com/buy-vintage-caravan-look/ (there’s two parts.) This is all I wished I knew before buying mine, because I actually nearly bought three in total due to lack of knowledge.

Whatever happened to your lovely caravan?

I sold my beloved caravan around the same time I sold my bricks and mortar shop, as I’d moved on from selling vintage and wanted to start writing about it. I sold them to pursue the dream of The Vintage Post!

It got picked up from my country home one cold morning (there were tears!), towed up to Brisbane and turned into a tea house! It’s surely going to have a few different lives in it’s lifetime!

The Vintage Post is such a wonderful resource and online concept. How did it start?
Ooh thanks so much! It began as a small segment on my old blog called ‘Trish Hunter Finds’. The segment was called ‘Retro Roadshow,’ I wanted to feature people’s collections!

It all blossomed from there. I wanted to feature vintage shops, businesses, services, home owners, bloggers, and more!
It turned into a sort of online magazine that really promotes vintage!

Photo courtesy of Trish Hunter and “The Vintage Post”

I felt that with all of the vintage ‘picker’ shows around, it’s really devalued vintage. Everyone’s trying to get a bargain, and running vintage shops was getting harder and harder. I wanted to help fix this by creating a bond with business owners and their businesses, so that people who visit The Vintage Post, could connect with the businesses before they’ve even visited, so that they see past the bargain hunt mentality, and be happy to pay the price on the ticket because they’ve had a wonderful experience and they sort of know the owners from what they’ve read.

So many directories just have a map and phone number. To me, that isn’t going to help make a sale when readers come and visit your place. They need to connect and feel excited to discover your place.

This is the connection I wanted to form.

I understand the importance of this from having had my own bricks and mortar shop.

How would you describe your vintage style?

My vintage style would probably best be described as colourful.
Most of my furniture and homewares are from the 50s/60s and my eye is particularly drawn to space age and atomic pieces. Three legs on furniture? Yes please!

My home features light solid timbers, ribbon lamps, unknown artworks, and my collection of Ellis pottery, (I have a really big thing for ceramics!) I also really love supporting Australian designed pieces. From furniture to ceramics. I love what Australia has made in the past and think they have a really strong aesthetic.

Do you see the public’s love of vintage ever fading, or going out of style?

I never see vintage going out of fashion, as the quality for the value is just too good. However I do see changes happening. Particularly with clothing. The 90’s (yep the 90’s!) is back and bold and looking like it’s going to stick around for a while!
Vintage goes around in circles, so vintage itself will always be strong, it’s the things that are trendy that will change.

Photo courtesy of Trish Hunter and “The Vintage Post”

What is the next thing for The Vintage Post?

Ooh, lots of things! This year it’s all about building up The Vintage Post even further, and getting even more exposure for the businesses that have joined our directory! That’s always the number one goal… Get people vintage shopping!

Something I’m super excited about is an e-book that I’ll be beginning work on shortly and hope to have published within a year. I can’t wait to tell everyone more about that but at this early stage that’s all I can say!

I’m also hoping to travel a bit more around Australia and meet with collectors! That’s my favourite part. I always learn so much and love to share it all with the world!