She’s the secret weapon for unique interiors, aka a sourcing specialist. Whether Alicia Caprice is in an op-shop out in the countryside, online or at a vintage flea market in Paris, she is the one who will pick up the interesting object. Lighting, furniture, objects that range from vases and knickknack to artworks and statuary, there is nothing that doesn’t come under her scrutiny.
“Growing up in rural NSW in the 70s, our home was full of unique pieces. Our family had a rule that we were never allowed to drive past an antique or collectables store,” says Alicia. “Dad’s hobby as a woodworker meant he was always repairing or customising furniture. Mum’s passion was restoration. While everyone was swapping their antique dining tables for Formica, Mum was rifling through farmers’ sheds unearthing a plethora of gorgeous finds, many of which are now collectables.”
Sometimes they come with an intended destination, but more often just because they’re interesting; the wonderful pieces are then gathered, cleaned, contextualised and await their new environment. “There is great joy for me in finding a piece with a story. Currently we have a three-metre jungle oil painting in our stairwell I sourced from a Singaporean Hotel which was being refurbished and we have an original bobbin chair from the Moulin Rouge film set in our bedroom. Our three sons are used to our home constantly evolving and living with different items as they come and go,” says Alicia who, since a child, has constantly redesigned her home.
Shifting from passion to career, her collecting prowess is a conduit to architects, interior designers and stylists, who each come to her looking for the unique pieces their clients and projects require. Recent forays include sourcing for Alexander & Co on its A&Co Workshop, plus various assignments with Woods Bagot. More generally she has worked with countless interior design practices to bring that certain something to a project. She is also a passionate advocate for the circular economy and offers a reselling service when interiors change.
Finding the right object is to some extent being a bowerbird. “There’s an element of magic to finding the right piece, especially within the budget and with a deadline. The hunt often evolves into a wonderful collaboration with the client as we unearth different possibilities and inevitably find other gems along the way,” says Alicia. As such, she documents constantly and has an encyclopaedic memory for where she might find something just the right size, colour, texture, price and aesthetic.
A designer and stylist in her own right, her role is designer-adjacent. So, while the interior designer or stylist may have the overall eye, she will be brought in as a vintage specialist. By its nature this means, she is brought in for her talent for the unusual, or to put it another way, if they wanted a vintage Eames chair they would already have it. No, what she brings, is the unexpected, the bright blue bird in a terracotta room, the wild Italian lamp in a minimalist room, it is the strange alchemy of introducing vintage and it requires both a huge knowledge of design and an eye for the beauty in an unknown.
Her role is also around due diligence with online platforms providing both more options and more room for error. “We’ve all spent hours on 1st Dibs making our Wishlist only to close it once we confirm the shipping costs or, even more confronting, you buy a piece online but it needs significant work done once it arrives. We have extensive checks and balances in place to manage this process. We also have a network of experts in their fields happy to share their expertise and help ascertain whether an online item is fit for purpose,” says Alicia.
