Judit Rózsa's love for antiques and her genuine enthusiasm for all things old have magically come to life in the charming Amoni Vintage Shop, which made its debut last spring. By visiting the shop's Instagram page and its beautiful showroom in Buda, you get a glimpse of Judit's personal taste, through her selected treasures and find plenty of ideas and inspiration for contemporary reuse of old objects. Judit had fallen in love with one of our NAZRA jackets, so we took the opportunity to meet her in person and had a pleasant conversation that we are excited to share with you now.
Old pieces have always been influential on Judit since her childhood; she has naturally grown up with the traditional objects of rural and folk culture. Her grandfather, an experienced upholsterer, provided a backdrop for exciting hours spent together at the upholstery workshop. They immersed themselves in learning about various tools, constructing miniature dollhouse furniture. Even today, her grandmother's hand-woven linen wagon tarpaulin continues to serve its purpose, gracefully covering several meters of her stall at fairs.
Amoni Vintage is committed to keep the traditional rural culture alive and to demonstrate the traditional values they embody. Judit is driven by passion and yet the customers' feedback, — covering a very wide age range — proves that there is both a need and a demand for what she represents.
About a decade ago, she started to hunt for and subsequently collect furniture, objects and furnishing accessories that complemented the old bourgeois milieu in her new flat, previously used as artists' studio, with its distinctive atmosphere. During this period, she became passionate about old, handcrafted pieces, and as a direct consequence, mass-produced items are almost non-existent around her.
“Nowadays I buy less, but more thoughtfully,” she says, “I hardly own any objects that I don't need. It's essential for me that the object I do use, possesses quality and aesthetics, as they bring me joy.”
Spending more and more time at flea markets, she realized that she already had far more items and treasures than she needed for her new home. Totally captivated by the world of beautiful old objects, she fell deeply in love with it and soon became passionate about this kind of seeking and treasure hunting. One day she understood that she needed a warehouse and after a while it became impossible for her not to do something more meaningful with this hobby, since it was pointless to collect these treasures for the warehouse, and at the same time the emerging trend of antique trading became a big thing on Instagram – so she took the plunge.
Located in Rózsadomb, the exceptional showroom offers an eclectic and exciting selection of folk culture objects — ceramics, wooden objects, kitchen utensils, home décor, and all kinds of interior accessories — an impressively broad and exquisitely selected selection. The showroom immediately captivates the visitor, offering not only unique pieces but also inspiration on how to harmoniously co-exist with these old objects; breathing new life into them with contemporary functions, demonstrating their relevance in a different context, and how to adapt them to contemporary living environments.
“My personal favorite objects,” Judit says, “are the ones that you can tell are obviously old, but at first glance you can't really decide what their original function might have been. They are extraordinarily crafted, beautifully made, and it's a wonderful thrill to be immersed in a world we no longer know, a world when people lived much more modestly, but still had a way of getting around. I have a great love of tools, devices, and accessories from old trades. The legacy of these trades is very fascinating and the lively conversations about them offer a special experience. I love the detail, the perfection or imperfection of the workmanship of many objects, the beauty of the material is magical to me, as the wood or ceramics mature over time revealing their age.”
Visit Amoni's Instagram page or the showroom in Budapest and explore this fascinating world that we have immediately fallen in love with, as the values of traditional culture, the magic and uniqueness of handmade objects are values that we embrace from the bottom of our hearts.