Founded by friends Gloria Griffen and Molly Scott, AWAYDAY is a curated online marketplace of preowned furniture and objects, that “shares the hottest listings and promotes local creators” while allowing the women to sell their own special pieces and offer a private sourcing service.
Verve sits down with Gloria and Molly to find out more.
“We both have backgrounds in the film industry, me in the art department, and Molly in the costume department, but we’ve dabbled in each other’s creative areas,” says Gloria. “Our work often involves hunting for treasures in op shops and beyond, trying to find pieces that tell a story and add character to a set or costume.”
Through their work, the women have developed a “trained and keen eye” for finding pieces that hold value, though not necessarily financial value, they emphasise, rather “value of form and craft”. Both their mothers, too, are “avid op shoppers and treasure hunters” influencing their daughters’ love of interiors, homewares, and secondhand treasures, “all celebrated through AWAYDAY”.
“Gloria’s mum had a furniture store and restoration business, and my mum is an interior designer,” says Molly. “So, we were raised with interior aesthetic influence. We are both firm believers in the fact you can find such amazing pieces preloved and wanted to encourage others to source secondhand. It just felt like a pretty fun, creative way to combine and share that passion together.” Molly adds that her mum continues to her inspire with new op shop pieces almost every day, reshaping her home and space around her new treasures: “To her, the designer or brand is almost irrelevant, it’s about form and shape and craftsmanship and I really admire that.”
Mothers aside, I ask who else inspires them.
“We’re lucky to both work in a creative space with a huge resource of creative and design-based thinkers to pull inspiration from, and to muse with,” says Molly “For example, the costume designer I’m currently working with, Katrina Hodge, is very knowledgeable and interested in interior design also, and I’m constantly extracting from her new knowledge of designers and craftspeople.”
“My brother, Ken, provides me with much appreciated design guidance,” Gloria adds. “He also did our branding!”
Is there a story behind the name?
“It’s one we’d had banked for a while, a little unsure what we might use it for,” says Gloria. “An away day is a term traditionally used for when you work away from the office as a team. We both got into film to get away from being in an office and the name was born from that energy. We also like the symmetry of the word, AWAYDAY.”
In the early days of AWAYDAY, Gloria’s vast collection of design books also served as invaluable inspiration – plus, fittingly, they’re easy to find on secondhand platforms.
“I recently bought Japanese Style by Suzanne Slesin on Webbs auction house,” reveals Molly “Although I seem to be incapable of achieving a minimalist look myself, I can’t wait to browse the pages. Japanese design is such a breath of fresh air.”
Molly is drawn to “unusual pieces” that possess “a striking form”. She loves the combination of post-modern, modern, and handcrafted pieces. “For me,” she continues, “it’s less about the individual items and more about the combination of styles in a room that feel balanced, grounded, yet striking.”
“I’ve always been drawn to the eclectic, the colourful, and the well-made,” says Gloria. “I can always appreciate a beautiful designer piece, but to be honest, it’s not what I’m looking for initially. More recently, my favourite finds are just the most practical pieces. Such as a set of Sebel plastic carver school/government chairs I found earlier in the year. They’re so great as I can wipe them clean from my one-year-old’s grubby fingers, but luckily, I also like the look and make of them.”
Molly adds that AWAYDAY provides a lovely opportunity for them to connect what inspires them with what is available on secondhand platforms, while promoting local creators and resellers. “We personally can’t afford to constantly keep restyling our homes, so it’s great to be able to share our inspiration and finds for others to hopefully utilise,” she says. “We have lots of ideas and hopes for what AWAYDAY could grow into – we’d love to become a private sourcing service, selling pieces on consignment also feels like a natural progression, but we’re excited to see wherever this project goes.”
There’s nothing else quite like AWAYDAY in New Zealand, further adding to their excitement.
“There are many amazing furniture and homeware reselling platforms out there, but not any we know of that share other listings,” says Gloria. “We search and share listings from Trade Me and Facebook Marketplace, and in doing this we want to feature local creators, and promote local resellers, as well as featuring regular people’s listings.”
“We wanted to create something that would appeal to those who are interested in homewares and design and that’s a really broad audience,” says Molly. “But we want to reach people who wouldn’t typically buy secondhand and showcase to them the amazing pre-loved pieces that are available locally, whether they’re designer, replica or otherwise. We try to showcase a range of styles to help piece a home together, and as we explore and discover new pieces it’s really satisfying to be able to share that with others.”
Follow AWAYDAY on Instagram @away__day, and contact them directly at awayday.edits@gmail.com. Mollys is also the co-creator of an amazing seasonal, creative community market in Wellington, called Commons Market, check them out on Instagram @commons_market.
