When Phoebe Dynevor bought her first home in 2021, she knew she wanted to honor the historic roots of her space while updating it to her taste. “I decided to completely go and rebuild, essentially,” she tells AD. “It’s in London, I live on a cobbled street, and it’s very old London, and I just wanted to keep that feeling.” To fill her new home, the Bridgerton star wanted to find pieces that were, yes, beautiful, but had lived a life, so she turned to antiques. “I like history, I love knowing that I’m living in a home with pieces that have been in different homes,” she says. “That’s just so inspiring.”
You can shop a few of Dynevor’s favorite items for yourself on March 30, but act quickly, as the items will only be available for 24 hours. She’s partnered with upstart online antique shop Sylvie for their very first celebrity collaboration. The brainchild of Instagram alum Chelsea MacDonald, Sylvie offers up old objects in a distinctly modern way. Each carefully curated collection is available for a limited amount of time. And while the drop model has long been used by streetwear companies like Supreme, MacDonald isn’t trying to create a new generation of earthenware-obsessed hypebeasts. “We really wanted to build on that real-life experience of hunting and looking for something very particular and you find it,” MacDonald shares. That feeling of anticipation and excitement has helped the brand develop an enthusiastic audience in a shockingly short amount of time, including Dynevor, who stumbled upon it on Instagram.
“Her perception is very international,” MacDonald says of the actor, whom she met after mutual friends connected the pair. “She just has this genuine love for vintage and antiques.” Surprisingly enough, Dynevor’s first foray into secondhand shopping came when she first arrived in Los Angeles. Like many young folks just starting out, she was looking for an affordable way to furnish her apartment, so she and her roommate hit the Rose Bowl Flea Market. For anyone looking to get into vintage and antiques, she recommends starting somewhere similar to get a sense of your style. “Find pieces that speak to you and feel unique and special,” she shares.
This advice is what Sylvie is all about. MacDonald travels all over the world to find pieces that have a special story and offer the opportunity to connect. The storytelling of it all is especially important to MacDonald because selling antiques without a physical storefront requires a lot of trust from customers. But because Gen Z’ers and millennials are looking for places that offer them the opportunity to consume mindfully, she’s been able to build a platform that requires an initial leap of faith. “There’s this really big push with Gen Z and millennials for individuality. They want something eclectic that represents themselves. So I think this is really where antique and vintage comes in,” she shares. “It’s a slower process. It’s more intentional. I think that it’s very reliant on community and trust and loyalty.”
Dynevor’s collection is a mix of Louis XVI furniture, antique tapestries, and small decorative items. Sylvie’s drops tend to include a range of price points so that folks can participate across different budgets. When asked to pick a favorite (an unfair question, admittedly), Dynevor highlights an undersung benefit of antiques: their usefulness. “I love the French cutting boards, they’re so cool and beautiful, and I don’t know about most people, but especially in London, I don’t have a huge amount of storage, so I like anything that can live out on the kitchen and I don’t have to put away because it looks so beautiful.”
