Aladdin’s Cave props shop takes a vintage turn

Lifestyle – Judy Murphy visits a magnet for lovers of all things vintage and antique – and meeting needs of screen and stage

Anybody with the slightest interest in vintage and antique clothes, accessories, furniture or household goods, could happily get lost in Tríona Lillis’s premises at the Liosban Estate in the city.

This is a space that, like its owner, defies easy description. That’s partly because there are two businesses here. One is Props and Vintage, a venue that hires out props and costumes to film, TV and theatre companies, and the other is a shop that sells vintage clothes, furniture and other items to the public.

The shop, entitled A Stór, opened a year ago in the ground floor of a warehouse in Liosban (off the Tuam Road). It grew out of Props and Vintage, which Tríona set up with a colleague from the world of film design two years ago.

And if some of the items on the shop floor look familiar, it’s because they have appeared on popular TV programmes such as Poirot and Marple as well as in films such as 2012’s Woman in Black, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Ciaran Hines.

Tríona’s partner in Props and Vintage is Jim Grindley, a London based props master for film and TV, who works on period dramas set in the mid 20th century, including Marple and Poirot, and many pieces here – from sofas to umbrellas – originally dressed those programmes.

Clare-born Tríona, meanwhile, has headed up Macnas Theatre’s costume department for the past seven years and also works with other theatre and TV production companies.  She designed the costumes for 1916: Seachtar Dearmadta, currently showing on TG4 and was set designer on Mephisto’s recent production of Eclipsed at the Town Hall. 

Tríona also styles comedian Tommy Tiernan for his shows. Although he’s doing stand-up rather than acting, it is a performance, she says, and he wants clothes that him feel comfortable on stage. Their professional relationship stretches back years and she will also be working with him on his new series for Sky TV.

The idea to open a hire shop, catering for film and TV companies came about because Tríona and Jim had accumulated a range of period pieces through their work.

 “Everything here has been in a film or TV show,” explains Tríona, pointing out the rocking chair from Women in Black. It sits alongside clearly labelled boxes containing everything from jugs to men’s vanity cases to ladies’ wallets and umbrellas. In another room there’s a selection of vintage luggage, including the suitcases used by David Suchet as Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.