Two people. A shared eye.

Claudia already had connections with antique dealers. Alongside their antiques, those dealers also encountered vintage furniture and objects. These pieces were often outside their main specialism, but to Gion they said a great deal.

He recognised the design in them: a line, a proportion, an interesting material or a combination that made an object worth another look. Claudia’s network brought those pieces into view; Gion’s eye helped recognise what was there. Our shared selection grew from that exchange.

That was how Claudia Collections began. The relationships mattered as much as the objects. They connected the people who found and handled pieces with a different understanding of how those pieces could be seen, presented and appreciated.

Over the past ten years, Claudia Collections has taken shape through those dealer connections, through trade shows and through the choices we made together. A collection gradually expresses a point of view: what draws your attention, what stays with you and which pieces you want to put in front of other people.

Trade shows were part of that experience, alongside the dealer relationships and the steady work of choosing pieces. Over ten years, that combination helped shape Claudia Collections’ point of view and the way we present furniture and objects.

Our interest has remained in furniture and objects with a distinct presence. Sometimes that is sculptural form; sometimes it is a material, a useful detail or the balance of an entire piece. Vintage and mid-century design give us a broad field in which to look, while the selection remains personal.

On 1 July 2023, we opened our 600-square-metre showroom in Zandhoven. It gave Claudia Collections a physical home: a place where pieces could be seen together and where the collection could be experienced beyond individual photographs.

That showroom occupied the location that is now the first Vintage Design Center. The shared address connects two stages of our story. The experience of bringing pieces together in a showroom, and the thinking around bringing dealers and their collections together, continue into the VDC direction.

For Claudia Collections, that history gives the new chapter a clear starting point. VDC is connected to the place, relationships and ideas that were already part of our work.

When Claudia fell ill, the practical running of Claudia Collections had to change. She can no longer support Gion with the day-to-day work as she did before. Her contribution continues through ideas—and some of the thinking behind Vintage Design Center comes from those ideas too.

That change required a different way of carrying the work forward. It has helped shape a clearer focus: a small, highly curated collection of our own, with space for the ideas and connections that continue through Vintage Design Center.

Claudia’s place in the story remains central. Her relationships helped start Claudia Collections, our combined eye shaped its selection, and her ideas continue to be part of what comes next.

Claudia Collections will continue with a small collection of its own: pieces we choose personally, with the same interest in form, materials and character that has guided us over the past ten years.

Vintage Design Center gives our history and ideas a wider setting. It brings us into conversation with other dealers and their collections, while leaving room for each to have a perspective of their own. The connection continues to develop; the personal eye behind Claudia Collections remains.