Rob Pruitt worked shoppers into a pre-Frieze buying frenzy with the opening of his Brant Family Flea Market in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Sunday. For the pop-up show, which also served to celebrate Pruitt's 50th birthday, the billionaire art collector Peter Brant’s entire clan cleaned out their closets to fill the Brant Foundation Art Study Center with old toys, dishes and monogrammed scarves. Brant’s wife, the former supermodel Stephanie Seymour, had a special boudoir with $20 Manolo Blahniks (size 10) and $1,000 couture dresses (size 0). “I’m like the girliest man alive so I spent hours in there,” Pruitt said. Cynthia Rowley, Olivier Theyskens and Princess Eugenie of York were among the VIP guests digging through polo mallets, antique dishware and Peter’s personal seashell collection. Pruitt’s dealer Gavin Brown bulldozed through son Dylan Brant’s fashionable wares: “What size are these shoes?” he shouted at no one in particular. “I don't care I’ll take them anyway,” he said, adding them to an armful of goods that included a copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover. The artist Dustin Yellin dashed around looking for someone to sell him a loveseat that Pruitt and his assistants had drawn all over, but one of the Brant daughters informed him that it wasn’t for sale. He settled on a vintage Louis Vuitton suitcase instead. As a long line formed near the entrance, the Brants bagged the goods and took money, which will be donated to Bard College’s study abroad programme for art students. “I just thought, what a great way to make a family portrait of the Brants,” Pruitt said.
In the framenews
Brants bring out their best for Rob Pruitt’s second-hand birthday bonanza
11 May 2015