Harry and peter brant jr
Harry and peter brant jr, Peter Brant II, age 18, and Harry Brant, age 16, grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. But in terms of cultural influence, they were raised at the epicenter of the worlds of art and fashion. As the sons of Interview's chairman, Peter M. Brant, and model Stephanie Seymour, the brothers have been fortunate to receive an early education in everything from the brushstrokes of an Andy Warhol canvas to the contours of an Azzedine Alaïa dress (and they didn't have to travel far from their childhood bedrooms to see either of those things up close). Now, deep into their teenage years, Peter II and Harry are affable, well-spoken young men with passionate, if encyclopedic, interests in arts and aesthetics. But while the brothers are close in age, they do have their own individual hopes and dreams: Peter II is interested in pursuing acting when he begins studying at Bard this fall; while Harry, still in high school, is currently taken with both fashion and furniture.
Interview's founder, Andy Warhol, often said that he created the magazine to give the kids something to do. He also understood that sometimes the best way to get to know someone was to ask the simplest of questions. Thus, Peter II and Harry have both completed the first in what will be a new, ongoing feature in which subjects will be put a series of questions culled from a larger list of actual questions that Andy asked people like Bianca Jagger, Michael Jackson, Jodie Foster, Rudolf Nureyev, and Diana Ross in the 1970s and '80s.
ANDY WARHOL: What's your favorite color?
HARRY BRANT: Black. And white. Maybe it's white right now. For a room, I think more mahogany mixed with tan but with a very smooth finish.
WARHOL: Do your horses step on your flowers?
HARRY: They don't step on our flowers. First of all, I tend to lead a horse away from the flowers. My mother would get very upset if the horses trampled them. Also, our flowers are protected with a hedge so that animals can't get to them. But I've really been enjoying riding lately. It's very beautiful this year in Connecticut, with the willow trees and the rain. So if I'm not on the polo track, I'm riding. I ride around the trails. It's lovely, very Old World, as if you're in a time machine.
WARHOL: What's your favorite movie?
HARRY: It's a tie. Gone With the Wind [1939], Citizen Kane [1941], and Breakfast at Tiffany's [1961]. I also love How to Steal a Million [1966]. It's an Audrey Hepburn film in which her grandfather and father are counterfeit artists. Her father fakes all of these great Cézannes and Van Goghs. So one day, a museum is going to authenticate one of her grandfather's pieces, so she has to go and steal it, and she falls in love with the man who is investigating her father. She wears head-to-toe Givenchy and these amazing silk masks. It's really elegant.
WARHOL: Do you want to be a famous painter?
HARRY: No. An artist's life would be very difficult. It takes a lot out of you. I could never be a painter. I don't think I have the talent or skill or persistence. I don't exactly know what I want to do. That's what I'm trying to pinpoint. I definitely want to do something with a creative aspect that encompasses fashion, art, and beauty.
WARHOL: Are you interested in furniture?
HARRY: I love furniture, especially Asian furniture. I have this fantasy of having some sort of island off Japan that has little pagodas and there's no technology allowed and everyone travels by carriage—kind of like the Court of Kyoto. I'm obsessed with the Court of Kyoto. I also like 18th-century furniture, but Peter [Harry's brother] taught me everything I know about that. He really got me interested in the Palace of Versailles and Louis XIV, Louis XV furniture. I also love Art Deco and '60s furniture.
WARHOL: What kind of clothes do you like?
HARRY: Everything. A mix of women's and men's clothes. Even for the shoot I did for Interview, they needed to get a lot of women's clothes because I'm so skinny. A lot of men's clothes don't fit me—they have to be really heavily altered. But I love a bolero! I've got to have one of those. I love very clean lines and then a little craziness. I like to keep changing clothes and almost dress up to take on different characters—to be a bullfighter, or a soldier, or a general, or a prince, or a robber.
WARHOL: What did you have for breakfast?
HARRY: A bagel with cream cheese.
WARHOL: Do you have a TV?
HARRY: I don't. I don't have a TV in my room. My room in Connecticut is the same it's been since I was, like, 5. I have my princess Indian theme by Molesworth, which is beautiful. I think a TV would ruin the décor. It's just not something I grew up with.
WARHOL: What do you love about New York City?
HARRY: That you can go outside at any time and go to a Duane Reade that's open 24 hours. I just love that it's always moving and how all the different scenes that mix so well. I've been coming into the city since I was 7 to go to museums, gallery openings with my parents, and even shoots with my mom. If I hadn't had that opportunity, I would be a completely different person. It's made me really open-minded—which I know is really obnoxious to say because typically people who say they are open-minded and down-to-earth are not. But New York is the best.
Interview's founder, Andy Warhol, often said that he created the magazine to give the kids something to do. He also understood that sometimes the best way to get to know someone was to ask the simplest of questions. Thus, Peter II and Harry have both completed the first in what will be a new, ongoing feature in which subjects will be put a series of questions culled from a larger list of actual questions that Andy asked people like Bianca Jagger, Michael Jackson, Jodie Foster, Rudolf Nureyev, and Diana Ross in the 1970s and '80s.
ANDY WARHOL: What's your favorite color?
HARRY BRANT: Black. And white. Maybe it's white right now. For a room, I think more mahogany mixed with tan but with a very smooth finish.
WARHOL: Do your horses step on your flowers?
HARRY: They don't step on our flowers. First of all, I tend to lead a horse away from the flowers. My mother would get very upset if the horses trampled them. Also, our flowers are protected with a hedge so that animals can't get to them. But I've really been enjoying riding lately. It's very beautiful this year in Connecticut, with the willow trees and the rain. So if I'm not on the polo track, I'm riding. I ride around the trails. It's lovely, very Old World, as if you're in a time machine.
WARHOL: What's your favorite movie?
HARRY: It's a tie. Gone With the Wind [1939], Citizen Kane [1941], and Breakfast at Tiffany's [1961]. I also love How to Steal a Million [1966]. It's an Audrey Hepburn film in which her grandfather and father are counterfeit artists. Her father fakes all of these great Cézannes and Van Goghs. So one day, a museum is going to authenticate one of her grandfather's pieces, so she has to go and steal it, and she falls in love with the man who is investigating her father. She wears head-to-toe Givenchy and these amazing silk masks. It's really elegant.
WARHOL: Do you want to be a famous painter?
HARRY: No. An artist's life would be very difficult. It takes a lot out of you. I could never be a painter. I don't think I have the talent or skill or persistence. I don't exactly know what I want to do. That's what I'm trying to pinpoint. I definitely want to do something with a creative aspect that encompasses fashion, art, and beauty.
WARHOL: Are you interested in furniture?
HARRY: I love furniture, especially Asian furniture. I have this fantasy of having some sort of island off Japan that has little pagodas and there's no technology allowed and everyone travels by carriage—kind of like the Court of Kyoto. I'm obsessed with the Court of Kyoto. I also like 18th-century furniture, but Peter [Harry's brother] taught me everything I know about that. He really got me interested in the Palace of Versailles and Louis XIV, Louis XV furniture. I also love Art Deco and '60s furniture.
WARHOL: What kind of clothes do you like?
HARRY: Everything. A mix of women's and men's clothes. Even for the shoot I did for Interview, they needed to get a lot of women's clothes because I'm so skinny. A lot of men's clothes don't fit me—they have to be really heavily altered. But I love a bolero! I've got to have one of those. I love very clean lines and then a little craziness. I like to keep changing clothes and almost dress up to take on different characters—to be a bullfighter, or a soldier, or a general, or a prince, or a robber.
WARHOL: What did you have for breakfast?
HARRY: A bagel with cream cheese.
WARHOL: Do you have a TV?
HARRY: I don't. I don't have a TV in my room. My room in Connecticut is the same it's been since I was, like, 5. I have my princess Indian theme by Molesworth, which is beautiful. I think a TV would ruin the décor. It's just not something I grew up with.
WARHOL: What do you love about New York City?
HARRY: That you can go outside at any time and go to a Duane Reade that's open 24 hours. I just love that it's always moving and how all the different scenes that mix so well. I've been coming into the city since I was 7 to go to museums, gallery openings with my parents, and even shoots with my mom. If I hadn't had that opportunity, I would be a completely different person. It's made me really open-minded—which I know is really obnoxious to say because typically people who say they are open-minded and down-to-earth are not. But New York is the best.