The Brimfield Experience

Last month, while traveling throughout New York and Massachusetts, setting up my son for his sophomore year at Bard, visiting with Cynthia Wick, and shopping up a storm on New York's infamous Warren Street, I also experienced, for the first time, the mecca of all outdoor antique shows - the incomparable Brimfield fair. With over 5,000 vendors from all over the country in 21 different show venues (what Brimfield calls "fields," each of them 2-3 acres wide) and lasting six consecutive days, the Brimfield Fair happens three times a year (May, July, Sptember) and is legendary for obvious reasons. On their site, they offer up sound advice for buyers such as this: "If you see something that you can't live without, do not put it down as there may be someone standing behind you that is just waiting to grab it."

The openings of each "field" are staggered by dates and times of day; I've included a visual aid from their site, an "Arial" (sic) view of Brimfield's fields. There's truly an art form to finding access to some of the fields before they're open to the public. On my first shopping day, I gained entry to the desirable "Dealer's Choice" field by following a dealer's car onto the field itself and then telling the guard I was with them, but had decided to walk rather than drive. The next day I ventured into my favorite field, "The Heart of the Mart."

I was lucky enough to have the company of Adam Blackman of Blackman Cruz as my shopping guide and, at his instruction, I was up and out on the fields, in the dark, at 4:30 a.m., purchasing a pair of leather Borge Mogensen chairs and hoping they were as gorgeous in daylight as they seemed to be in those last sunless pre-dawn moments. (They were!) Sharing a truck back from the show with fellow Angelenos Greg Wooten from The Window (previously Boo Radley's), Josh from Rewire, and designer Mary Luby, I commented that if we were hijacked, someone would have a fabulous collection to open an eclectic store.

Througout the ensuing days, I met dealers from Rhode Island, Maine, Atlanta, GA, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania and enjoyed pulled pork sandwiches, lobster rolls, breakfast burritos, and lemonade from the countless food stands. Also, my great friend and Brimfield veteran Annie Pressman showed up and did a spot of shopping with me!

 Between shopping and scouring for three days straight and enjoying my "off" time with Gretchen Rennel and John Court at the Sturbridge Hotel (where its illuminated pools were so chlorinated you felt the oxygen being sucked from the atmosphere just standing near them), the trip was a fantastic success. Below are some of the highlights! You'll have to stop into rumba to see which pieces made the trek from East to West.

Brass bull and a painting; Brimfied. DAY ONE.

Brimfield shoppers! Tim Gurley from Pasadena; me and Annie Pressman. DAY TWO.The best breakfast burrito in all of Brimfield. Rainstorm at the heart of the mart. Amazing piece - looks like marble, but is made of paper mache!

Brimfield dealer giclees.Brimfield prints. At the Sturbridge Host Hotel with Gretchen Rennel and John Court and the toxic chlorine pools.

Adam Blackman and Mary Luby.

Hitting Hudson, New York's notorious Warren Street

Leaving Tivoli, I plugged my next destination into my Tom Tom GPS, the most useful Christmas present I’ve ever received, given to me by my dear friend Lindsay, who used Tom Tom to navigate Los Angeles when visiting from the U.K. last year. Knowing I’m directionally-challenged, she bought one for me and I’ve never traveled without it since. Heading for Warren Street in Hudson, New York, a sophisticated avenue of unforgettable antiques and architecture. My time was limited there, as I was due for dinner in Lenox, Massachusetts, but I used my limited timeframe well. Beginning at the top of Warren Street, making my way down the left side, I first stopped to make a hat purchase for Brimfield from a designer who’d just relocated from San Francisco to Hudson. I found a pair of amazing 11’ wicker etageres at Doyle and chatted with owners Tim Doyle and Denis Ferentinos; Chris Lehrecke has fabulous lighting designed by Chris himself, as well as incredible “flora and fauna-inspired” sculptural jewelry by Gabriella Kiss. I ran into interior designer Laura Baker and her husband, Steve, looking at gorgeous kilims and carpets in Kea. Laura, who lives and works in Los Angeles, had just dropped their daughter at Bennington for her freshman year, so we “talked shop” on several levels. Kea owners, Azy and Susan, also have a store on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn, and their collection is nothing short of stunning. At Neven Moderne, I found an Eames-like wall sculpture and an entire wall of Dansk trays and bowls, Foley and Cox had a pair of jaw-droppingly beautiful Mogens Koch bookcases and an upholstered corn-blue bench; and a pair of incredible tufted sofas on either side of a rectangular coffee table was spotted at Arenskjold Antiques. Before leaving Hudson I picked up a great house gift for my longtime friend, the artist Cindy Wick - a pair of linen dish towels at Rural Residence. Check out some photos below!

Next, I’m off to the Berkshires, just an hour away, to meet with Cindy, check out the most famous hotel in Lenox, MA, discover an incredible collection of topiaries, and more.

Mogens Koch bookcases and an upholstered bench at Foley and Cox on Warren Street.

Neven Moderne on Warren Street. Beautiful ceramic lamp on Hudson, New York's famous Warren Street.Blurry, but still beautiful, rugs at Kea.

Tufted sofas at Arenskjold Antiques.

The rumba girls do the Santa Monica Flea

While the Santa Monica Flea Market doesn’t always have the most outstanding finds, it’s truly bountiful in its offering of fascinating characters like Lui Antal Deak (showing an abstract oil painting below), a loquacious, lovely Frenchman who deals in fine art and who also happens to be a nudist, which is, we suppose, unrelated. This early Sunday morning, he informed us he’s met perfect ten “bleached out” supermodels, their passion and sensuality gone cold. “It isn’t about what kind of car you have, it’s about how you drive your vehicle,” he euphemistically and sagely stated.


From there, we moved onto Dalia Litvak’s booth to check out her inimitable jewelry. She began producing her creations a decade ago, when her collection of jewels, pearls, and chains, dating from the Victorian to the modern Italian and everywhere in between, began evolving into one-of-a-kind pieces, merging old and new in innovative, unexpected ways. We then dropped by our friend Cecilio’s booth (pictured below with one of a pair of 1930s ceramic lamps he’d sold just seconds before). Cecilio is a regular Santa Monica flea vendor and his shop on La Brea, Things Antiques, is a secret hotspot for stellar vintage finds. And you can head right next door after shopping with Cecilio for a Pink’s dog.


This particular Sunday was good for vintage clothing scouting and we were hunting for some tailored vintage dresses (with no success, unfortunately). Rococo Vintage (vintage clothing for tyrannical aesthetes) gave us a super tip concerning vintage clothing, which confounds most women in terms of sizing: take the waist of any vintage (or unsized) dress to your neck and wrap it around – if it reaches all the way around and overlaps a bit, it’s likely to fit your waist. Incredibly helpful for future vintage clothing shopping! Thanks, Rebecca Darling.



At Cindy Ciskowski’s booth, we nabbed a collection of new linen drumshades and a pair of graphic yellow and white pillows (shown off by Cindy herself in the photo) as we’re truly nuts about the color yellow right now. We also fell in love with a single pillow in a beautiful, subtly tea-stained, antiqued pattern. This trend is huge right now in New York. ABC Carpet is loving it in a major way. And so are we. Expect more of this in the months to come for textiles across the board – rugs, pillows, windows, upholstery, and more.








Go to the Santa Monica Flea Market and experience it for yourself! It’s on the first and fourth Sunday of every month and if the antique art, furniture, lamps, and jewelry don’t charm you, we’re willing to bet the people will.