In 2008, Brad Pitt commissioned a custom desk from Pollaro Custom Furniture. Frank Pollaro personally delivered the desk to Brad’s chateau in the south of France and, during the installation, Brad and Frank found that they had a common passion for furniture and fine details. They discussed design history and their appreciation of materials, old and new. Most importantly, they shared a commitment to perfection. Over a four-year development period, driven by their common vision of unequalled quality, Brad and Frank created the Pitt-Pollaro collection. Every piece is hand crafted, all are limited editions and are numbered and signed.
Frank Pollaro gave Movato Home an interview where he answers questions about his collaboration with Brad Pitt, how he knew he wanted to make furniture as a child, his passion other than furniture, and more.
What struck you about Brad Pitt that made you want to collaborate with him? When I met Brad I was immediately struck by his curiosity to see how the furniture was built. He looked at the bottom of the desk, and the back of the drawers. Places that most people typically don’t look. He was interested to see how the hidden areas were finished and if they were as nice as the areas that showed. They were. He was pleased and it began our conversation, which quickly led to us discovering a shared passion for art, design and perfection.
Do the furniture pieces primarily reflect Pitt’s aesthetic from his drawings, or did you collaborate your aesthetics after seeing his original designs? The designs are 100% Brad’s. They reflect his aesthetic. My involvement is in engineering, ergonomics, and in the suggestion of certain details: the addition of a special piece of hardware, or the way a chair supports the lumbar region of your back. The ultimate pieces of furniture are remarkably close to Brad’s original raw sketches. We are both pleased with what we have done to accomplish that.
Seeing how your furniture is made in limited edition and is signed and numbered, how important is exclusivity and ensuring authenticity? I believe that authenticity is always important. There have been plenty of cases in history where pieces of furniture were created as counterfeit.I am emphatic about letting the client know in unequivocal terms that what they are buying was indeed designed by Brad and built by Pollaro. The pieces are branded or stamped with our logo and signatures. Because there are only a limited number being created, this exclusivity will one day translate into greater value.
Have you thought of doing a mass produced line, or are you committed to sticking to exclusive high-end furniture? My personal involvement in the Pitt-Pollaro program will be limited to exclusive, one-of-a-kind pieces of art furniture. However, Brad and I have discussed the future possibility of engineering some of the designs for a simpler, mass-market production. These items would be made in low cost materials and would bear little resemblance to the ultra-high end pieces we are making today.
Other than creating furniture, is there another area that piques your interest? I am a collector of wine, and I am deeply passionate about it. I have about 5,000 bottles focused mainly on Burgundy, the Rhone Valley, and California, with a lesser concentration in the Loire Valley, Italy, Spain and even Lebanon. One of the nicest parts of my collaboration with Brad is that we are both interested in wine. We have tastings every time we meet and our friendship has blossomed over wine. “From wine what sudden friendship springs!” I am also interested in the garden; I like getting my hands dirty, digging, and sawing firewood.
When you were a child, what did you aspire to be or do? When did you realize you wanted to build furniture? I was drawing recognizable pictures when I was three, I started to construct boats from ice cream sticks when I was five, built go-carts when I was 9 and learned how to use a lathe when I was 12. At that point, I knew that I wanted to make furniture for the rest of my life. I was fascinated with the feel and colors of natural woods and I became deeply involved in the identification of wood species. By the time I was 16, I knew the Latin genus and species of more than 100 exotic woods. Strange but true…
This collection is four years in the making. Does that level of perfectionism ever feel like a hindrance or a burden? I never think of enjoyable work as a burden. I love what I do and most things worth my time, take a lot of it. The Pitt-Pollaro collection took four years because Brad and I are like-minded perfectionists, in his words. We wanted the pieces to be special and that takes time. We also wanted to show a dozen of them so that the viewer would be able to realize the connectedness of the ideas. I feel we have accomplished that with the launch, and there will be lots more to come. I think we both enjoy this process.
Who are your design influences? Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann, Jean Michel Frank, Paul Dupre-Lafon, Jean Dunand and others. These designers created lasting lines that work as well today as they did 100 years ago. I am also a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright and the line management that was his art.
For more information about Frank Pollaro and Brad Pitt’s furniture collaboration, visit www.pitt-pollaro.com. All images via Pitt-Pollaro.
