There’s been something of a scammer gold rush in journalism, with the Anna Delvey saga, the Fyre Festival debacle and even the “Hipster Grifter” providing a steady stream of books, documentaries and dramatized adaptations over the past decade.
Now a downtown stylist alleges that Vanity Fair was so eager to find “the next Anna Delvey” that it shoe-horned him into the role — whether the facts fit or not.
The monthly profiled Simmons — a former salesperson at luxe celebrity-beloved brand Khaite, noted for his impeccible personal style — in January in a story it headed as “He said/He said” and entitled “Frenemies Call Him a Scammer. He Says They’re Just Jealous.”
The article features on-the-record and anonymous sources who paint Simmons as a textbook low-level scammer, ping-ponging from coast to coast while avoiding rent payments and sleeping on an air mattress but dressed head-to-toe in the most luxe designers. It claimed he used clients’ credit cards to buy pricey clothes for himself, and even raised the specter of “whispers of unauthorized credit card authorizations” at Khaite, which is a favorite among stars like Katie Holmes, Annabelle Dexter-Jones and Olivia Palermo. It also chronicled his arrest on charges of aggrevated harassment related to a dispute with his roomate.
He adamantly denied all the allegations of scamming in the story, and last week a judge dismissed the harassment case, he told us.
Now Simmons has spoken out about the accusations – and that Vanity Fair article.
The piece has almost made him persona non grata in some New York scenes. Spies called Page Six when they spotted him at the swanky Lower East Side club Two Fifteen at the Public hotel last month and told us, “people started moving their bags” when they recognized him from the story. Meanwhile, he was introduced to us as, “Bryant, the scammer from Vanity Fair,” one evening at Mother’s Ruin in Nolita.
The former downtown denizen says he’s even getting recognized on the Upper East Side, where he currently resides.
Simmons says he became a story after his roommate Arya Toufanian, upset over a disagreement about rent on their Soho townhouse, set up a now-deactivated Instagram account, @bryansimmonsisascammer, and tagged several publications in an attempt to get the attention of its journalists. (Toufanian did not get back to us). Vanity Fair, he says, took the bait.
The New York Post’s Jeanette Settembre also interviewed Simmons and Toufanian, but ultimately didn’t publish the article. (The Vanity Fair story mentions Toufanian looking out the window at Simmons being shot by a New York Post photographer. The roommate says, ““If he was quiet throughout the process, this wouldn’t have been a story. But he made it about himself, and he loves it.”)
Simmons is also frustrated that Khaite didn’t help clear his name. He says that it could have shown that the supposed “whispers of unauthorized credit card authorizations” were unfounded.
He further claims that after he was terminated for showing up for work too late, too often, he and Khaite founder Catherine Holstein even had a 45-minute conversation when they bumped into each other on the street, during which she encouraged him to start his own brand. (A rep for Khaite didn’t get back to us when we reached out for comment about this conversation).
“It seemed genuine,” Simmons said. “Why not step in when one of your three black employees is being framed to have stolen and defrauded your company.”
After the case against him was dismissed, Simmons addressed the Vanity Fair story’s author, Clara Molot, on Instagram saying, “I know you really wanted to pitch the Anna Delvey narrative, but honestly, not only is it unoriginal and tired. It also didn’t fit, especially along with the facts.”
Vanity Fair did not address his social media posts, but a spokesperson told us they stand by their reporting.
Simmons said despite now being a polarizing figure, the response hasn’t been all negative.
“People come up to me at [luxury Upper East Side hotel] the Mark… I had a woman come up to me and say, ‘Oh my God, I saw you in Vanity Fair… but you look amazing!’”
Still, “It’s not a compliment. I’m not trying to be infamous for being a scammer,” he said.
In the meantime, he’s aware that no one may hire him because of the article, so he and his business partner have started their own brand, Muele. “[The article] did empower me to step into my own and realize no one is coming to save me, and you can’t trust companies and you can’t trust journalists,” he said.
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