from Steven Meisel to Kate Betts: a hot june in miami

A June with a bang in Miami, a promising season.

Go figure, normally summer is the low season here and yes it took me years to get acquainted with the idea that, while I grew up where summer is the epitome of the high season, I live in the same hemisphere yet this is the time of the year when either you leave and go to … Europe or you stay put until better times come.

 

ROLE PLAY

The first Monday of the month was sealed with a cocktail at the Moore Building in the Design District celebrating the opening of ‘Role Play’ the Steven Meisel traveling exhibition sponsored by Loewe and Phillips Auctions. Nice groove, pleasant conversations and engaging networking.

Is it Miami up to something that I am missing?Tthis looks like Milan before everyone leaves for the beach: keep up the great job.   

 

MY LITTLE PARIS

It continued in Bal Harbour. 

From Vogue to EIC at Harper's Bazaar, Kate Betts, the fashion journalist born under the wings of Mr. John B. Fairchild turned author, drew Miami's crème de la crème of style to Bal Harbour for a lavish luncheon at Makoto hosted by Lara Shriftman and Sarah Harrelson. A reading of her recently launched book ‘My Little Paris’ followed suit at Books & Books which is becoming the new fashion salon literaire in Miami. 

Bal Harbour stepped up its game from when I was working there, starting with the activities around The Fashion Project curated by Cathy Leff. 

 

#GucciCruiseNYC

This didn't happen in Miami, it was Chelsea, NYC but it marked the calendars as the re-birth of the Gucci legacy.

Cruise was the first collection that Alessandro Michele, th new man at the helm of the Florentine heritage brand, was able to design with enough margin of time. He blocked off a whole City block to have the models strut across a street in Chelsea and walk the catwalk: the cement floor of an art gallery covered in Persian carpets.

Michele’s new Gucci has been called weirdo, nerdy, deliberately grannified, a rag-bag parade of vintage, a fantastical story and a mismatched patchwork of everything. 

In reality the core of the Gucci brand had been long hidden under the carpets like dust, relegated to the closets, stuffed in the attics as a reliquiam of a time gone that we were supposed to forget. 

Michele's sensibility brought it back by digging in those same armoires, those same that one's grandmother has with a romantic and urban feel. 

credit @angelicahicks on Instagram 

The connection? Fashion, with the capital F

I am kinda breaking the rules by putting together the two fashion conglomerates of Bal Harbor and Miami Design District, that are in an unspoken battle of opposite pulling forces, but I agree with anything they are doing, because they unveiling a new existence of Fashion in Miami. 

 

from Design Miami to Cult Collective: where art, fashion and design meet

Design Miami/

It started with a star-studded panel that included among the mostest, Craig Robins, Marina Abramovic and man of the moment Peter Marino.

35 galleries from allover the world, 5 coming from Italy bringing the best in design. 

The highlight?  "Counting the Rice" at the Marina Abramovic Institute a relational art experience that wants you to really count rice and separate the grains from the lentils. Seems silly? 

"We live in a world driven by technology wich is good news and our worst enemy" explained Abramovic. "We must stop living a life where we have no time".

Don't we all relate to that? We live in the intention of catching the next train and we are never present to the train we are riding now. So I did challenge my daughter to the experiment. Result: total fail. She separated all grains and lentils while contemporarily counting the lentils, while my attempt produced a small pile of rice and a bigger one of lentils and finished with me leaving the station for a glass of champagne. She ended up being filmed by no less that Mrs. Karla Otto in person. #proudmama

Opening reception for Cult Collective

Danny Santiago is for Miami what Yves Saint Laurent was for Marrakesh: chic relaxed luscious glam elegance.

Santiago is a name larger than life not only in Miami and, believe me, whatever he touches becomes splendid. He is an avid collector of Fashion, the one with the upper case F and modern design, uber stylist (hello "Sex & the City" the Movie) and pedegreed print titles of the likes of Vogue Italia and Vogue Gioiello. The man who never sleeps is now the creative mind behind Santika with A-lister jewelry designer Erika Peña.

Told ya we were in front of royalty.

Santika is a capsule resort collection inspired by the iconic divas of the 70s and just as that it would suffice to dive into those flowy caftans, add a maxi tasselled necklace and live in them all year long. But those two are a powerhouse of brilliant stilistic eye, design and talent, just talent of the sweetest form, the one that welcome you open heartedly every time you pop-in. You can't leave Miami without visiting them: the pop-up store will be open until the 10th of December. Living in Miami without being stung by the Santika bug is like visiting London and missing Mayfair .  



Ars cogitandi

The most wonderful time of the year in Miami Beach is frenzy and flamboyant Art Basel Miami Beach. It’s the equivalent of a kid’s excitement while opening the gifts on Christmas day. Magic. 

The best of the best of the art world at our feet for a week. 

The glory of a hell of a lot of good looking people coming from allover Europe and the US and the world. 

Some of the highlights & my own personal wish list.

Vernissage … say what?

You hear that word in Miami just for Art Basel, so chic and aristocratic, and French and imported. It’s a word with a life span of a couple of days a year and its local definition is: that ‘by invitation only’ event attended by everyone who goes to be seen and get that flute of champagne. There are always exceptions who the majority of the cases end up visiting the VIP opening (6 hours prior).

Night Court

(photo by Alexa Karolinski)

Los Angeles- based artist Ry Rocklen promises a blend of art, music and conviviality. A pop-up art bar that will be a pod of art, a venue for music and a showroom for his furniture line “Trophy Modern”. 

Art Basel Miami Beach

250 leading galleries from allover the world and 4,000 artists. Is it there anything else to be added?

Design Miami

Have you ever imagined an entire pavilion with collectible and museum-worthy historical and contemporary furniture and objects d’art? Louis Vuitton and Cassina collaborated in the authentic to-scale reproduction of the 1934 La Maison au Bord de l’Eau by Charlotte Perriand.

PAMM

Ai WeiWei overwhelming installation of Chinese bicycles, vertical gardens, a ‘backyard’ with Adirondack chairs from which to admire the bay or ponder on the art you just admired, hop on the peoplemover from Brickell, breathtaking views from the galleries and just a serious round of last minute gifts totaling about $8 millions and 102 pieces of art from museum trustee Craig Robins

'Social Animals'

(photo - www.artbasel.com)

Iconic Collins Park is transformed into a gigantic outdoor museum. A space that everyone can access. Some 30 large scale installations and the rest is all to be discovered. What a marvelous way of exposing children to art without constricting them to walk into a museum. 

Rubell, Margulies and de la Cruz and it’s love at first sight 

This year the Rubells are sharing their Contemporary Chinese Art and the Margulies show off their de Kooning, Miro, Segal among some. You know where to meet.

Miami Design District

(photo from PAMM media release)

It wouldn’t be me without fashion. Visionaire and art collector Craig Robins is da man here. We are talking about urban design, art and fashion all in one crevice of Miami. A selection from The Warhol Museum, Berluti and Maarten Baas, Cassina and Charlotte Perriand are music for my ears. 

Wynwood Walls 

The Goldmans and their murals and graffiti, we have them all year round, but during Art Basel they have this unique flavor. Miami has never been the same since. 

Curiosity

(photo www.audemarspiguet.com)

Audemars Piguet, an associated partner of Art Basel, with Galerie Perrotin present 'Curiosity' a giant floating Swiss chalet in front of ghostly Miami Marine Museum ideated by Kolkoz.