It was a hot summer night ... I am none like Hemingway, but it was really hot, we were on the terrace of the penthouse at SOHO Beach, right above the ocean, glasses of rose' and iced water ensuing.
We were there to talk about fashion, style and Miami as a fashion hub.
I had the honor to be invited to participate to the conversation alongside with Julian Chang, a long-standing and multi-awarded Miami designer and Hadley Henriette, Managing Editor of Haute Living.
The crowd was chic, stylish and engaged.
The conversation was relevant, how do we keep up with fashion in Miami? I posed the question because people think that because it's a never ending summer down here, we have it easy. Truth is: it's not as it seems. Yes, we don't have to deal with snow, icy rain, trains and bus, boots and scarves, but hey we miss "sweater weather" and we want to wear our furs, the colors of the season, we don't want to feel like the little cousins in the land of bananas and bikinis.
I am still a suffragette of the change of the wardrobes from summer to winter even with subtropical temperatures and 20 years in Miami. It's fun, sustainable, saves a lot of money in last minute splurges, it makes you reveal a whole new wardrobe every six months and helps you make calculated choices when it comes to buying a refresher of the new season.
Julian has its own staples, those fabulous, colorful, body-hugging column dresses that I like calling "tropical couture". He is too humble to admit that he produces his own prints and he manufactures everything in Miami and after so many years of doing so, he must be really good at what he does to not only keep the showroom in Miami, but to have opened his boutique in MiMo, short of Miami Modern, an original part of the city along Biscayne Boulevard that is a hustling and up-and-coming neighborhood.
It was just after Labor Day and the question popped: white or not white? I replied as low as i could, although I had to deal with a microphone, that rules are meant to be broken. Julian was more diplomatic and fair than me: he said to go with your style and what makes you look better. In doubt, head over the boutique, where he usually peeks in more often than you'd think. The best part of it? You like a dress but not the pattern, or the fabric, he'll adapt it to "what makes you feel better".
I mean, I wore a golden amphora caftan-like dress with my flat FURRY Lab slides which Julian chose for me. Little that I knew, it was featured on the cover of his new season's catalog which put me on the spot.
I am no model, in weight or size or heigth, I still have to make my rounds around my facial expressions, in other words, I make a lot of faces, yet I felt like the golden ticket. Now when a dress can fit such the opposite sides of the spectrum, its all in the designer. Style is also sensibility and when a designer can be so sensible, it's a winner.