"The Cheat Sheet of Italian Style" at SOHO Beach House

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. 

 

How to live with style wherever you are

I was selected to take over the blog section of CreativeMornings/Miami, our city's chapter of a worldwide community of like-minded creatives who gather one Friday morning a month. 

This is an ambitious one you guys: the topic of my book concentrated in 5 posts and 1 city, Miami.

Now, don't you even think you will not be buying the book when it comes out, but what I wrote is just enough teasing.

Go ahead and scroll down, click, read, choose and pick what peaks your curiosity, but more than anything answer this: got to the comment and write YES or NO to the following statement

"We don't follow trends, we set them" 

How to live with style in Miami: the neighborhood

TAKE AWAY: stay away from the limelight, don't follow the sheep. 

The closet swap

TAKE AWAY: it's a thing

A summer in the city, that is, when you don't live in NYC nor you spend the summer on vacation, what us commoners do to keep it Haute. 

TAKE AWAY: pretend.

How to be Italian (wherever you are) 

TAKE AWAY: luxury is a state of mind.

 

How to keep up with Fashion, when you don't live in a fashion hub.

TAKE AWAY: You can take the girl out of Fashion, not Fashion out of the girl. 

DON'T FORGET TO ANSWER: are you team #wedontfollowtrendswesetthem YES or NO

And the Hamptons of Rome is ...

 

Let’s see: Rome is not on the coast, it has its own beach though, Fregene, as remotely close to the Hamptons as Jersey Shores. But just drive a bit north, a bit south and sail a bit west and you ARE where the Hamptons were invented (sometimes I speak “Mean Girls”).

In a radius of 100 Km. you find Capalbio and Orbetello, Porto Ercole and you go south and you find il Parco del Circeo, Sperlonga (way more south), Ventotene, and with Gaeta and Ponza I mean WOW. I actually think that Ponza could really be its Hamptons. And to give you a hint of the splendor of the beaches, the sea, the seafood, thesunsets, they are on the Mediterranean, same as all the places that the Roman Emperors had selected as their summer residence, like the Amalfi Coast, Sicily, the Eolian islands. 

Now let's read  the article on W Magazine where they tell you that the Hamptons of Rome is Puglia and have a thing or two straightened up:

  1. Puglia is a region, not a city or a neigborohood, it's like Lazio, the region where Rome is. Same as Tuscany that is the region where Florence is. So when you are in Florence you don't "also go to Tuscany" because you already are in Tuscany.
  2. Italy is shaped like a boot and Puglia is the “heel” which lands its beaches on the Adriatic sea, not the Med and there’s a sea of difference, pun intended.  
  3. In other words, it’s like saying that the Hamptons of New York is Georgia, that is, nothing to do.
  4. Distance from Rome to Borgo Egnazia is almost another plane ride. 
  5. After some investigation, because I had never heard of that place before, I found out that's the place where Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel got married. 
  6. NOW you get it. 
  7. Rule n.1 of vacationing in Italy: do like the locals do.

Not saying that whatever they are promoting isn’t gorgeous, spectacular, romantic, chic and all, but it’s like comparing apples to oranges.

On this same wave length:

WHAT TO PACK FOR AN ITALIAN SUMMER

Tank + shorts + flip-flops, fanny pack, visor and gooey white SPF, especially if you wear them ALL together.

one more thing: cappuccino is morning breakfast with croissant, not after lunch or dinner. If you don't believe me, take a peek at the table next to you next time that you have lunch.

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