august in 1 minute

IN FASHION TERMS

  • Nathalie Massenet left Net-A-Porter, suddenly and unexpectedly for the most.

Could the merger with Yoox really have been the last drop to fill her bucket? You will thank me and The Business of Fashion for the whole story. 

  • Style.com is GONE. It is now called Vogue Runway as it was incorporated by Venus-fly-trap US Vogue. I am not a reader, fan nor follower of the Wintour-ed brand and I enter the new era with quite a load of scrupulous questions. I will have the answers as early as next week when Fashion month kicks-off in NYC. The moment of truth though will be when the caravan migrates to Milan.

WHAT HAPPENS IN ROME

  • Shut down: everyone is on vacation.

I have worked every August 15 as usual and still, after 19 years, it still bugs me that nobody in the US knows what Ferragosto is and nobody in Italy remembers that.

It is what it is, frustration like confetti.

HURRICANE COUTURE

  • Scorching hot: 1000% humidity with temperatures in the high 90s is no good. Anybody willing to convince me that this heat is sexy, chic, elegant and acceptable?

B R I N G I T O N

  • August 24 is my friend Fernanda's b'day and the anniversary of the most devastating hurricane that recent history remembers in the Southern Riviera.

That doesn’t make Fernanda a natural disaster, but right up that alley, first week back-to-school we went though the first hurricane scare.  We all bought water, supplies, food, wine, champagne (I don’t drink beer) that will last until Thanksgiving when we will end up donating to Miami Rescue Mission. Trying to make us all look good here.

Note: alcoholic beverages will not make it there, as, some of you may already know it, I have been inducted to the “wining mothers” Hall of Fame.

But this is another story.

In conversation with Dijana: from Goldie Hawn to sustainability, bikinis allowed

You know that feeling of knowing a person before meeting said person?

What I knew of Dijana was very little and consisted of the booklet on my seat and the 15 minutes of the runway show at the Bass Museum. I generally trust my guts and let them work for me when they want to, and, as it turned out, my impressions were not far off.

Dijana swim celebrates “symmetry, purity, sensuality, renewal and beauty” it said on the booklet, enough to peak my curiosity. The right amount of fashion poetry and I wanted to read more, while seating among the A-listers waiting for the show to commence.

Dijana expresses love and gratitude to everyone who helped with this journey, 118 to be exact and that includes Wuppi, her beloved dog.

The recurring symbols throughout the collections are the lotus flower, the bamboo and the triangle.

The first representing the rebirth from the mud, is a tribute to a friend who passed away recently.

The bamboo is the predominant print which represents the balance between flexibility and resiliency against adversity.

The downward triangle is the ultimate representation of femininity.

Wasn’t that enough to wanting to meet with her?  

Our conversation went from drones to generosity, from Nespresso to compassion, from puppy love to entrepreneurial hurdles, from Goldie Hawn to sustainability, and, how much our patience and compassion get put under test by people with no manners.  

Dijana is an all-encompassed business woman who started her new adventure from scratch, that is: coming from an artistic background, having no previous experience in fashion but a clear intuition of what she wanted.

Sheer determination and a great dose of humbleness characterize her personality and her approach to everything, from friends to business.

“I need to understand”
— Dijana on the production process

“I need to understand” is a way of approaching life that brought her to put together a flawless collection in a few months. And you have got to believe me in this: the samples are impeccable, they went through the rough waters of a runway and three days of exhibiting at the Cabana show. They have been touched, worn, taken inside out, tested, washed and yet, not one thread out of place.

She wakes up as early as 6 am and is at the mill all day, something unusual and out of the ordinary in Miami.

DM - “You have to understand that nobody has ever been allowed in as consistently as me, but everybody, from the owner to the seamstresses and the drivers, has been so compassionate and understanding that we almost became an extended family."

Same with Roberto, the grumpy and intimidating big guy of the only place in town that makes strings (you know those strings that tie your bikini top or bottom) when he seemed not to be leaning towards her idea of a thinner string without internal elastic.  You know that annoying feeling of having the marks on your skin from your bathing suit when you lay on the chaise longue?

Well ain’t gonna happen with her bikinis, Roberto caved in, went the extra mile to accommodate her requests and agreed to produce the most subtle and imperceptible string that ties her bikinis.

Because she is like this: she works hard, as hard as anyone else that she surrounded herself with and doesn’t get no as an answer, not capriciously though, but with an intent and the sweetest disarming smile.

Putting up the Ritz in a few months with so many telling her she was crazy, faced her with the ‘impossible’ word one too many times that the Leo in her took over and, voila’, she made it happen.

However, not all roses come without thorns and challenges became the inception of a dream come true.

“I love to be put in the dark spot”
— Dijana on challenges

“I love to be put in the dark spot, to have that grey day, because all that comes out of it is a success, a solution, like a rebirth into a better me.”

Like when, this past December, she couldn’t find the fabric she wanted and was originally directed to look into the wrong direction by whom had diverging interests from what were her requests. It took her the spur of the moment determination and one full Sunday of emailing from her office in Miami Beach, to find the mill she is currently working with.

How did you know that it was that the one?

DM – They were the first one to promptly send samples, within that same week.

Was it what you wanted?

DM - Exactly it, 5000 miles away they got it.

The exclusive bamboo print with her signature had more or less the same trajectory: found the best of the best, adapted to her vision and produced. A common path, passion and workmanship are a commitment for life wherever you are.

Her seamstresses were sitting first row at the show, not exactly a publicist's dream in a restricted seated environment, but she didn't want them standing, because if she made it there it’s thanks to all who have passionately contributed.

And it proved her right, who, if not them, would be proud of every piece that went down the catwalk?  

She believes in the energy and its power infused in every hour spent sawing a piece. Every seam is impregnated with the feelings of the seamstress, it reminded me of “Like water for chocolate” while she touched one long billowy dress and remembered when Margarita was making it. See? That’s what Dijana stands. As a responsible fashion entrepreneur, she has a strong opinion on sustainability, hence the use of polyester, a synthetic fabric yet the one with the least environmental impact. It was in a blink of an eye that she mentioned the movie “The True Cost” produced to document the environmental and human cost of fast-fashion and the reproachable consequences on economy.   

Her friends tell her “you need a vacation”.

“Not now, I can’t, I’d feel like abandoning my creation after having worked so hard.”

When they say if you do what you are passionate about, it won’t feel like work. 

July recap #chicFBapproved

July is a lethargic month in Miami, it took me years to get to terms with it. Back home July is the best of the summer months. It's hot and burning, yet it offers the best of both worlds: beach vibes, the smell of the belle di notte with cicadas, breezy al fresco dinners and chicness. Hence my hashtag for the month #bringmyMediterraneansummerback

It happened in Miami

Swim Week

July also rhymes with swimwear in Miami, the only fashion (trade) show only dedicated to beach wear and a lot of flesh. Check it out here in Italian and here in English.

Meanwhile in Rome

The second week of July is #coutureweek. Called couture, it used to happen in Paris, because of la Chambre, the history we know it. Alas Valentino chartered all buyers, editors and what-nots to admire Mirabilia Romae , the marvels of Rome. It was mesmerizing and it generated the only standing ovation of Couture Week.  Need I say more? When you have a villa Medici o la libreria Casanatense can you expect less than impeccable workmanship and magic?

Wedding of the year – ROYAL ALERT

Pierre Casiraghi and Beatrice Borromeo, nuff said. Patrician meets royal and you have a fairy tale guaranteed for us suckers of the princess life. A link from Vogue Italia showcases the love story, how to dress as a guest, how to be you if you are a gorgeous photogenic blue-blooded off-spring . Warning: gorgeousness displayed.

Into the wild

2 episodes touched ME and several millions around the globe.

·   #CeciltheLion was killed

·   Jane Birkin found out some naughty wrongdoings Hermes is accused of with the very same crocodiles they kill to make her eponymous bag. She doesn’t want her name associated with the company anymore.

It’s a mess.

To infinity and beyond

Pluto Fly By

I have never been so drawn to scientific matters until I met Pluto, the dwarf and youngest of planets. Numbers never sparked my imagination, they bore me. But now looking at humble and magnificent Pluto sending us a picture of his best side, a heart-shaped birth-mark, I am in love. The guy is young, 9 years far away from Earth, made of mountains of ice that doesn’t melt because there is no climate change, GMOs, fracking, Donald Trump. He shows off un-godly below human survival temperature. Peace and tranquility in the hottest July I ever experienced in the Southern Riviera.

Let me move there, alone.

Is there anything I forgot?  * Head over to the COMMENTS and ditch away 

 

the Miami Swim Show: 5 things the media hasn't told you

Before everyone goes on vacation, how about a review of what we’ll wear to the beach in December? Just to have us salivating for the covetable and longing for that bikini-bod we don’t have yet. 

The SwimShow does to Miami Beach what Pitti does to Florence, NYFW does to NY City. Or maybe not. I like thinking of a Swim Week street style.  It was all reduced to half-naked models running from show to show trying to catch-up breaths with #soMiami lateness. 

After 30 years, we call it the Swim Show, it was once organized by IGM and sponsored by Mercedes Benz, but ditched last minute earlier this year.  All strings pulled in a Miami way, the show went on.

We assisted to a showcase of what Miami can give best: legs for days, disproportionate unbalance of exposed flesh vs. fabric, palms, pools and booze.

We recovered the overload of beauty with a juice cleanse for life. 

Let’s go down to business and find out trends and the best according to me - de gustibus non est disputandum. As it happened with Pitti, I went for talent, innovation, inspiration and quality and left the big names to the big media outlets. 

Julian Chang chose the Ritz Carlton. He opened the ceremonies, swept away red carpet and landed the who’s who of socialites on first row. Vertiginous slits, those that you can't say where they begin or end,  rivers of sequins and glam. and a swim capsule collection  worth wearing in a Ted Lapidus pool, sipping champagne.  Imagine a Slim Aaron photo session  for vibrancy of colors and plastic forms.

Dijana swimwear showed at the Bass Museum, a venue that grants a certain status. A museum is not for anyone, but the Bass allows for everyone who attends a first row seat along the ascending ramp. Djiana transported us to a world rarely associated with fashion, a soothing spiritual realm. She expressed her inspiration with recurring symbols like bamboo, triangle, lotus flower and values of symmetry, sensuality, purity. Even with imperceptible bikinis, there was never a vulgar hint, but it felt organic and feminine. Atmosphere was so enchanted, the opposite to stiff that it was a real breath of fresh air.

Magda Gomes swimwear killed me and sent me to heaven, a collection for a languid and disarming beauty, like a siren. Imperceptible lycra, like hugging soothing silk, unexpected silver shells, rivers of chiffon were winners.  The unique print designed by Gomes played  with ethereal red coral twigs, ondulating flowers on a pearl grey background. It alluded to an enchanted garden that could resemble the realm of a nimph that met its own Neptune. The best accounterment of the range were several pieces of jewlery that include a cuff, a ring and a tiara for the future princess of the Oceans. Just in case you wanted to go on vacation and come back married.

F**K goes by a name irreverent and unapologetic, but it’s also Italian so how could I miss the show? I had the pleasure of chatting backstage with Mr. Giorgio, the creative mind of the brand. In a fun and hand-orchestrated Italian conversation, he explained how he decided to take the leap, venture off the other side of the ocean strong of two decades of growing presence in Europe. “The brand grew by itself, without investment in advertizing, because at the end, the final customer is the one that makes you grow."  

"We dedicate time to research in fabrics and trends, but our customers ultimately make us win the prize.” You guys, honestly, Italians are not easy to please, we don't get blinded by glossy papers or billboards, we set high standards before we give thumbs up to a brand. The collection was man and women, resortwear and accessories and nothing was left unconsidered. Audience was at full capacity around the pool that is a lagoon at the Setai hotel. If you heard of a ‘man at sea’ you heard correct: a photographer took the plunge in the pool to survive the asphyxiating heat and to take the closest shots. 

Sunday at brunch we were all called to social shopping which felt just about right. Sunday Soiree was the brilliant idea of PR masterminds The Rally Agency, retail therapy for a good cause with a splash of Bellinis. Organized to support  Style Saves, the non-profit organization that provides clothing to under-privileged students through fashion-related events, shopping a purpose. Needless to say I contributed to the cause with a mix and match bikini from Mare Cheia, funky rhodium and Swaroski crystals earrings from Cavana Jewels and a Panama hat from Regine Chevallier

It felt like a million dollar. 

TRENDS

Small, skin, mini, crop tops, deep slits, chiffon, sheer fresh fabrics and jewlery, thin chains, multiple earrings and knuckle-lets, head wraps and wide brimmed hats. 

Watch this space for special Q&As with some of these most amazing designers and talents. 

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. 

 

Investing in closet essentials: the art of more with less

“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even if it breaks your egocentric little […] heart, kill your darlings”
— Steven King

Does it ever happen to you that when you have something in mind, bits and pieces of your daily life come to whisper your theory is real?

In a more trivial perspective, this is really what went down: the weekend when I switch the wardrobe is fast approaching and I look at my winter clothing in a survival of the fittest mode.

How am I going to fit everything in storage? I can see piles of keep, give away, donate and toss, like in Sex & the City And yes, I always include a closet party with rosé and canapés because it makes the whole ordeal much more pleasant. 

In a matter of a few days I first listened to an interview, dissertation on Essentialism. The Disciplined Pursue of Less by Greg McKeown and second was privileged enough to attend the award ceremony of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and the unveiling of the tent structure the posthumous honoree, late German architect Frei Otto, designed in 1953.

“You can do a few things superbly well, or a lot of things averagely well”
— Greg McKeown

McKeown's book begins from the idea that we are ensconced in the ‘you can have it all’ mentality in which we must say ‘yes’ unconditionally.

We live in the busyness bubble, an imaginary race to sleep less, be busier than  your neighbor under the false illusion of getting this invisible badge of honor.

Our days unfold through the tangled madness of long to-do lists that only lead us to be counterproductive, frustrated and anxious for not having completed tasks.

A life in which we look for more in a panting and puffing state, without really knowing what and, worst, why.

Greg thinks it’s best to live in a JOMO (Joy) state of mind and avoid the FOMO (Fear) like a pestilence.

Hyper-connected reality leads us not to think but to act in a routine that almost resembles flocks of migrant birds that, on a predetermined day of the year, all move somewhere else.

The solution to this? Less but better, to say it with Dieter Rams, that is: focus your choices towards innovation, part exploration of what works for you and part elimination of what doesn’t work for you. 

Frei Otto was an architect whose visions, talent, humbleness contributed to humanity with the simple concept of more with less.  ‘A good design never gets old’, confirmed Shigeru Ban during the panel introduction in a heartfelt tribute to his friend and colleague who was being awarded the prize after life took him away.

The tent is perfect, it holds up without a center pole, it protects you from the rain and keeps ventilation moving in and out, it’s white and blends within the environment, but more so, it’s so current yet planned and created 62 years ago.  

Look, I am not going all Socrates on you, I am shooting a dart to my point, which is not really mine, as McKeown uses a closet as a metaphor to explain all these honing and pruning of your life, but I am really going to use the closet as the main focus.

What Otto contributed to my cogitations? The element of timeless.

Try to read all of the above in your own closet and it translates as follows.


  • You can’t have it all in your closet, can you?

If you let your budget rule your closet you end up: frustrated (honestly, who can afford runway prices?), frantically buying fast fashion (knock-offs and the ethical dooming proposition of  wearing the product of a child’s labor), losing sight of what your style is while being drifted away by the El Nino effect of trends bombarding you and blurring your judgement.

  • Busyness bubble is the equivalent of having too much that we don’t have anything to wear for the right occasion.

Sounds familiar?

  • FOMO is the pressure of the hyper-connection, the pressure to perform no matter what, to spend your paycheck in that pair of shoes you saw that blogger wearing at the event. Or falling for the latest IT bag which will be surpassed by another at the dawn of the new season. 
  • Hyperconnectivity: we have a daily impulse that calls us to buy and own without knowing why, without a rational criteria other than being prompted by the endowment effect command which makes us love more things that we own. 
  • Timeless is the opposite of trendy and I will never get tired of mentioning it. Trends are what keep fashion moving and your closet alive, but when trends trickle down, it's time to move on to the next. It all makes sense when you are at peace with your own style where your way of dressing speaks your personality away. So, by criterias of pruning, honing, de-cluttering, cleaning, eliminating you master the art of more with less. 

With me it's a work in progress, how about you? Take over the comment area! 

The Fashion Project, or, to say it with Oscar Wilde, 'only shallow people do not judge by appearances'

When you hear experimental, Fashion and Oscar Wilde cited in the same conversation you may hardly believe you are in Miami. If symptoms persists, you pinch yourself and the rest is history. 

So it happened. 

Image from The Fashion Project 

Image from The Fashion Project 


WHO Judith Clark, Curator and Exhibitor Maker; Adam Phillips, Psychoanalist and Paul Holdengraber master interviewer of LIVE from the NY Public Library as moderator.

WHAT The Fashion Project, a series of experimental exhibitions orchestrated by Judith Clark and installed in a dedictaed space on the third floor of Bal Harbour. 

WHERE Books & Books in Bal Harbour

WHEN Friday April 10th

WHY the opening of the first of a series of six. 

The exhibition is a celebration of fashion in all its caleidoscopic aspects and under a 'multidisciplinary lens'. Fashion pieces, ranging from an original Schiaparelli to a futuristic wired Hussein Chalayan, are showcased in Victorian cabinets with no chronological order. Concept is 'objects are staged with non predictable impact', they give you enough to awaken a memory, evoke a connection, allure you into a dreamy state, resonate and stimulate the cultural forces from which they emerged, create an aura of wonder around the uniqueness of the piece. 

Following a random extract of what was said. 

Image from The Fashion Project 

Image from The Fashion Project 

Fashion, with the F, is to be taken seriously, it is not trivial to talk about clothes. 

Everyone in the room thought of giving them a big hug. Adam Phillips went ahead to declare that 'it's a shame that vanity has a pejorative connotation.' Again: thank you. 

~~

“Only shallow people do not judge by appearances”
— Oscar Wilde

~~

We are assisting to a rehab of clothing and we must underline the seriousness of Fashion.

~~

Clothing represents our daily life, dresses are a meter to decipher the everyday. The reason to keep clothing through years and generations is to see what you can make out of it. Dresses have a life with the body inside and without. 
I always admited that with me it all started in my grand-mother's armoire. 

~~


"Museums make me sad" Paul Holdergraber said that James Boom said, because they represent fragments harvested from the past and categorize them, it is like extracting their essence and leaving them to the wind of the moment. Judith Clark elaborated that yes somehow with dresses there's that immediate sense of loss because the body is not there. What do you do with a dress when the owner is not alive anymore? She adds that she leaves the viewer decide what meaning to give to that dress in that cabinet in the open space of the exhibition. 

I would wear it.

~~

'We are dressed before we dress.' Truer than true Aren't we all dressed by our mothers before we are then given the initiative to dress alone? And even then, our style is either a by-product or a rebellion to our mothers' minds, closets. (I remember the first thing that I swore I wasn't going to wear anymore "when I grow up" was the Scottish kilt with the safety pin to close it, as a form of internal revolution against the institutionalized power of my mother's conservative way of dressing).

~~

Clothes are a foundamental way of expression.

Again, no frivolity here. 
 

~~

Clothes designers are historians.

We just saw it here with the return of the Seventies: they have this superior sensibility of feeling a moment, getting inspired by an era, remembering a period of their youth or something that their monther or grandmother used to wear and with the power of imagination and sense of esthetic recreate it for the woman of today. 

~~

Dresses and your personal style are a language as powerful as words.
Adam Phillips confessed that he took clothes for granted before knowing Judith Clark.

All I can say is thumbs up #girlpower to Judith: thanks for awakening that whole world in front of him and thank you for making this initiative happen in Miami.

Thanks Paul Holdengraber for baing a gracious and curious moderator.