Arty Farty Beach Party

Ahh, Art Basel Miami Beach – what an amazing time I had. A time when the culture and sophistication of New York and Europe briefly gets deposited into a tropical environment – the best of both worlds. If only Miami were this stylish and international all of the time, if only New York had decent weather…
You can scroll down and read previous posts to see what I got up to during the first couple of days of ABMB – now here’s the scoop on the weekend. On Friday, I met up with friends for the Visionaire party celebrating Visionaire 53 at The Florida Room at the Delano. Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson, John Legend, Pharrell, model Yesim Ak, artist Kehinde Wiley, Matthew Williamson, and Art Basel director Sam Keller all stopped by for one of the most exclusive parties of the week. Exclusive, yes. Fun? Not so much. It wasn’t bad or horribly boring, but it was one of those parties where people just sat at tables or maybe half-heartedly danced a bit while waiting for Patrick McMullan to take their photo. Much more fun – and just as exclusive – was my next stop of the evening, the Purple magazine bash at Le Baron. Chic Parisian nightclub Le Baron took over Miami’s Rokbar for the duration of ABMB and threw the best parties of the week, attracting the prettiest and most sought-after crowd. Rokbar is small, and on Friday we were hanging with Paris Hilton one minute and boogieing with Andre Balazs the next. (Not that I care much about celebs. I prefer fabulous nobodies – which is why I’m a streetstyle photographer rather than a paparazzo.) Purple people like Olivier Zahm and current Purple Fashion cover star Andre were also sweating (literally) this jam.
Late Saturday morning, after not much sleep, I was torn between going to look at art or going to the beach. I was torn for exactly 10 seconds…before looking out of my hotel window. I realized that I could see all the great art I wanted back in New York, but 80-degree beach days in December? Well, those are a bit harder to come by. Also, I’d already seen great art on this trip but had yet to have a beach day.
After a perfect day on the beach and an early dinner at the News Cafe, I headed off to the Design District for the Y-3 party at their new Miami store. This party had one of the cutest crowds of the week and loads of my photos below were shot there. I loved the video art from Dara Birnbaum that was being shown and was not surprised to see photographers like Max Vadukul and Facehunter in the crowd. Sportswear International’s Fay Cantor-Stephens and her mustard patent Chloe shoe boots won my style award at this party – check out my photos of that cuteness below. After Y-3 we were thinking of hitting Jeffrey Deitch‘s and the MisShapes’ party at the Raleigh penthouse, but decided instead to head straight to Colette. The cutting-edge Parisian boutique – which has sponsored many collaborations between artists and fashion designers – had taken over the Le Baron party for the evening. Sarah from Colette was working the door when we arrived and was hand-crafting a beautiful salad that was heavy on the French dressing. Inside the club, DJs AndrewAndrew were rockin’ a funky party. They’ve always known how to dress, but since when do AndrewAndrew actually know how to DJ? This wasn’t your father’s iPod party – they’ve gone next level on us.
On Sunday, I stopped by the Sagamore to take in photographer Spencer Tunick‘s show. Jeffrey Deitch happened to be catching the show at the same time and I found myself viewing Tunick’s photos with Mr. Deitch providing commentary. Sunday night was the final night of Le Baron’s Miami pop-up club and I headed over for what proved to be my favorite party of the week. (Friday and Saturday were crazier, but Sunday had more of an insider, friends-and-family vibe.) Owen Wilson, Parisian DJ superstars Justice, Sam Keller, and art stars like Naomi Fisher and Jim Drain all joined in the fun. It was typical for art stars to end their nights at Le Baron and Sunday was no exception. My hat is off to Lionel, Chi Chi, and everyone at La Clique for putting these Miami parties together – there was honestly a bit of magic in the room. The Le Baron DJs were a blast too – I’m still walking around with ELO’s “Last Train To London” playing in my head. Check my Sound of Style playlist here on the blog for my top 5 tracks played throughout the week at Le Baron.
See below for my visual companion to the weekend – photos that I shot in Miami. This is a lonnnnggg post – almost 100 photos – so click the more button below to catch all the stylish tropical action. xoxo Eddie