If you’ve been following us on Twitter and Facebook, then you know where I’ve been late last month. That’s right! Miami, Florida!
Fashionese Daily was invited by Make Up For Ever, the official makeup sponsor for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim for 4th consecutive year, to attend the industry’s biggest trade show, as the only media representative from Indonesia, as well as the whole of Asia! And thanks to my lucky stars, it was me who attended this fabulous show 😀
The 5 days I spent in Miami were action packed. Plenty of sun, surf, bikini, beach babes and hot pink lipsticks that it will be hard to tell every part of it in a single post. So this will be my first article of the series, where I’ll tell what you what I did on those 5 days. But rest assured , there will be plenty more to come in the following days.
Day One
We woke up, opened the curtain and the warm glow from the sun greeted us. We were in Miami! We arrived the night before – and by we, I meant Dinda, from Make Up For Ever Indonesia and myself. We got to stay at The Raleigh, an iconic art-deco hotel in South Beach, where Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim 2013 was held. I couldn’t have thought of a better place to be based out of during our stay, because we were right in the middle of where the action was! It was also perfect that we arrived one day before the event started so we had enough time to settle down and get used to our new surrounding, jet-lagged and all.
When I arrived at my hotel room the night before, there was something waiting for me. It was a tote bag from Make Up For Ever with the coolest gift ever inside: a bottle of Moet & Chandon Imperial and a box of Make Up For Ever 25 Years Aqua Eyes Collector! Inside this box are 25 Aqua Colors in all shades you can think of: from black, brown to lime green and fuchsia. Aqua Eyes is one of my favorite products from Make Up For Ever, so receiving this crayon-like box really was the highlight of my day.
The fashion week opened with a kick off party at The Raleigh pool side that night where Miami’s glitziest crowd gathered to enjoy cocktails and canape. We were invited to a dinner hosted by Make Up For Ever team from Paris and New York, as well as an editor from Glamour magazine Brazil. Dinner was at a Japanese restaurant called Nobu, located a few steps away from The Raleigh, and food was incredible. After surviving on airplane and airport food for 1,5 days, it surely felt nice to fill our tummies with freshly cooked tempura and delicious sushi. It was also great meeting the MUFE team and Amanda (the Brazilian editor) and swap stories and compare notes about the countries we came from. After dinner, we stopped by at the opening party, hung out by the bar, took some pictures, before calling it a night because we had a full week ahead!
Day Two
Our day didn’t officially start until later in the afternoon so Dinda and I decided to explore South Beach a bit more. We walked to Lincoln Road, an open-air pedestrian mall, home to many street-side cafes, restaurants and shops located between Alton Road and Washington Avenue.
As shopping wasn’t really on the agenda (yet!) we decided to have lunch at one of the street-side cafes and did what seemed to be everyone’s favorite past time activity in South Beach…people watching! We walked around the area a bit before heading back to The Raleigh to get ready for the fashion week’s first day.
During Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim 2013, Make Up For Ever opened a mini makeup studio in one of the pool-side cabanas, where guests can ask one of the makeup artists to touch up their face, learn new tips and tricks as well as getting their hands on the highly sought after Aqua range products.
I was lucky enough to have my makeup done by one of MUFE artist where I learned some great new tricks to make the most of my Aqua products. Will share the tips to you on a separate post!
Later on, we visited the backstage area where MUFE team were doing makeup for two designers for the day: Poko Pano and Dolores Cortes. The head makeup artists, James Vincent and Lottie, were not only kind enough to let me take as many photos as I wanted, but they also answered my questions on the makeup looks they were creating for these 2 designers. Again, I will share this on a separate post.
On to the fashion shows! Like most fashion weeks elsewhere, this event is held inside a tent. There are two tents in Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim, the main one is called Casa Grande and the second one is called Oasis. The first fashion show we went to, Poko Pano was held in the Oasis tent. It’s almost completely transparent and, despite Miami’s unbelievable heat that day, it is very cold inside this tent. An Oasis indeed!
Poko Pano collection was really fun to see. The Brazilian designer Paola Robba really knew how to create bathing suits that are not just sexy, but with a bit of an attitude and class too.
Later that night, we went to see Dolores Cortes runway show in the Casa Grande. The models at Dolores Cortes really stole the show with their massive rainbow-streaked updos, neon lips and winged eyeliners. The over the top styling to me seemed perfect with the whole collection where the designer sent down the models in colorful swimsuits and bold prints. The whole thing was very Miami!
Day Three
Unlike the previous two days, on the third day, our activity started a bit earlier. A special lunch fare had been prepared for us at the exclusive Soho Beach House, a member-only private club situated in a historic site of the Sovereign Hotel. The lunch venue was on the 8th floor rooftop and as you can see, the view was spectacular!
Other editors from Bella Sugar, Refinery 29, Fashion magazine Canada and a couple of Miami bloggers joined us for lunch that day with the MUFE team and we also got to meet the stars of the MBFWSwim backstage: James and Lottie! These super talented, and very friendly, makeup artists did a demo for us, where they recreated looks from the fashion week and gave us tricks on how to do each step of the makeup, including some new tricks I have never heard before! I wouldn’t try to cram all the info in this post because there is simply too many of them – but I promise, you can read all about it on my next posts. Just stay tuned!
After lunch, we went back to the hotel. Whereas some of the editors headed out for a quick shopping or sunbathing, Dinda and I decided to cool off in our hotel room because – really – it was just so very very hot in Miami that day. And coming from 2 Indonesian girls, you know that I wasn’t exaggerating right?
Once we chased down the heat with a nice cold shower, we got ready for another fun night at the Raleigh pool side. This time we visited James and Lottie again to the backstage of Aqua di Lara and Mara Hoffman. It was very crowded inside the tent and I was amazed at how focused the MUFE team were in creating impeccable makeup for the models. James even had a few cameras pointing at his face while he was doing makeup on one of the girls, while trying to answer questions being shot at by the TV journalist, and he did all this with a smile too!
The show we were coming to didn’t start till late that night so the group went out to have dinner at a charming little Italian restaurant called Casa Tua. Miami Fashion Week Swim is known to be a lot more laid back than fashion week in other cities, like New York or Paris, where shows start really late at night and guests show up in a more casual getup. But this is Miami, so when I say “casual”, I still mean skin tight dresses (in bold colors), 12 cm heels and fully done makeup and hair 🙂
We closed the night by coming back to the tent and saw CIA Maritima, another Brazil’s famous swimsuit label. They are known for using embellishments in creating their swimwear: beading, lace, embroidery – so the collection really stood out as model after model strutting down the catwalk in elaborate one-piece, bikini, kaftan and coverups.
Day Four
We had almost the whole day off. Let’s go to the beach! But..wait, whaaat it was raining! And pouring quite hard too so Dinda and I spent half the day in the hotel. It wasn’t too bad because we managed to do a bit of work, but after lunch time, we decided we could not stay in any longer so we decided to borrow an umbrella from the hotel and took a walk. Our first destination was the Art Deco District, a few blocks down the road. Miami Beach’s Art Deco District is the first 20th-century neighborhood to be recognized by the National Register of Historic Places, with 800 structures of historical significance, most built between 1923 and 1943.
After a few hours walking around under Miami sun, with our tanned skin (yes, I really did get a tan even though I never intended to have one), we got dressed and quickly ran down to tent to catch Luli Fama runway show. The collection this year was inspired by the famous Italian film “La Dolce Vita” and it could not have been more aptly titled. Pieces from this collection were really a reminiscent of the era – bold bright floral prints, flirty ruched bikini bottoms, studded two pieces, bejeweled one piece and many more. There is nothing subdued about the whole collection- everything was flirty or downright sensual. I know it sounds overwhelming from my description, but when you are in Miami, where your sensory was always filled with something loud, colorful, bold and daring – the whole thing is just fitting.
Day Five
Last day of Mercedes Benz Miami Fashion Week Swim 2o13 and also the last day in Miami for us before we flew to our next destination..New York City! Again, the shows we were supposed to go to didn’t start until quite late so we had almost the whole day to ourselves. I decided to go out of South Beach because I wanted to see another side of Miami that most tourists don’t get to see. I ended up going to this magnificent building called Vizcaya Museum and really, this place deserves its own blog post!
Just before the sun went down, I came back to The Raleigh and for one last time, made my way back to the backstage, this time to check out what Lottie had created for that night’s fashion shows. Last night was group night so the MUFE team had to give the models a look which will work for all of the designers’ collections so they opted for fresh, clean, “no makeup” makeup look. It was really gorgeous and well, to be honest, the models flawless skin made that look even more perfect.
After chatting and taking a photo with Lottie for one last time, we said goodbye and made our way back to the tent. The group designers that we saw that night were Aguaclara, Aquarella Swimwear, Cote D’Or Swimwear and Sauvage. I really enjoyed this show because I got to see so many styles and personalities behind each piece from each designer. My favorite was Cote d”Or Swimwear. The pieces had a lot of attitude but still very fresh and wearable. They’re more like summer dresses than bathing suits!
And with the last model posing at the end of the runway and last photo was taken by the swarm of photographers inside the tent, the Mercedes-Benz Miami Fashion Week Swim 2013 was officially over and what a fun week it was for all of us!
There are still many more stories I’d like to share with you about this event and they’re coming up really soon so please do keep checking back for more!
