This year’s Art Basel Miami Beach fair proved to be bigger than ever and the events around town were as well! The week started off with a party at MOCA hosted by Vanity Fair, which was held at the museum’s courtyard where guests mingled and enjoyed cocktails and nibbles while viewing the current exhibition. The following day, the New York based gallery Deitch Projects hosted an event at The Raleigh with a special performance by Santigold. Parisienne hot spot Le Baron had their usual pop up -this year the club was at the Delano’s Florida Room.
Celebrities, socialites and artists alike all attended throughout the week; for those lucky enough to make it through the door you might have found yourself rubbing elbows with Jay Jopling, Andre Balazs or L’Officiel Homme’s Milan Vukmirovic along with former MTV VJ Jesse Camp and New York “it” girls Fabiola Beracasa and Genevieve Jones. On Thursday night, The W hotel was the place to be with a private dinner hosted by Cartier at Mr. Chow followed by a party for Alex Delal, Stavros Niarchos and Vito Schnabel at the hotel’s club The Wall -I recall the quote for the evening being “Schnabel lockdown” as the line to get into the hotel for either party went as far back as the parking lot.
On Friday, the chic Miami boutique, The Webster hosted an intimate cocktail reception for designers Viktor & Rolf followed by a private dinner by Caviar Kaspia. As the evening progressed so did the number of events, with a highlight being photographer Bruce Weber’s model-heavy soirée at The Standard hotel. Later in the evening the week’s most highly anticipated event, Visionnaire had their annual party at The Delano hotel, the event was in typical Visionnaire style a mix of big names from art and fashion including the New York Times T editor, Stefano Tonchi.
Finally on Saturday night the New York club, The Box had a pop up at Nikki Beach featuring their notorious and at times scandalous burlesque show while a few blocks down the penthouse and pool area of the Raleigh set the scene for David La Chapelle’s party which went on till the wee hours of the morning. Between the art, fashion and design all going on in Miami in addition to the slew of events, this week’s fair made for a truly sensory experience.
