With her school girl's haircut and slender, frail physique, Vogue's Anna Wintour is an unlikely economic stimulator. However, this past Friday night, her brainchild, Fashion's Night Out, spread through the country like a cancer, a very fashionable cancer.
To sneak a peek at big business trying on good taste, we headed over to experience FNO's Miami party in the Design District. Our crawl started at Miami designer Nektar de Stagni's shop NDS where free Grey Goose flowed like water.
Nektar's store was bustling with people staring longingly at the jewelry and heavily petting her friendly white cat. Her fierce new collection of pearl jewelry features enameled shark teeth. The shop features designs by other jewelers as well, each with its own radical personality. Somehow, we mustered the strength to drag ourselves away from a de Stagni-designed necklace, but not before whispering sweet nothings to it, promising to return after a few more drinks.
Nektar's store was bustling with people staring longingly at the jewelry and heavily petting her friendly white cat. Her fierce new collection of pearl jewelry features enameled shark teeth. The shop features designs by other jewelers as well, each with its own radical personality. Somehow, we mustered the strength to drag ourselves away from a de Stagni-designed necklace, but not before whispering sweet nothings to it, promising to return after a few more drinks.
The FNO map marked Design District restaurants, so you'd assume some of them would have samples. But the dreams of grumbling bellies and empty wallets were soon dashed when it became clear there would be very few free snacks.
As a whole, Miami's FNO was far from well-attended, but there were a smattering of parties along NE Second Avenue. Those present were mostly dressed to the nines in Italian, '60s-inspired, structured dresses. There wasn't much variety to their look, but there was definitely an abundance of style and money to envy.
Like flies to honey, fashionistas were drawn to Marni, one of the loveliest and least affordable shops in the District. The well-crafted wares are always displayed beautifully on racks, which snake through the store.
Other highlights included art collab Friends With You's flagship store, which gave out free gifts of their grinning, rainbowy toys (great to save for Christmas gifts, you know, if you're really cheap). They're even better to rip open on the spot for for genuinely adult playtime fun. And a DJ spinning dance music created quite a festive atmosphere at Maison Martin Margiela. This pop-up shop's inventory included various necklaces made of something that looks like human hair and a dress made from records (great for the music-nerd drag queen in you).
Next we visited the fashionable athletic line Y-3, a collaboration between Yohji Yamamoto and sneaker people Adidas. The newest tops in the store feature kitties, well, kitty cats, to be exact. If you want the perfect gift for the cat-lover in your life, the sweaters are made by Yohii himself, and cost a mere $500.
After snacking on only a few Mai Tardi risotto balls scavenged from a neglected table in En Avance, and more Grey Goose signature bevs, we headed back to Nektar's store. Buying one of her classic "delicate" necklaces seemed the right thing to do. Ms. Wintour, just so you know, we personally helped you and the entire fashion world stimulate the economy this FNO, and have begun saving up for next year's already.
