Fashion Highlights From Art Basel Miami Beach 2023

Last week, Art Basel Miami Beach kicked off in what turned out to be a cloudy weekend in Miami. While partygoers came to see the art—over 10 art fairs accompany the main art fair at Miami’s convention center—in recent years, this week-long winter event has become a spectacle for brands.

Since the art world has descended upon Miami over the past 20 years, it has grown into a branding exercise for fashion and beauty brands, as well as alcohol brands.

For the fashion-forward crowd, here were the fashion highlights.

The Fendi Casa in the Miami Design District invited guests to pop by for a glass of champagne while showcasing their latest Fendi Casa collection. It also included a look at the Miami edition of the Peekasit special, inspired by the iconic Peekaboo handbag.

Marni hosted a pop up event at an upscale shopping destination called the Curio at Faena Bazaar. With artist Victor Valverde, who personalized Marni wallets for guests, visitors were invited to peruse all three floors of the luxury mini-mall type tower of fashion, which sells clothing from well-known fashion brands like Versace, alongside up and coming brands you need to discover. Notable attendees included Rich the Kid, Nicky Jam, Goldie Heart, and more.

W Hotels Teamed with Senza Fine and Tuleste Factory for Creative Crossroads, a one-night event celebrating art, music, and the culinary arts at W South Beach (specifically, a three-story mini house on the property). The event saw Diplo, Carlita, Mia Moretti and Satu, among others, attend. It started with a casual, backyard discussion led by Paper magazine editor Justin Moran, who chatted up artists and art world kingpins like Leah Chisholm, Lucas Von Oostrom, Celeste Greenberg, and Marc Spiegler.

Philanthropist Jean Shafiroff is known for her fashion sense. She’s also known for hosting parties (where often, she changes her outfits mid-event). This was one of them. She hosted an event at Hotel Croydon called “Celebrating the Art of Style” to celebrate the art in fashion, which always plays a role in philanthropy to Shafiroff. Notable attendees at the reception held at the Hotel Croydon included: Jean Shafiroff, Diane Lieberman, Alan Lieberman, Casey Lieberman, Li Jing, Meera Ghandi, and more.

IKEA brought the color and style at their pop-up event on Lincoln Road, showcasing their new Dajlien collection alongside the latest storage and organization units from the Swedish brand. They set up a maze-like environment with monochromatic colors, a faux bedroom runway, an inspiration chamber and interactive elements that invited guests to pen down their own artistic visions.

No artist in Miami fuses together art and fashion quite like Kfir Moyal. Whether it creating sparkly personalized portraits of stars like Cardi B and Paris Hilton who support his work, his latest series includes surfboards that read the names of fashion brands like Chanel, Versace and Prada. His black-tie event was held at his Lincoln Road art gallery, and drew the likes of fashion designers, artists and musicians.

Leonardo di Caprio and Pierce Brosnan pulled up for the grand opening of the Delilah, The h.wood Group’s beloved modern-day supper club with a vintage aesthetic. The event was co-hosted alongside fashion brand BOSS and Hexclad. The musical talent who performed here was stunning, including a DJ set from Zack Bia and surprise performances from DJ Khaled, Tyga and Janelle Monae.

Black Eyed Peas rapper Will.i.am brought the energy to the First Inspire Gala at the Loews Hotel in South Beach, which he co-hosted alongside Dean Kamen. The night honored Ursula Burns, the former CEO of XEROX, who was the first black woman to helm the company. The event featured students demonstrating their robotics, alongside a talk between the co-hosts, which touched upon mentorship, technology and fostering young minds in today’s cultural landscape.

Guatemalan entrepreneur Jose Ibarra unveiled a new fashion showroom called Tag Concept in downtown Miami. Featuring international brands, you might not discover otherwise, the new showroom features cosmetics, clothing, accessories, and home goods from 18 designers who come from countries like Colombia, Costa Rica and Brazil. It includes carefully curated brands like RomanG, LaPola by Lina Polania, Perza Loungewear, Gis Bikinis, Toque Celestial, Milaki Mulets, Cintia Mosquera, and others.

Lladro is a historic, and iconic, Spanish porcelain brand who is best known for their collaborations with artists like Paul Smith, Marcel Wanders and Jamie Hayon. For Miami art week, they celebrated their 70^th anniversary, and launched a limited-edition collection created in collaboration with Javier Calleja. The collection is sold at art collector John Marquez’s new art gallery, Marquez Art Projects.

Australian fashion brand Scanlan Theodore launched their summer collection with an influencer-packed dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel, Surfside. The guests included Chanel Iman, Elsa Hosk, Devon Windsor and actor Caylee Cowan, who gathered for an intimate dinner hosted by the brand’s CEO of the Americas, Melinda Robertson.

Miami-based artist Reyna Noriega partnered with Nautilus Sonesta Miami Beach and nAscent Art New York to debut her first-ever art installation, showing 12 colorful new pieces. Meanwhile Sam Klemick, the fashion designer turned furniture designer makes wood furniture that has fashion elements. She has previously shown her pieces at the London Design Festival.

Feria Clandestina and MiMo’s 7 Seas Motel hosted an art collaboration that turned their rooms of their historic Miami locale into a place to peruse over 250 art projects from Europe, South America and the US. That includes pieces from the Milagros Collective, Ahol Sniffs Glue, shown alongside galleries like Plomo Gallery from Mexico City. This marks the third annual event that is curated by Nuria Richards and hosted by Sagar Desai.

The Queen, the new restaurant and lounge that recently opened in the iconic Paris Theater, is worth the hype. The design and style here is fabulous, and there’s an old-fashioned Art Deco vibe in this theater built in 1945, which is now a Japanese-style grill. The sushi is bound to blow you away. For Art Basel, the venue hosted impromptu performance art alongside musical performances, like a saxophone player, an aerialist, and glittery dancers.

The Ross+Kramer gallery has locations in New York and the Hamptons. Now, they just opened their Miami location with a star-studded event hosted by artist Daniel Arsham. The group exhibition, Brick by Brick, runs until January 6, 2024.

Canada Goose, a Canadian brand, hosted a pop-up in Miami featured artworks from Nunavut artist Saimaiyu Akesuk and the West Baffin Cooperative.

Miami-based digital artist and photographer Jon Gacela showed alongside artists like The Aeye and Lena Ekert as part of a digital art exhibition presented by Art Innovation Gallery called “Floating Pixels.” Featuring 40 artists from 30 countries, this exhibition floated on the ocean in a barge with a commanding LED display. The best part was that the curators describe this project as one that “combines technological innovation and visual awesomeness.”

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