Decade of Design

Miami Fashion Week set to celebrate 10 years of South Florida as a fashion mecca

By Angie Hargot

The 2008 Miami Fashion Week kicks off April 9 in Wynwood.

Hot on the high heels of FUNKSHION –  Fashion Week Miami Beach, Winter Music Conference, the start of the Sony Ericsson Open and a slew of other Miami-is-on-the-map events comes the not-to-be-missed 10th annual Miami Fashion Week, based at the SOHO Studios in Wynwood for the second year in a row, from April 9 to 13.

This year, 60 of the world’s established and most promising up-and-coming designers will showcase their fashions for the global lens, hailing from 22 countries including Australia, Mongolia, Italy, Spain, the Caribbean and all over South and Central America.

With Wynwood’s art cachet melding with the glamour of South Beach, the event is considered one of the world’s most attractive jet-setting fashion events. Better yet, it is in our own backyard and open to all.

“All of the week’s events are open to the public,” said Miami Fashion Week founder Beth Sobol. “It’s the only fashion week in the world like this. It’s a chance for the people buying the collections to meet the designers.”

Sobol is also the president of Sobol Fashion Productions. She has served as fashion week director since the show’s launch in 1999.

“Everyone wanted to come to Miami,” Sobol said of the inspiration to create MFW. “The event was in development for two years before we launched. Now it’s a true global expansion. We have designers from Dubai, Afghanistan … it’s the first time we’ve had these countries.” Sobol added that MFW’s ties to Central and South America continue to strengthen.

Another first this year: the launch of the Miami Fashion Week Foundation, which will raise money for scholarships and to help finance young designers’ lines. Some of those grants will be revealed at the MFW opening night events.

Start Miami Fashion Week with the official kickoff party at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 8, at Karu&Y, 71 N.W. 14th St. It’s a must-see event because the party features a preview fashion show that includes all of the week’s designers.

The official opening night, Wednesday, April 9, begins at 7 p.m. with a fashion show sponsored by the National Eating Disorders Association, CosmoGirl and Ford Models NYC and Miami. “Real Women, Real Beauty” will showcase designer Lee Ann Park’s Little in the Middle line of clothing designed to fit the hourglass and pear-shaped girls; Park launched her clothing line in 2005 with jeans designed for women with small waists and larger hips.

Her design came just in time. The fashion world is still besieged by accusations that it imposes dangerous weight standards on models. In late 2006, 21-year-old Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston was 5-foot-8 and just 88 pounds when she died from complications caused by anorexia nervosa. She reportedly had been consuming cotton to keep her weight down.

The death prompted New York’s José Rivera, chairman of the Assembly Task Force on Food, Farm and Nutrition Policy, to introduce legislation creating employment guidelines to prevent eating disorders in young models and performers. The resulting legislation, dubbed the “skinny models bill,” established a board of health experts and entertainment professionals. The board reports to the commissioner of labor on the need for employment restrictions, medical screenings, education and weight or body mass index requirements. The measure passed last June.

New York Fashion Week designers were then called upon to support and implement education campaigns aimed at eating disorders.

But a less-than-thrilled response from the Council on Fashion Designers of America, and a continual pipeline of television reality shows that celebrate extreme thinness, such as Make Me a Supermodel, America’s Next Top Model and Project Runway, guarantee that the struggle for an appropriate aesthetic ideal will go on.

The opening night of Miami Fashion Week should prove just that: Following the real-woman curves of Park’s show is the 8 p.m. lingerie and swimwear showcase. The line will feature Canadian lingerie maker Arianne, who has been crafting fashionable underthings, from the flirty to the functional, since 1947; Australian fashion house B’Coz, whose stretchy “rock resort” looks are sure to be a hit with the South Beach crowd; and St. Kitts swimwear designer Mikieda Franklin.

The Miami Style Showcase at 9:30 p.m. will feature the winners of a new designer competition and a showcase of already established local designers, such as Julian Chang, Bogosse and Nicolas Felizola.

Don’t miss the after-parties. Wrap up opening night at midnight at The Forge, 432 41st St., Miami Beach. After you catch the eveningwear showcase at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, jet on over to Mansion, 1235 Washington Ave., Miami Beach.

On Saturday, the Emerging East Designer Showcase will introduce Indian designers Ashish, Viral and Vikrant, who will showcase their creations for the Virtues fashion line, famous for clothing crafted of the environmentally friendly fiber birla cellulose.

Saturday’s official after-party goes down at the Fifth, 1045 Fifth St. in Miami Beach, and Sunday concludes Fashion Week with a bang.

At 6 p.m. on Sunday, the celebrity red carpet arrivals herald the beginning of the main event: the 8 p.m. Miami Moda Awards, with celebrity emcees, live performances and a fashion show featuring past New Star in Fashion Award winners. The awards night will start by honoring the 2008 Designer of the Year, and the Cadillac Luxury Lifestyle, Excellence in Eveningwear, Pret-A-Porter (or ready-to-wear) Style, Men's Style Designer, Celebrity Style in Music, Miami Fashion Week Top Model, Miami Style Emerging Designer, and South Florida's Top Student Designer awards.

Although for the winners of the 2008 Miami Fashion Week awards the prestige is just beginning, the evening, and Miami Fashion Week, ends with the Official 10th Anniversary Wrap Party at SET, 320 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, starting at 11 p.m.

“It’s a great honor that the world’s designers have chosen to show their collections at Miami Fashion Week,” Sobol said. “There’s such a great lineup and the designers are so diverse. And all of their stories will be told.”

Comments? Email angie@miamisunpost.com