Welcome to MIAMI

During a girls' weekend escape to Miami, my best friend Julia and I scoured the South Beach scene in search of glamour, good music and even better design. This was a chance for Miami to impress two New Yorkers with impeccable design taste. In art school, we critiqued ads on the subway.

Vibe
Our art deco hotel, Hotel Shelley, was designer friendly with a white on white palette and silver bar furniture. By day, life was good. We were 3 blocks away from a great stretch of beach. By night, we hit the much talked about Shore Club and The Delano.

Culture
Although the flawless design of both nightclubs was appealing, we soon turned our focus to the nightclub goers. This is when we discovered that Miami's Latin roots translated into a sexier sensibility. Skimpy low cut Bebe tops, skin-tight designer jeans, high heeled boots and tons of jewelry for that uptown sparkle. My sheer black tank and tuxedo pencil skirt was too prim for this scene. One fellow Northeasterner said, "it's Miami!" in explanation for a nothing-left-to-the-imagination outfit. On the plus side, Miami's standard of beauty was a cocoa skin tone achieved from hours in the sun or Latin heritage.


Music/Design
A fan of salsa and merengue, we soon decided to look for an authentic dance club away from the tourist hotel bars. Crobar and Mango were said to supply tunes to young and old natives. A Crobar flyer advertising a model search promised more than Latin music with a picture of a sexy girl sprawled across the sidewalk. Did the designer realize what he was doing? Probably, an attempt to minimize the sidewalk was unsuccessful when a transparent band of color barely cloaked the street. What kind of message is this about women? Presumably, we are sexual objects available at this club. Needless to say, we passed.

update 11/2005-Apparently Crobar uses cheap tricks to promote its NY club too.