By:  Mary Jo Almeida-Shore

Those with an unrequited, inexplicable obsession with all things social, artistic, fashionable and fabulous got our annual fix last week during Art Basel 2010, where for seven straight days we were over stimulated from the rooster’s crow to the coyote’s howl-and are just slightly the worse for wear this week. At what other time of the year does the bar line at any given event seem transported from the Tower of Babel? Or does one’s daily conversation involve such derivatives of the word “Basel” as: Baseling, Baselites, Basel brain, Basel Tov, Basel hangover or Baselitis? And when else are you just as likely to bump into Academy Award winners, Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon as funny men, Steve Martin and Ben Stiller; social fixtures, Andre Balazs, Daphne Guinness, Nicky Hilton; designers, Calvin Klein, Christian Louboutin; music moguls, Russell Simmons and the Estefans, or singer, Pharrell Williams; swoon-worthy beautiful people, Gerard Butler, Isabella Rossellini, Naomi Campbell; sports figures, Alex Rodriguez and Serena Williams; art collectors Johnny Pigozzi, Sheikh Mubarak Al-Muhairi, or artistic genius Julian Schnabel, in mismatched clothing as if he’d just gone on a shopping spree at Goodwill? Far from exhaustive, here’s the short list of some of the Basel events that put the “ART” in P-ART-Y. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…Art Basel, the “Carnaval” of the art world. A time when we wish those experiments with human cloning had yielded positive results. It seems that the world’s largest and most important art show gets bigger every year, especially since in addition to Art Basel itself, Vanguard, Scope, Verge, Art Miami, Art Viceroy, Design Miami and countless other satellite fairs have set up camp all over town, not to mention the requisite parties being thrown nightly and club transplants from Paris and New York. This week, the 411 brings you South Beach locals and Art Basel insiders’ top picks of not-to-be missed events during this week- in which having fun (and surviving) is its own art form. Read the rest of this entry »

Shoe addicts rejoice! Saks Fifth Avenue Dadeland has revamped and expanded its shoe department to mirror the famous shoe salon in New York. You know the one with its own zip code. The one you visit EVERY time you’re in the Big Apple. The one where we met Lindsay Price, Molly Sims, Lorraine Bracco, Nina Garcia, Stuart Weitzman, Betsey Johnson, Nigel Barker, Gloria Reuben, Bobby Flay, Stephanie March, Perrey Reeves, Pamela Roland and Wendy Williams at the unveiling of the Wizard of Oz Ruby Slipper collection during the New York Fashion Week kick-off last season. Yes, that one. Now there’s a mini one right in our own back yard. We hear Imelda Marcos is shopping for a place in the greater Kendall area.

Dadeland’s 10022-SHOE will have shoe mavens flocking to its stunning new shoe haven, complete with three chandeliers, floating glass bubbles and over 1,000 shoes. New brands include Brian Atwood, Camilla Skovgaard and Elizabeth and James, which will join current favorites, CHANEL, Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, Prada and Giuseppe Zanotti, who will host a shoe signing on Saturday, October 10. Shoes are displayed like works of art (as they should be) on various posh surfaces, such as white glass, antique mirror, limestone, white Carrera marble and grey stained wood, and on modern tables from Eero Saarinen and Warren Platner. You can try on the masterpieces on stylish vintage furniture pieces and custom-designed curved banquettes.

So if Miu Mius, Valentinos, Givenchys and of course, those red-soled wonders make you simply swoon, put Dadeland’s 10022-SHOE salon on your itinerary. Oh, and be sure to give our best to Imelda. Read the rest of this entry »