Armani minus the Sticker Shock

Armani Exchange, which for 17 years has brought “Affordable Armani” (not an oxymoron) to South Beach, celebrated its facelift and expansion last week with a bit of fanfare. If you’ll recall, 17 years ago most of Lincoln Road was condemned by the city and Ocean Drive was a retirement community. Yet Armani Exchange set up shop to bring hip and stylish clothes to the pioneers of the SoBe we’ve come to know and love (most of the time). President & CEO Harlan Bratcher told the 411 “AIX was the first designer flagship store on South Beach, and Giorgio Armani was the first designer to offer a ‘diffusion line’ (that’s a fancy way to say cheap, chic designer duds). The average price for a designer piece is just $50, but it’s not a ‘one-time-wear.’ Affordable Armani is still Armani.” Other designers following in Armani’s footsteps by creating diffusion lines include Donna Karan, Oscar de la Renta and Marc Jacobs.

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Nick D’Annunzio and Brian Antoni’s “Totally 80s” birthday bash at Viceroy’s Club 50 last Friday night was, simply put, the most fun party we’ve been to all summer, maybe all year. We could even exaggerate a bit and say it was the biggest blast we’ve had in almost two decades. Perhaps it was the 80s theme, reminiscent of a time when life was less complicated, before flat-irons and Facebook, Blackberries and Botox, texting and Twitter. A time when the humidity made for a “good” hair day, being that “big hair” was in, every song on the radio or cassette was totally awesome, the ideal outfit consisted of pretty much anything you could find and throw together, people actually danced at parties and even talked to each other on occasion, and South Beach was a quiet, retirement community. Or maybe we were just a bit (quite a bit) younger. The party’s success could also be due to the fact that business and life partners, Nick D’Annunzio and Queen of the Night, Tara Solomon, Principal of Tara, Ink., know a thing or two about throwing a party. The guest list consisted of over 1,000 of Miami’s most influential VIPs, socialites and hipsters, many of whom dressed for the occasion, just adding to the hilarity and excitement, who danced all night- on the floor, on the tables, on the couches…well you get the idea, to excellent music by master DJs, Sean Drake and Johnny the Boy.   Solomon, who barely stopped dancing for a second, commented: Read the rest of this entry »