Our creative crew went down to Miami during Art Basel and took up residence on Miami Beach’s Casa Claridge Hotel. Built in the 1930s originally as El Paraiso Apartments, the now very small and intimate hotel is a playful mix of historic Spanish architecture and Miami’s modern art scene. All around the hotel you’ll find collaborations with mid-career Miami based artists, part of a program called ELEVATE that Alan Faena, the hotel’s owner and visionary behind the Faena Art District, which the hotel is a part of, created to promote engaging the public in art and its creation.
My favorite part of the hotel was the “living room”, the common area under a sun filled atrium in the center of the building all the rooms face. Here is where you could relax and read the paper, get inspiration from any of the hundreds of art books lining the walls around you, or finish your evening with a cocktail on the cozy couches with old friends and new acquaintances. We loved this room so much, Kelly & I used it for a shoot!
As I sit here in New York on this winter day I love looking back at these sun filled images and remembering the afternoons in the sand and nights of Casa Claridge magic….
*Above~ I finally found my perfect minimalist swimsuit by Solid & Striped when shooting this story and ordered it immediately. Done.
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