Haute Luxe Birthed on Miami Beach in 2009

Miami FashionCalling all World Class Jet-setters to Miami Beach. Socialites already know that Miami Beach is the scene to be seen in every winter, Miami is the only island-city in the country with warm winters, a pulse of change, poise, enlightenment and elite lifestyles. With white sand beaches, the upscale Bal Harbour Shops, and a vibrant nightlife it is no surprise that the glamorous Miami Beach locale has been chosen to debut Haute Miami.  Haute Miami is the first ever uber-luxe exhibit of its kind in the United States and will debut from January 8th – 11th, 2009.  

Haute Miami has an expansive, high class roster of 160 renowned, international exhibitors featuring contemporary and classic fashion, jewelry, art, design, exotic yachts, airplanes, personal helicopters, new technology in many forms, and an emphasis on "going green" including solar powered vehicles, Haute Miami is certain to awe even the luxury spoiled, savvy Miami Beach locals. Haute Miami will be in the Miami Beach Convention Center and will run concurrently with SeaFair.  SeaFair is a private megayacht that will be part of the Haute Miami expo, it will host a selection of invitation-only events.   At 228 feet, SeaFair, is the 4th largest private American Luxury Yacht in the Country and that deserves some good old fashioned American patriotism ya’ll.

exotic cars

The venue will host 28 auxiliary exhibitors in private galleries and features a gourmet restaurant, champagne/caviar lounge and a spacious sky deck. SeaFair will be docked on Millionaire’s Row and can be accessed by shuttles from the Convention Center.  The custom built $40M exposition vessel will serve as a networking hub and private venue for many of Haute Miami’s most exclusive events.  Haute Miami imitates successful luxury fairs from Europe and Asia and will bring new buzz and glamour to the famed winter season in Miami Beach.  To align with Miami’s chilled out atmosphere, Haute Miami at the Convention Center will offer extended hours operating Wednesday – Saturday evenings until 11PM and will feature nighttime events.

Miami“Haute Miami and SeaFair both represent entirely new paradigms in American fairs.  Both will be fabulous new luxury lifestyle events for even the most sophisticated visitors,” said David Lester founder of this exposition. “We look forward to welcoming discerning, local and international attendees to our extraordinary, new event in January." We can barely wait!  Stay with us for up to the minute updates about Haute Miami.

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Dine with Danny Devito on Miami Beach!

For those who don’t know, Danny Devito is a famous Hollywood actor and now add successful restauranteur to his resume.  His new Italian restaurant, obviously named Devito, is a neuvo style Italian restaurant located on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach.  Last Monday we decided to dine at Devito’s for a birthday dinner and although it wasn’t our first time there, we hadn’t been back since the restaurants opening. Devitos

The five star restaurant wasn’t packed but that’s normal for South Beach in the summer, especially on a week night. When the South Beach season kicks off again in mid-October, life will pick up through those winter months and you probably won’t even be able to get into Devito’s for dinner. The first time we tried Devito’s we were dinning with Harry Morton, the heir to the Morton Steakhouse conglomerate and the Hard Rock Hotel and Casinos, oh and his good friend Paris Hilton.  Ms. Hilton demands attention and usually gets what she wants; she loves to be seen on the Miami Beach scene. That particular night she appreciated being seated in a large booth, right in the middle of all the Devito dining action.

There are three main dining areas at Devito’s, the outside patio on Ocean Drive which was too hot for us in August.  The first floor dining room featuring the main bar and dramtic high ceilings. The main dining room, which we dined in last Monday has large comfy, white booths, kings throne-esque red chairs and gorgeous, modern light fixtures.  The atmosphere at Devito’s is comfort meets style in a classy Italian eatery, which happens to be perfect for the local Miamians.  This five star restaurant lives up to its reputation as the service is attentive, the bar is always stocked and the food is extremely expensive.
Devito

High society people in Miami love an expensive meal just as long as the food is exquisite.  Trust us it’s A-grade all the way. The Italian food at Devito was on par with how your old Sicilian grandmother used to make it. The bread platter was a sampler of olives, bread, oils, and peppers which complimented the famed meatball appetizer.  The salads were fresh and the raw bar platter was even fresher.  We basically ordered everything on the menu, from the ridiculously tender Kobe beef to the fried calamari and then Seabass with lump crabmeat on top. We loved it all and then agreed that our standout favorite was the pasta. For the heat seeker, the lobster Diavolo pasta was spicy, spicy, and insanely good while the penne a la vodka was yummy. Hungry yet? Don’t worry you won’t gain a million pounds, the portions aren’t classic large, Italian family style but rather perfectly sized.  Portion control is an absolute restaurant essential when living in the uber body conscious land of Miami Beach.  We appreciate when the kitchen portions out our food properly so we don’t eat it or waste it, Devito is American-Italian done right. 

Our dessert was phenomonal, we thoroughly enjoyed the banana zepollis and the dark chocolate mousse left us speechless. We washed it all down with espresso, cappacinos and good conversation.  All in all it was a fabulous meal and we will be back again, sooner rather than later this time. 

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Rolls-Royce Phantom and Drophead Plus Coupe, Make Three Baby

Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe

Phantom Coupe The Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe is the third model to make the Phantom line up and the first to debut on new CEO Tom Purves’ (prior CEO of BMW North America) watch. We say bravo, Mr. Purves! The Rolls-Royce 2009 beaute, Coupe will be made available later this year for 400k.  The Phantom Coupe emerged from the 101EX concept of 2006, the Coupé is all-aluminum on an aluminum spaceframe.  The two rear-hinged suicide doors close at the push of a button and the back end of the car comes up 250mm short of the original Phantom’s length. In this exotic luxury car there are so many buttons to play with, you won’t know what to push first.   The push-button feature we loved the best is the Sport button on the steering wheel. When pushed, it puts the car into a new shift program that holds gears longer, the autobox kicks down faster, and the pedal response is quicker, the sportier transition does 60 in 5.6 seconds. That’s pretty ace for a 5,800 pound, big boned coupe.  The fuel tank on this luxury automobile is larger then the Drophead, the trunk can accomodate four golf bags and don’t fret, the Phantom Coupe still demands your chauffuer in tote. 

The 2009 Rolls Royce Phantom offers three choices of 21-inch wheels, two of them forged with alloy numbers.  On this exotic fleet there are standard exterior color palette which come in nine colors but Rolls-Royce offers 44,000 hue variations, "I don’t think we’ll use all the colors but they’re there," Purves said. Duh? Phantom Coupe  The most fantastic, standout feature on the more aggressive Coupe is called the starlight headliner, think luxe planitarium.  The classic Rolls Royce ceiling is adorned with 1,600 fiber-optic lights that can be dimmed or brightened to suit your mood, that’s educational and sexual! Incredibly the stars are all done by hand and on request can be arranged to mimic the northern sky but we wouldn’t expect anything less from Rolls-Royce, would we? Smaller than the grand-daddy Phantom and slightly larger than the baby Drophead, we think the Coupe is the creme de la creme of the Rolls-Royce Phantom line.  

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Get That Money Honey: Facts About Wealth & Miami Beach

Imagine Lifestyles is here to give you the low down on wealth and Miami Beach. Listen up because at some point these little factoids will probably help you make money, make a trip to Miami or, at least, help you sound a bit more intellignent in an elitest world.Miami

Facts:

•      25% of the World’s wealth is in Florida during the winter season Miami Beach receives a huge influx of Europeans, especially during the winter season, due to the falling dollar and rising Euro this demographic spends copious amounts of money.

•     South Florida is home to some of the richest communities in the world such as: La Gorce Island, Millionaires Row, Fisher Island, PineTree, Palm Island and Star Island, Naples, Palm Beach and Marcos Island, Coral Gables

•    Miami has the 2nd largest banking/finance industry after New York

•     South Florida has a massive international trade industry

•    Nearly 1,200 multinational companies, 41 of them billion-dollar companies, collectively manage over $200 billion in revenue from South Florida.

•     In Miami Beach alone, numerous celebrities and athletes like Jennifer Lopez, Billy Joel, Sean "P Diddy" Combs, Gloria Estefan, Kelly Rowland, Lenny Kravitz, Dwayne Wade, Alonzo Mourning and Enrique Iglesias have homes here.

Plus according to the USB 2008 survey of the Richest 70 cities in the World, 
Miami was ranked:

•    the world’s 29th-richest city(net earnings),Only 4 U.S. cities were listed Miami, NYC, LA and                  Chicago.

•    4th-richest in the United States


•    22nd in the World’s richest cities by purchasing power

Bottom line, if you have money then spend the coming winter months in sunny Miami Beach. You can’t go wrong!

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Roll Over Gianni the Versace Mansion is Going Public

Versace Mansion, Miami BeachWe are always at home in Casa Casuarina a.k.a the Versace Mansion and now you can be too, sort of.  Versace Mansion in Miami Beach is the fabulous manse that used to belong to the late, great Gianni Versace.  Now the magical multi-million dollar Mansion is owned by Peter Loftin and for $50 bucks a head he’s opening up the flood gates.  From August 18th to September 30th tourists can wander through the mansion on a 45 minute guided tour. What gives Peter?  One of the best parts of Versace was the members only select, the mystery behind the wrought iron gates and you just sold out for a 50 spot.  Rumor has it that in these harsh economic times of ours, Loftin needs some extra dough to maintain the property and keep it looking fabulous.  We are not happy about opening Versace Mansion to the public, it feels so dirty and for $50 so demeaning.  Gianni Versace is probably rolling in his grave right now, way to take the sophistication out of a place that was meant for the sophisticated.
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The New Batmobile! An Extreme in Exotic Luxury Cars.

SVS codatronca TS

If you have a lot of money like Bruce Wayne, you can afford to be Batman too.  Thats right, you can drop your kid off at school in a Batmobile.   This exotic car will make the real Batman jealous, plus your kid will probably think you’re a better real life superhero. Isn’t that just heart warming? Not to go all Oprah on you but the SVS Codatronca TS luxury car is a seriously sweet car that looks like it came straight from Gotham City.

Ercole Spada is the ex-Zagato Design Chief with a knack for designing light weight, aerodynamic car classics like the 1960 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, the 1962 Alfa Romeo 2600 SZ, and the 1963 Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ.  Now Spada has revived his design philosophy through SpadaConcept which is his Italian design studio, with son Paolo Spada (former designer at Smart and Honda). Their first model likened to an updated, Italian take on the Batmobile, is called the SVS Codatronca TS or "truncated tail, turismo sportivo." The SpadaConcept company’s focus is on “functional design”, which, according to Ercole Spada, means to express functionality of an object through its shape. Thus, the first Spada Vetture Sport has an undeniably avant-garde shape, it is a car that is both bold and daring.

svs codatronca tsA laundry list of big name partners like Alcantara, Sparco, Aznom, Pirelli, and O.Z. Racing, will supply parts for the stealthy-looking SVS luxury sports cars. The Corvette-sourced 7 liter LS7V-8 engine, supercharged for 622 horsepower and 493 ft pounds of torque, catapults the 3000-pound tubular aluminum frame and fiberglass body to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds. In 6th gear the Codatronca TS exotic car will attain 211 mph; an onboard data recorder stores up to 80 hours of track telemetry and a digital readout on the tail displays the car’s lateral g-forces. The Codatronca TS will also be available with a flex-fuel modification that will allow the car to run on BioFuel E85. This exotic car has an engine with both mechanical and electronic components designed to respect the specification of the client’s needs. "Client’s needs," has a nice to ring to it doesn’t it? SpadaConcept doesn’t seem to be just about profit or race track records but rather designing for the pure pleasure of driving.  Ercole Spada insists that he has a moral obligation on his part to create hand-built niche vehicles and he will limit production to just 20 cars per year.

spadaconcept

The cockpit is light and airy with a technological air-conditioner system, a rear camera keeps the back view visable at all times and a clock designed by Meccanicheveloci with automatic recharge, is just another taste of fine Italian craftmenship. For $432K you can own this fierce, Italian retro-twist on a classic American comic-book hero.

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Always a Shore Thing. Shore Club Hotel

Ian Schager is God and the Shore Club Hotel is a little piece of heaven.  The Shore Club Hotel is the most socially demanding on Miami Beach, A-lister like Matthew McConahey, Jay Z, Matt Damon and the Olsen twins frequent the hotel and, of course, Nobu.  Nobu restaurant has celebutaunte requirements, the sushi is light, expensive and always to die for. Dinner never starts before 10 and unless you have high connections, good luck trying to get in.  The bungalows that surround the back pool a.k.a Skybar, are celebrity hideaways. Baseball star Yankee shortstop, Derek Jeter rented Bungalow 8 last time he was in Miami Beach.  Bungalow 8, named after the famous New York City club, is actually the largest bungalow of the Shore Club bunch, it comes with its own private pool, 2 floors and a 24 hour butler service.  On that trip, we had our champagne served around the clock and played in the pool until the wee hours of morning with Jeter and friends.

Shore Club day pool sceneOn sundays the main pool is uber-sceney, probably the best day party on the Beach and always teaming with models. The actual hotel rooms are minimalist with splashes of color and the gym is 24 hours for the gym-arexics. The Scoop store and Me&Ro jewelry store in the lobby are always fabulous to shop and a phenomenal way to end the beach day.

The private penthouse on the roof is perfect for small parties and high-class get togethers, boasting crisp city views and a Shoreclub Penthouse Suitestunning pool. The Shore Club is located in the prime of Miami Beach on 19th and Collins Avenue and we always adore it!


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The Mac Daddy Caddy Escalade ESV

If you’re part of the hip hop set or a larger than life athlete, you need to know that the upgraded Cadillac Escalade ESV Platinum Edition isn’t the best anymore. Just when you thought you couldn’t pimp your Escalade out much more, think again because Becker Automotive Design has teamed with STRUT jewelry design company and they are bringing bling to the upmarket. The dual company’s brainchild is a new kind of Cadillac Escalade ESV, standard with a woven diamond-mesh and stainless-steel front grille and matching side vents. The diamonds will withstand all weather conditions, the driving elements, plus trips through the bad neighborhoods. In addition to the diamonds, this Escalade features an iPod-ready audio-video system with satellite HDTV, DVD and digital surround sound on par with your home entertainment system. The bottom line is that this Escalade is going to get all the attention now, people will either see it or hear it flowing through the streets. The Becker/STRUT Cadillac Escalade ESV is the best of the best and this gleam machine is all yours for about $225,000.

Interior    Interior

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The Wealthy Jet to South Europe in August

Roberto Cavalli's Mega-Yacht

If you are of the upper class echelon then you are reading this on your way to Marbella or St. Tropez or another South European hot spot.  In August the rich and famous are getting some much needed R&R in the lavish hotels and mega-yachts of another continent.  Last summer we played on a yacht in St. Tropez, we found ourselves in good company sandwhiched between party-man P-Diddy Combs and designer Roberto Cavalli.  Cavalli’s floating palace was one of the most fabulous yacht’s we have ever seen, pure class on water.

We hung with Chris Paciello the legendary ex-convict Club owner, credited with establishing the first true club scene on Miami Beach.  Paciello’s yacht-mate was HBO Entourage star Kevin Connolly who was incredibly funny and laid-back.  After our first dinner aboard ship, Connolly led our group towards the renowned Hotel Byblos, which houses one of the most famous night clubs in France, Les Caves du Roy.  We walked right into Les Caves which was blinged out with a circa Club 54 vibe.  Fifteen year old European supermodels to 70 year old billionaires graced the tables. After we got sick of Les Cave we all headed over to VIP to watch Puff Daddy give the club a solo performance.  That was last summer, this summer is sure to have more adventures in store for us.

Boarding a Mega-Yacht in St. Tropez by you.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Brooke Hogan for Playboy in Miami Beach

Brooke Hogan PosingWe last told you that Brooke Hogan had happily moved into the Flamingo Residencies on Miami Beach. It seems that since she’s settled in, Hulk Hogan’s not so virginal daughter seems to be headed for the pages of Playboy. Playboy has asked Brooke to do a photo shoot, possibly even a cover. The men’s magazine features a WWE Diva in the nude every year and this would be the legendary Hulk Hogan’s 18 year old daughter. Plus, Brooke fits the platinum blonde bill that Hef holds so dear to his own, ancient heart. The good news for all you Hogan fans is that Brook hasn’t said no yet. The big bleach blonde hasn’t posed nude but she had no qualms about posing in a teeny tiny bikini for the cover of FHM Magazine in 2006. The "Brooke Knows Best" (lamo) famo needs all the publicity she can get right now since her singing career bombed in 2006, when her album entitled "undiscovered" was undiscovered and only sold a dissapointing 127,000 copies. To the list of no talents, add can’t act and also no fashion sense. We saw Brooke out in Miami Beach looking like a tranny streetwalker and who could ever forget those horrible jean chaps? However, we found a small talent so drumroll please, apparently, the ditzy blonde can roll around the Miami Beach shoreline without looking too much like a beached whale. When all else fails in the pursuit of fame, you either make a sex tape or take off your clothes for a risque photoshoot. A sex tape might be premature for her "good girl" image but Brooke does have large breasts, so flaunt what you got for Playboy honey.

Following the filming of the "Hogan Knows Best" reality show that followed the whole family, the Hogans fell apart. The Hulk had an affair, got divorced and his youngest son, Nick, went to jail.  The whole over-protective father thing has to be an act for the cameras.Brook Hogan

We bet the Hulk taught his daughter some serious wrestling moves that she’s not just using in the ring, if you catch our drift. You know you’re not even surprised, reality television is never that real anymore. What is real, is that the WWE icon Hulk Hogan is a wrestling has-been and someone still needs to bring home the money; so the Hulk is going to have to pimp out his daughter every chance he gets.

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