Miami’s Most Fashionable: This Is How We Mourn Swimweek

Photo: WENN

July is soon approaching, which means the 2015 Miami Fashion Week will take place down at South Beach. Unfortunately, the main attraction — the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim event – has been put on hold (see: “postponed“) by executives at IMG Fashion. The air-conditioned tents that house celebrities and paparazzi, outside the Raleigh Hotel on Miami Beach, won’t return until 2016, because, according to The Miami Herald, “of a company-wide redesign to better reflect the unique needs of its designers and partners.”

While the other ‘Swim Week’ events will continue as planned, IMG’s decision to not participate has raised quite a few eyebrows. The company was recently acquired by the William Morris Endeavor for $2.3 billion in 2013, which has found IMG retooling the various Fashion Week events it hosts in cities around the globe, including New York. The company also lost Mercedes-Benz as a sponsor.

Also adding to the fracas is that IMG was having trouble relocating the tents to a certifiable area. The company worked with the City of Miami Beach to find a new spot, but after two years, IMG’s choice of a stretch of beach behind the Raleigh Hotel was denied by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. “Not having Fashion Week Swim is like having Art Basel week without Art Basel,” Graham Winick, City of Miami Beach Film and Event Production Manager said to The Miami Herald.

The 33rd Annual SwimShow, which is sponsored by the Swimwear Association of Florida, will hold its event at the Miami Beach Convention Center from July 18-21. Cabana, another popular trade show, will still commence during the time of July 18-20 in between the W South Beach and Setai. “Swim Week is the premiere event in the world for swimwear fashion and it will continue to be so,” said Larry K. Williams, CEO of the Beacon Council. “IMG was one of the drivers that helped the show to really take off. My understanding is that they are just taking this year off.”

With everyone still looking forward to IMG Fashion’s participation in the future, the attention remains focused on the 12th edition of Swim Week, which people believe will “still prove a formidable draw.” “I think they [IMG] will relaunch in a different way next year,” Nick D’Annunzio, a co-principal at Tara, Ink., a media and public relations firm, said. “We are still doing shows at hotels around the city, including Soho House and the Setai. And the trade show at the Miami Beach Convention Center remains the largest of its kind.”

As we countdown till the Miami Fashion Week festivities, we highlight the most fashionable residents that South Beach and Miami-Dade have to offer.

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