On a pleasant winter evening, Miami’s gauzy clouds sailed into position, covering the setting sun and casting the coastline in a haze of gray-blue shadows. As the sky darkened, the sparking lights of Brickell’s skyscrapers started to pop into existence, seemingly like fairy lights and stars along the skyline. And the fashionable, the intellectual, and the literary gathered on the ninth floor of the Millecento building, where AVESSA was celebrating the publication of the latest winter edition: On Virtues and Vices.
The magazine board partnered with Miami International University of Art and Design (MIU), Hello! Beauty Concept, Travel to Art Magazine, and the Fashion Group International of South Florida. AVESSA presented its latest look at culture combined with gorgeous editorial fashion. AVESSA’s photographers, models, and writers teamed up to explore increasingly rare human virtues in society and the vices that outwardly take over our world.
MIU was represented by the dashing Nestor Camacho, Fashion Design Faculty, who has personally directed and curated the art and fashion project “A Path to Tolerance.” Hello! Beauty Concept provided the scintillating hair and make-up for the models, with Mario Nova, Deborah Sabella, James Deus, Bruno Villa Nova, and Danny Andrade attending. Travel for Art, a Ukraine-based magazine focused on travel and contemporary art, was represented by the shyly charming Editor-in-Chief Alexei Didigurov, who gave guests some gorgeous art postcards from Ukrainian artists.
In the Club Citta room where the party was held, the lamps cast an amber glow over the bottles of wine, prosecco, and soft plush sofas encircling the space. As people entered, they were gifted with a physical copy of the magazine and a pretty pink bag emblazoned with AVESSA’s increasingly popular name. Mingling within the beautifully dressed crowd, we saw various models of both genders charmingly chatting with guests and presenting some of Alejandro Barzaga’s stunning designs from his latest collection: “The Conqueror,” with its Indigenous Mesoamerican and Spanish Empire influences.
One of the night’s highlights was Bruno Pagliano, an accomplished Argentinian artist, who was playfully encouraging guests to engage with their inner painter. With Bruno’s advice, guests created their own art with blank paper and a rainbow of colored paints.
Besides the magazine itself, the guests were also fascinating to watch. They intensely conversed over their reactions to AVESSA as well as art, avant-garde theory, and new scholarly projects. The soft murmurings gently provided an ear-catching array of topics, making it difficult to decide whom to talk to and what to focus on.
AVESSA is focused on fashion and challenging people to consider what defines beauty and art. The magazine is a juxtaposition of literature and gorgeous eye candy, which only makes attending these events more and more pleasurable.
