Ok, no doubt that title is misleading because sadly, I am not headed to Miami and therefore cannot be "welcoming" you (in Spanish or English) to this uber-fun city, most unfortunately... but once I got that jam from the Big Willie Style CD in my head, there was just no stopping it from ending up as the title of this post. Actually, on the contrary, the impetus for this post comes from me sitting in my bed, watching more TV (and then posting about it)... Which begs the question, is this a design blog or a TV blog?? To date, I have posted about the following shows:
- Orange is the New Black
- Sons of Anarchy
- Breaking Bad
- Master Chef Junior
and now: - Magic City
Yikes! And I will make no promises that this will be the last TV related post on here, either. You have been warned.
Anyway, in an attempt to meld these two topics and bring this blog back to its intended focus, I will merely graze upon the mention of this saucy (and I should also note, extremely racy) show which is set in Miami during the 1960's (or 1959, to be accurate). It "aired" on Starz (Starz who?) and has apparently now been cancelled after only two seasons (sad trombone) but regardless, the show's imagery depicts Miami during its glamorous hey-day or at least what you hoped it was in its hey-day. Which... (sit up and listen up now because we're delving into design) reminds me of that one time, I stayed at the Viceroy Hotel in Miami... and thought I had died and gone to heaven!
The situation was ripe for my awestruck-ness. My sister and I had caught an insane deal for this "dream hotel for the design-obsessed" on a Jetsetter/Gilt Groupe offer and pretty much re-arranged our whole trip just to be able to stay at the hotel designed by our girl crush, Kelly Wearstler, for just one night. We had been staying at the Mondrian Hotel in South Beach for the earlier part of our trip (and were pleased with it, just not "wowed"). But the strongest case for why these accommodations were just what the doctor ordered was due to an all around terrible "scooter rental" FIASCO! To sum it up, we dropped of our rented scooter before heading to the Viceroy (because god-forbid we show up to such a classy establishment with two girls teetering around on a beat-up moped with suitcases in tow) and were met with a suspicious claim that we had caused a bunch of damage to the scooter on its side.. And, as luck would have it, we of course (in the excitement of the trip and the prospect of zipping around South Beach on a scooter) we forgot to take pictures before it was released to us. Needless to say, the debacle ended with a fiery, Miami-style argument that left us feeling drained and jaded. Enter: the luxuriously decadent Viceroy Hotel in Miami. Plush linens, top-of-the-line EVERYTHING and most importantly, a canopy bed. Signed, sealed, delivered.
What was kind of spooky but also a bit magical was the part where, NO ONE ELSE was in the hotel.. And this isn't exactly your quaint boutique hotel, either. It was a "ghost-hotel" of grand proportions... We were pretty much the only guests... So of course, we embarked upon on our own self-guided tour of everything Kelly Wearstler's designer influence might have graced and then proceeded to be escorted by security down to the front desk for entering into a restricted area -Oops!. Anyway, despite the lack of humans, the resort was breathtaking from an interior design standpoint. Kelly Wearstler just knows about hotels. Period.
Oh yeah, and then there is the Viceroy spa, which is the most amazing spa ever. Really. It was designed by the Philippe Starck is, quite simply, spot-on, in. every. way.
But enough of my babbling. Zee fer yerselves:
And to conclude... This is what you drive up to when you arrive at the hotel:
Every little detail. HOLY SCHNIKES!
