Latina Model Magazine goes to Miami Swim Week 2019!

Latina Model Magazine’s second year at Miami Swim Week was simply epic and full of new South Beach fashion experiences.

  Upon arrival at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, we drove directly to Faena Forum in South Beach for our first fashion show powered by Art Hearts Fashion.

The next day, we headed over to the Pariso Show at Collins Park. On Saturday, we went to the Cabana & Capsule Show held at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

On Sunday we had an afternoon shoot with Ms. Teen Argentina and later attended the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Show.  Read below for even more about Miami Swim Week 2019!

Getting to Our First Swim Show

IP 1. If you ever have to fly into beautiful South Beach, Miami, we suggest flying into Fort Lauderdale International Airport instead. Round trip tickets are half of what Miami International Airport fees are and it’s only a 40-minute drive to South Beach from Fort Lauderdale. You can also hire an Uber for only $24.00. 

The first show we attended was located at the Faena Forum where Art Hearts Fashion held five days of fashion shows. Art Hearts Fashion is an L.A. based fashion event company headed by Eric Rosete. Every show was packed with amazing models and swimsuits. 

It was an exhausting evening but we did our best to cover their first night without any sleep. Latina model & designer Lilianna Montoya had a great show filled with beautiful designs and many Latina models were walking the runway. All of her models were beautiful!

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Unfortunately, the Friday Art Hearts Fashion show had to be canceled because the building power went out. Everyone in attendance was thoroughly disappointed.

Check out some of the photos taken backstage during the unfortunate power outage. Sometimes you have to perform even when shit happens! By staying positive, there will be excellent results evidenced by these very amazing non-traditional behind-the-scenes photos without power/light.

Erik Rosete’s (CEO & founder of Art Hearts Fashion) determination to make it right for everyone the following night was by doubling up the designer line-up for a fully-packed show that would satisfy all. Mission accomplished Erik!

Miami DJ’s on Fire!

After the show, we then checked out some incredible DJ sets at The Tree House Miami just a block from the W Hotel South Beach. The name of the DJ performing the night we came was Danny Howells and he was incredible.

You can learn more about Danny on his website. If you ever get the chance to go to South Beach, this is the place to hear some very talented deejays. Check out the audio below (We pulled the audio from an Osmo Pocket video recording).

The next day we attended the Paraiso Show at Collins Park. These are must-see fashion show events during Miami Swim Week. Here you can see some of the more established swimsuit designers from around the world showing their newest designs; therefore, it never disappoints. The 2019 trends seem to be animal prints, long sleeves, and one sleeve looks at these shows and others as well.

The Swimsuit Industry is Big Business!

The next day, Latina Model Magazine attended it’s very first Swim Show and Cabana & Capsule trade show events. These two trade show events are both held in the newly built Miami Convention Center. Inside there are literally hundreds of brands to see, touch, and yes even smell (like that new car smell)! The two stand-out brands for Latina Model Magazine were ironically both from Brazil.  Cabana & Capsule – Agua de Coco & Swim Show – Le Saint Biquinis

If you can attain the correct credentials, we would highly advise that you attend these two shows during Miami Swim Week. Furthermore, if you have been doing business in the swimsuit industry for a period of time or just considering getting into the industry, it would be, without question, a great benefit. The great people you connect with at these shows can potentially help you in making some very well-informed business decisions. 

TIP 2. The crew did learn one local tip when it comes to dining. The main street in South Beach is Collins Avenue with great restaurants hosted by amazing chefs but you will pay a premium for this incredible food. One of our local Uber drivers secretly told us that none of the locals eat on Collins Ave. in general. Instead, they all eat one block west on Washington Ave. where the food is locally fresh and half the price. Learn more about local South Beach restaurants,

Latina Model Discovered!

During Miami Swim Week, there are no shortages of beautiful models everywhere, not to mention Latina models. Many are international Latina models coming from all parts of the world which gives South Beach a very international vibe.

While dropping by the W Hotel at South Beach to attain our press/media credentials for the Sports Illustrated show, we happened to run into a very attractive and tall 19-year-old Latina model named Luly. We proceeded to snap some cute photos of her in front of the W Hotel South Beach and exchanged IG handles and went on our way.

When we walked out of the W Hotel, we again ran into Luly, talked for a few minutes and committed to doing a shoot with her on the following day. Latina Model Magazine needed a Miami Swim Week shoot and our close friend from L.A., Monique, CEO of Vichi Swim, needed her new 2019 line photographed on the beach so we all collaborated to produce some beautiful images for everyone to use as they needed.

Our collaboration with Luly and swimsuit designer Monique Dep could not have been more amazing. Luly, for being so young, completely crushed her modeling poses and Monique’s new 2019 Vichi swimsuit line was incredibly cute, colorful and playful. Our collaboration could not have been more perfect.

Ipsy Interaction Park

Later in the afternoon on the East side of Collins Park, we walked through Ipsy. Ipsy is a personalized monthly makeup & beauty sample subscription business. They had a 2-day weekend event complete with sample product booths, speakers and IG influencer guests.

The Ipsy company was started by Michelle Phan who grew the company on her own with over 1 million subscribers to her YouTube makeup channel before taking on investors that eventually grew Ipsy to a business valuation of 800 million. 

Sports Illustrated Swim Show

Later that Sunday evening, we attended two more shows: the SI Swim Show and again back to Art Hearts Fashion to see how they would handle a double show at Faena Forum after having the building power restored.

The SI show is, of course, more focused on diversity than ever before so it’s no longer a typical tall, blonde, thin model show of the past. However, SI is always on point in their model selections. Every model has their own incredible stunning look which in itself is always mind-blowing.

The show is always exciting and a good number of Latina models were chosen to walk this year’s runway. Many of the models from the 2019 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue were in attendance as well. They posed for the media before the show. We noticed that about twelve SI models in the annual swimsuit edition attended the show.

Sports Illustrated will always attract beautiful women; in fact, only Sports Illustrated can pull in hundreds of potential models to be in their runway show. The day before their show, we literally saw over a hundred girls lining up in front of the W Hotel in the rain at 4:00 am just to get a chance to be interviewed and to be seen in front of SI judges. Sports Illustrated continues to be the most dominant player at Miami Swim Week.

Key Take-Away

IP 3. After our second year, our small team has been able to experience a lot of what Miami Swim Week has to offer in six days. But is it enough time? More days in Miami or a larger team? The truth is that there is so much going on, it’s probably impossible to see or cover it all. If you plan to come to Miami Swim Week, plan out everything as carefully as possible so you always know what you’re doing a day in advance. The week is chaotic enough with a plan so without a plan, it could be a big waste of time because there is so much to do.

We hope this article helped you learn more about our experience at Miami Swim Week 2019. If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our site or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.