Off to the Races

The Pegasus World Cup — coming to Miami at month’s end — is one of the city’s most stylish experiences, so it’s fitting the prelude to the famously royal occasion would be a fashion show by Neiman Marcus Bal Harbor. Co-hosted by Elizabeth Resnick (who we hear also helped style the models) and Suzy Buckley Woodward (who we know crowned them each with extraordinary SHAPOH fascinators,) the show featured designs from Dolce & Gabbana, Carolina Herrera, and Balmain. Afterward guests – who included Eilah Campbell-Beavers, Anirays Camino, Asha Elias, Alison Kunkel, Krista Rosenberg, Morgan Shara, Ariel Penzer Milgroom, Barbara Hevia, Lydia Touzet, Susanne Birbragher, Lisa Rosenhaus, Maya Ezratti and Patricia Delinois — enjoyed boxes of expertly prepared sushi and spicy salmon atop crispy rice from Mokoto. The spend the whole time sipping on Moët Chandon champagne and Whispering Angel rose.

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The Miami Herald hosted a virtual event featuring Investigative reporter Julie Brown and photojournalist Emily Michot, whose investigation into sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and later Ghislaine Maxwellled lead to one of the most explosive news stories of the decade. It examined, according to Amazon.com where Brown’s book “Perversion of Justice: The Jeffery Epstein Story” is sold, “how a rich and powerful sex trafficker managed to arrange a secret plea deal and escape life in prison — even though he was suspected of sexually abusing more than 100 underage girls and young women. The series, and her subsequent dogged coverage of the case in 2019, led to the resignation of President Donald Trump’s labor secretary, Alex Acosta, Epstein’s arrest on new federal charges in New York and reforms in the way that prosecutors treat victims of sex crimes.”

The online conversation, led by the Miami Herald’s Senior Director for Journalism Sustainability and Partnerships Jane Wooldridge and Editor-in-Chief Monica Richardson served as a pointed reminder that local journalism has the power to change the world. And even with Brown’s reporting, she says Maxwell’s case was not a slam dunk.  “I questioned whether the day would come, said Brown, “that someone would be held accountable for this crime. So seeing her in the courtroom facing criminal charges was important for the victims and for the public, to see how important the work we do is, how we can have the power to hold people accountable. The pain the victims talk about, you can see them as children, that’s where that horrible pain is coming from. It was quite hard for me and for a lot of people and the betrayal they felt, not only from Epstein and Maxwell from the criminal justice system that failed them.”

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SocialMiami Covers 2022

We feasted! On both food and ideas. Here at SocialMiami we’re dedicated to bringing you smart AND stylish information. To that end, we hosted a contributor lunch to plan editorial coverage for 2022. I as your editor had the grand opportunity to sit with contributors Manny Hernandez, Claudia Potamkin, Marile Lopez, Cristina Mas, Tara Solomon and our publisher Natalia Lara. Okay fine, we discussed deadlines – because it wouldn’t kill these people to file their stories early – but we also tossed around ideas. Because each one of our contributors is an authority and an expert in thier respective fields, they can speak to their sources, contacts, and friends to bring all of us information that’s interesting and exciting. Oh, and we ate. LPM was the location and someone (perhaps the person writing this column) had trouble deciding on menu items so instead just ordered many including the Tapenade with garlic croutons, the Taboulé de Quinoa with golden raisins and goji berries, the Salad ď Endives et Fourme ďAmbert with caramelized walnuts  and two pastas, the Arrabbiata with tomato and chili (for the vegetarians) plus the Rigatoni Fraîches Sauce Bolognaise de Boeuf, with beffe Bolognese with chorizo (for the meat eaters.) Totally worth it. For the main courses, there were the roasted baby chicken in lemon and the salt baked fillet of red fish with artichokes and tomatoes – oh, and sides of French fries and broccoli. But dessert stole the show and the vanilla crème brulee alongside warm chocolate mousse with malt ice cream had the whole table swooning.