ANGEL LANDED IN MIAMI: VICTORIA SECRET HEAT UP THE NIGHT
Market meltdowns, markdown money, magazines folding, holiday parties on hold. How about a weekend getaway to the good old days, courtesy of the Fontainebleau Hotel and Victoria’s Secret? Two days of luxe resort life and lavish lingerie sure sounded good to the 3,500-plus who showed up for the hotel’s grand re-opening and the bra-and-panty giant’s annual fashion show Friday and Saturday in Miami Beach.
Anyone who set foot on the Fontainebleau’s sprawling Collins Avenue compound was welcomed to a land where living was large and budgets were still big, some might say colossal, considering the $1 billion price tag that came with restoring the storied hotel. Thanks to Jeffrey Soffer, executive chairman of Fontainebleau Resorts, Morris Lapidus’ original curvilinear structure, the Chateau, built in 1954, has been blown out to include two new towers, 1,500 guest rooms, 11 restaurants and lounges, three ballrooms and a 40,000-square-foot spa. Such extravagance is a risky business in times like these. But Soffer and company seem to thrive on bold moves, which could explain why they chose a big-ego bunch — actors, editors and models — as their guinea-pig guests. Between the ongoing construction, unfinished rooms and epic waits for room service, there were no shortage of kinks to be worked out. Still, they got by on giveaways (free booze and food, if you could find it) and a high-energy atmosphere.
On Friday night, the Fontainebleau, once the glamorous playground of Elvis Presley, Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra, not to mention James Bond and Tony Montana, attracted anybody who’s anybody (Gwyneth Paltrow, Brett Ratner, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Alex Rodriguez) and anybody who thinks he or she’s anybody (Kim Kardashian, Brody Jenner, Kristen Cavallari, Chloë Sevigny), as well as what appeared to be a few relics from the hotel’s glory days. “I haven’t really had a chance to check anything out yet,” said Kate Hudson, in a blue dress by Alexander Wang, who incidentally was also at the party, before heading into the Chateau building’s main lobby, now re-done up in Deco-kitsch decor — three crystal chandeliers, the hotel’s original bow-tie marble floor and Greco-Roman pillars that surrounded a “live fountain,” featuring two frolicking models. A few minutes before, Paltrow, looking tanned and toned in a teeny white dress, had shimmied through with Ratner, who snapped her photo in a meta-paparazzi moment, before positioning herself at the base of the famed “stairway to nowhere” with Rodriguez and a posse of bodyguards.
Once the Victoria’s Secret Angels, who had arrived earlier in the day in ultraflamboyant style on Soffer’s yacht, took the stairs, cut the ribbon and sent up a cheer, the Fontainebleau was official again. On to the musical entertainment portion of the evening. Terrence Howard and Robin Thicke’s performances proved rousing preludes to the party headliner: Mariah Carey, who, despite the fact that she was just getting over a cold, commanded the stage with a mix of new material (“Touch My Body”) and old (“Dreamlover,” “Hero”). Midway through her set, the curtains parted to reveal Carey’s accompanists, the 40-piece Symphony of the Americas orchestra. Together, their sound moved the likes of Angela Lindvall and Paris Hilton out of the VIP section and onto the dance floor. So that’s what a $5 million party looks like. Extravagant, indeed. But what’s another couple mill when a billion-dollar charge is already on the table?
