Letters from South Florida Part I

wearing Oscar de la Renta dress and Michael Kors heels

Walking down memory lane in Jimmy Choos

You probably don’t know me well enough to know that I actually lived here, in a suburb west of Miami and Fort Lauderdale and equidistant to each, for approximately 6 years. My husband and I were married here, my son was born here….so a lot of memories are flooding back as I look out over the palm trees and the vast skies (the sky seems so BIG here!) and the fluffy white clouds. This never really felt like “home” to me, since I am originally from DC…well OK, the suburbs of DC. But still. I could go into the city whenever I liked. To me, Fort Lauderdale and even Miami never really felt like an urban “city.” Essentially, it was just tall buildings built near the beach because that’s where everyone is really there to go. They are/were trying, to make it more metropolitan, but…. not enough for me personally.

Regardless, I do have many happy memories here. Colleagues who became friends, same with customers…the gorgeous house we used to own (housing in DC is WAY more expensive!) The people and places etc that I enjoyed…. all came flooding back to me as the plane touched down.

People-watching at the resort was interesting. As I’ll touch on later, there is a certain diversity in South Florida, but at the same time there isn’t. For instance, at Neiman Marcus there has been a huge cultural shift in which the “ladies who lunch” have now given way to a more urban demographic, in which braids and do-rags and even the scent of Marijuana are quite common. Here, I rarely even saw a black person unless they were part of the staff. Alternately, at the resort I saw some of your typical “types” which again I will return to later. There’s the stereotypical “golf guy” ….this is the guy who was a preppie in school, who probably works in finance or insurance, wears khakis and a polo to tee off and get drunk out on the course….on his arm is your typical “Barbie” type with bleach-blonde hair, maybe a stylish sunhat (yes, they exist) and golf outfit or simply resort style whites. I do understand now why so many of the large fashion maisons went to the trouble of designing an entire “resort collection” …. here, it doesn’t seem that normal fashion “rules” count. It’s an entirely different dress code!

Case in point….my first night on the property, I went out to dinner with a fellow colleague. She took one look at me, up and down, and literally the 1st thing she said to me was, “you’re going to need flats.” She then proceeded to explain that we were going to be walking to our dining destination (how very urban!) and I should go back to my room and change (“this instant, young lady”). j/k

I did do, and while it didn’t show off my dress to its best advantage, it did save my feet a lot of agony. BTW, she was dressed in what I can only described as might have been a pool / beach cover-up dress that you throw on over your bathing suit, and a pair of spaghetti sandals (I’m such a snob!). Her friend we were meeting was dressed also casually, although not quite so, in a pair of white trousers and an olive colored Tshirt that would have looked drab except that it complemented her complexion quite well…and it flattered her figure, and her brown eyes and dark brown hair.

So, these were my 1st impressions upon my return to South Florida….to be continued