July in Miami is a swel­ter­ing hot mess, but given the fact that the evening’s title was HAUTE NATURED, then it came as no sur­prise that melt­ing into a pud­dle of makeup was already part of the evening’s expe­ri­ence. Show­ing at The Setai’s beau­ti­ful, open-​​air lounge, the night’s event com­bined four design­ers express­ing their love for eco-​​friendly style and nat­ural design ele­ments using recy­cled and re-​​purposed mate­ri­als. Although the amaz­ing 50-​​foot “walk-​​on-​​water” run­way is an archi­tec­tural mind buzz in itself; the music, the lights, the mod­els, the guests, the heat and of course the swimwear, made an evening to exhil­a­rate all of your senses.

The four col­lec­tions of the evening were ECO-​​SWIM by Aqua Green, Linda Lou­d­er­milk, MEADOW, and MAE Cou­ture, all of whom are well known and respected in the sus­tain­able fash­ion indus­try. Linda Lou­d­er­milk was recently rec­og­nized for cre­ated the world’s first “green” bikini which is fully com­bustible and given the oppor­tu­nity (that is, bury it in the dirt), it would com­pletely decom­pose within 180 days. That’s nuts!

Three col­lec­tions later, the show cul­mi­nated with Car­o­line Mae Heidenriech’s ultra-​​fab col­lec­tion, MAE Cou­ture. Let’s just say MC Ham­mer joins the mil­i­tary, meets Aladdin and comes back to col­lab­o­rate with Car­o­line Mae in design­ing some of the coolest para­chute pants, made from reused, vin­tage mil­i­tary para­chutes. This, along with beau­ti­ful, flow­ing coverup dresses cre­ated were the sig­na­ture high­light of her show. And I want them all!!

Check out the pho­tos from all four lines…

Rolling in straight from the air­port for the Mercedes-​​Benz Fash­ion Week Miami, I and our two fab­u­lous makeup artists, Melody Harper and Gina Balestri headed to the Lila Nikole run­way show under the tents behind the W Hotel. Greet­ing us at the front was Christina Lomauro, another fab makeup artist who wel­comed us in.

Lila Nikole debuted “Sum­mer Romance”, a com­bi­na­tion of The Beauty of Love & Bleed­ing Heart col­lec­tions. Both col­lec­tions expressed the title in which they were given, from fresh pas­tel laces and sweet ruf­fles to edgy bright hues such as red, bur­gundy and black. As a lead­ing swimwear designer, Lila Nikole’s swimwear is well-​​known among celebri­ties, socialites and fash­ion­istas look­ing for roman­tic, sweet, and sexy all in one.