At Miami Beach Art Basel, Villa Balmain Welcomed Guests to a “Meta-Estate” 

If you ever wondered what we did before technology, last night’s interactive experience with Balmain made the question even more confounding. With a Balmain budget, science, and a brilliant artist behind, the Maison proved that we haven’t even scratched the surface of what is possible. 

In the heart of Allapattah, located across the street from the Rubell Museum, a group of extraordinarily tailored Balmain looks mingled. Cinched waists, strong shoulders, and knife-sharp pleats were perfectly present. Sipping on Chivas cocktails, Cuban artist Alexandre Arrachea (who resides between Miami and Madrid and was only contracted and contracted by Balmain this past September) casually mingled among guests that included Miami-based supermodel Karolina Kurkova, Afro Child, Amanda Diaz, Brittany Xavier, Camila Coelho, Cass Dimico, Chizi, Daniela Botero, Dj-MiLuì Herrarte, Elizabeth Sulcer, Sai de Silva, Tayshia Adams, Telfi, Tina Leung, Young Paris, and more.

With massive projections of the late Mr. Balmain’s vacation home on the island of Elba, Italy broadcasted on the large-scale walls of Miami’s Superblue venue, Arrachea’s vision came to life for the hand-selected guests who could be as involved in the technology as they wished. Having added his own artistic interpretation to ‘Villa Balmain’—a ‘Jetsons-style’ estate. The artist decided to add golden hives to the home with bees carrying precious stones instead of pollen. “the idea of pollinating and fertility was always fascinating to me hence the inspiration,” the artist told Vogue. Furthermore, “the fantastic nest I created involves design, tradition, and art, and it nurtured me through the past three months of intense work on this collaboration for the virtual experience.”

Way more than your average fashion event, the evening included a multi-tiered journey using a virtual reality headset and two handheld apparatuses’ which allowed the invitees to take their own trip and venture throughout the property. All you had to do was use your fingers to navigate up, down, left, or right throughout the mid-century modern estate.

Having waited in a short line to participate in the virtual journey, we were offered a sanitized mask. Sitting on a bench, once the headset was placed on your head, you felt as if you were a bee that was suspended and flying throughout not only the home and the property itself but through the golden bee-hive strictures that the Arrachea created. 

All in all, it was a very high-tech celebration of Balmain’s heritage; an amalgamation of physical art, digital art, NFTs, and an innovative web3 experience. Plus, there were four physical limited-edition pieces that were created for the Meta/NFT collaboration and sold (alongside NFTs) for that evening only. The meta-technologies were powered by LITO, a platform to scan, digitize, and 3D print masterpiece artworks directly with museums, cultural sites, and artists. And if all this leads you to scratch your head, Balmain could be shopped at the nearby Bal Harbour boutique.—there’s something for everyone!