For days at Art Basel, we’d bathed in steam. Then the weather upended itself, and Miami socials and fashion nomads alike threw leather jackets over sexy tiny dresses. So it was that the Webster’s Saturday eve cocktail—held in honour of 26-year-old designer-to-know Joseph Altuzarra—looked suddenly not like the local glamorama, but like a crowd at any city’s coolest boutique.

 “I’ve really enjoyed it here,” said Altuzarra of his first Miami sojourn. “It feels very cosmopolitan, and the style is eclectic, very European.”

Couldn’t that have something to do with the influx of actual Europeans descending on the Magic City last week? True, he laughed. But Paris-born, New York-loving Altuzarra already has a globehopping clientele—and for his Latin American fans, especially, Miami is the nucleus of luxe.

“I like the collection being here,” Altuzarra said. “It’s very light and white and pink. But the inspiration isn’t geographical—yes, it’s 70s Americana, but I wanted to do it in an almost classical and architectural way.”

For a designer so speedily embraced by the cool set (tonight, his friends include French Vogue’s Melanie Huynh and New York art starlet Aurel Schmidt), Altuzarra is something of a classicist. So no surprise, when the conversation swayed to art,  he named a painter and a sculptor—not, say, a neon light installationist or a video artist—as his favourites. The former is James Nares, who use suspended brushes to paint dramatic, super-saturated flourishes; the latter is Marc Quinn, famous for casting Kate Moss first as sphinx, then as siren. “His work is beautiful,” said Altuzarra. “I love that kind of romanticism.”

Leigh Lezark - he MisShape turned muse - descended on the designer. “Is this one of yours?” she demanded, peering at the definitive look of Altuzarra’s S/S 2010 collection: khaki suede ruffles over white eyelet froth. He nodded a little shyly. But before she has time to admire it, she’s distracted by a trailing cloud of a gown, with gilt leather latticework built in like a breastplate. . Lezark best stake her claim now: according to one of PR girls, a Miami bride-to-be has already snatched up the dress for the most romantic kinda night there is.