Event Recap

Spread along the shores of sandy South Beach, Saint Laurent Rive Droites Sex exhibition at this year’s Miami Art Basel united every prominent face within a ten-mile radius of Miami Beach. With Madonna herself in attendance alongside design maestro and curator Anthony Vaccarello for opening night, Madonna’s coffee-table sex book still maintained its original significance, illuminating the blueprint of contemporary sex-positive media culture. Guests were captured flaunting black-tie wardrobes before being escorted via golf cart down to a brisk cocktail-abundant sanctuary where a rolling film expanded, reviewing exclusive behind-the-scenes looks into Steven Meisels’s profound images. 

Notable attendees included: Anthony Vaccarello, Madonna, Evan Mock, Zoë Kravitz, Hailey Bieber, Rauw Alejandro, Adwoa Aboah, Laura Harrier, Anja Rubik, Alek Wek, Charlotte Lawrence, and Grace VanderWaal, as well as Burberry’s Riccardo Tisci and Prada’s Raf Simons.

Curated by the intangible Anthony Vaccarello, The Saint Laurent Rive Droite line is set to host an exhibition at this year’s Miami Art Basel from November 29th through December 4th. Presented in a temporary -specially designed – beachfront box, the exhibition will celebrate the re-edition of Madonna’s revolutionary 1992 coffee-table book, Sex. Photographed by Steven Miesel, the display will showcase 25 large-format images from the book, emphasizing the artist’s dauntless nature and provocative side.

Erotically charged and culturally significant, Sex has left a profound impact on the blueprint of contemporary sex-positive media culture. A defining hallmark of the artists’ career, Madonna’s Sex unapologetically shared themes of a punk-rock-sex era featuring adult content of soft-core pornography and liberated views of sexual self-expression. Envisioned by one of the most decorated musicians of all time, the book contained indelible imagery by Steven Meisel as well as written text by Madonna. Though susceptible to immense backlash, the book sold over 150,000 copies on its first day in the United States and topped the New York Times Best Seller list for three weeks. In a matter of days, Sex went on to sell more than 1.5 million copies worldwide and remains one of the most in-demand out-of-print publications of all time.

To mark Sex‘s lasting impact and special anniversary, Madonna and Anthony Vaccarello decided to accompany its re-edition by making it come alive on the walls of an ephemeral gallery. Large-format prints from the book will be shown in Miami for the first time. Saint Laurent’s re-issue is published by Callaway, New York in a bespoke run of 800 copies created exclusively for Saint Laurent, of which a limited number will be signed by Madonna with proceeds benefiting the artist’s Raising Malawi charity via an auction in the upcoming months. T-shirts and tote bags will also be for sale at the exhibition.

Named as a nod to Saint Laurent’s rive gauche line, that helped to democratize fashion and luxury in the sixties, the exclusive retail destination for expression, exchange, and lifestyle – The Saint Laurent Rive Droite – showcases a wide range of products, including exclusive pieces, limited editions, library, vintage, music, photography combined with art, performances, exhibitions, events, and cultural exchanges. Conceptualized by Anthony Vaccarello, the extensive and diversified offer from different creative and design fields is imagined and embraced in new ways to enlarge the universe and the DNA of Saint Laurent.