As Pride Month officially began this weekend, one of Miami Swim Week’s most memorable and talked-about moments unfolded poolside at the Kimpton Surfcomber Hotel, where Palace South Beach and LGBT celebrity DJ Eliad Cohen transformed Planet Fashion TV’s Miami Swim Week runway into a celebration of drag artistry, fashion, visibility, and Miami culture.
What began as Planet Fashion TV’s official Saturday Night Showcase at Paraiso Miami Beach Swim Week quickly evolved into something much larger.
Palace South Beach and Eliad Cohen
In a surprise presentation titled “Love Letter to Miami,” Palace South Beach’s iconic drag performers like Dvice Dion, Valentina Valentino, MQ GLITZER, Kalah Mendoza, CC GLITZER, and Missy Meyakie LePaige took over the runway in dramatic fashion, interrupting the evening’s traditional swimwear presentations with a theatrical display of glamour, performance, and self-expression. Walking beneath larger-than-life visuals of crashing waves, floating love letters, and messages celebrating Miami, the queens delivered a powerful reminder of the role LGBTQ+ culture has played in shaping the city’s identity for generations.
The presentation coincided with celebrity DJ, entrepreneur, and model Eliad Cohen’s swimwear showcase, creating a moment where fashion, entertainment, community, and culture seamlessly collided.
For many in attendance, it quickly became the defining moment of the evening.
“This was never intended to be simply a drag performance,” said Tom Donall, owner of Palace South Beach. “It was a love letter to Miami, to our community, and to the generations of artists, performers, dreamers, and changemakers who helped build the city we know today. Palace has always been about creating a space where people can be fully themselves, and we wanted this moment to celebrate the creativity, diversity, freedom, and joy that have made both Miami and the LGBTQ+ community so extraordinary.”
The timing felt particularly meaningful. As conversations surrounding LGBTQ+ visibility and inclusion continue across the country, Palace South Beach and Planet Fashion TV chose to respond not with politics, but with celebration. Through fashion, performance, beauty, and artistry, the showcase embraced the values that have long defined Miami Beach itself: authenticity, freedom, individuality, and joy.
Fashion remained at the heart of the presentation throughout the evening. Performers appeared in a series of couture-inspired looks featuring crystal embellishments, dramatic feathered accents, flowing chiffon, sculptural silhouettes, and unapologetic glamour. A jaw-dropping salsa performance by Tiffany and Oscar G, the trailblazing twin duo from Cali, Colombia, renowned for their groundbreaking achievements in competitive acrobatic salsa, left the crowd gasping from flips, turns, lifts, and moves never before seen on the Surfcomber’s pooltop runway. As pioneers, they are celebrated as the first same-sex dance couple to gain international recognition, dazzling audiences worldwide with their spectacular performances at major international competitions. Equal parts runway fashion and performance art, the collection of looks demonstrated the growing influence of drag culture on contemporary fashion, beauty, and entertainment.
Some evoked old Hollywood elegance. Others embraced fantasy, theatricality, and high-fashion spectacle. Together, they transformed the runway into something far more immersive than a traditional fashion presentation.
The showcase also reflected a broader evolution taking place throughout fashion globally, where the lines between fashion, performance, entertainment, and cultural storytelling continue to blur. Increasingly, the most memorable runway moments are not simply about what is worn, but what is communicated.
For Planet Fashion TV, whose Swim Week programming has increasingly focused on the intersection of fashion and culture, the collaboration represented exactly that.
For Palace South Beach, it served as a reminder of the venue’s longstanding role as one of Miami’s most recognizable LGBTQ+ institutions and cultural gathering spaces. For decades, Palace has welcomed locals and visitors from around the world while helping shape the city’s reputation as a place where individuality and self-expression are not only accepted but celebrated.
As the final performers exited the runway and confetti floated across the Surfcomber pool deck, the scantily clad male models from Eliad Cohen’s swim show retook the runway and ended with a huge splash…quite literally into the Surfcomber’s pool. Attendees were left not only wet, but with something more memorable than a traditional fashion presentation.
They were left with a celebration.
A celebration of drag. A celebration of Pride. A celebration of Miami.
And perhaps most importantly, a reminder that fashion is at its most powerful when it reflects the communities and cultures that inspire it.
“As Pride Month begins, we felt it was important to lead with celebration,” added Donall. “At a time when conversations surrounding visibility and inclusion continue across the country, we wanted to remind people that drag is an art form, fashion is a platform for self-expression, and Miami remains one of the world’s great cultural crossroads. This performance was about love, community, and the belief that everyone deserves to be seen.”
