Rachel Pizzolato did her makeup in a moving car on the way to a 9:00 a.m. beach shoot because she had taken exactly ten minutes to curl her hair and was not about to waste it. That is the texture of Day 6 at Miami Swim Week: two photo shoots, a runway show, fittings with an Italian designer, a wig, a front walkover on a rain-soaked runway, and a late-night spread of wagyu ramen and shrimp tacos eaten on a hotel bed while debating the definition of insanity. For anyone who thinks modeling in Miami is a glamorous vacation, this day is a corrective.
The morning opened at a lifeguard tower on the beach, where Rachel and her travel companion Madison shot in gold one-pieces before climbing into the trees for a second look. By 10:30, with the sun already punishing, Rachel described the exhaustion plainly: ‘People don’t tell you how tiring it is to do Miami. Just the whole thing. Like looking good is the whole thing.’ A Megan Thee Stallion-adjacent event had already claimed her press-on nails by that point, leaving them, in her words, ‘so ugly.’
Croissants, lavender lattes, and a swimwear brand born between shoots
With twenty minutes between the first shoot and the next, the pair grabbed an Uber to a coffee shop for croissants and lavender lattes. The break was not entirely restful: Rachel spent it finalizing the name, music, backdrop, and logo for her own swimwear collaboration. The brand landed on Smart Swimwear with a Twist, a white-backdrop shoot concept, and a track she described as ‘kind of 70s.’ She also floated the idea of sourcing a buoy through what she was calling ‘Uber package,’ a riff on a Door Dash pickup model, though whether the buoy ever materialized is another matter.
Rain arrived precisely when it was least welcome. With the runway show approaching and freshly styled hair at stake, Rachel pulled a robe over her face and waited. The downside dissolved fast: the crew wiped down the runway just in time, and she performed a front walkover on her Smart Swimwear collaboration pass, the same move she had attempted the day before in the rain and abandoned because, she admitted, it ‘looked crappy as heck.’ This time it landed.
Fittings with an Italian designer and a wig situation nobody planned for
Between the shoot and the show, Rachel and Madison fit for an Italian Riviera brand: Rachel got shorts with a blue detail, Madison a black bando with a skirt. Hair and makeup followed, with a Los Angeles makeup artist Rachel called ‘fire,’ plus eye patches that she reported had put her to sleep with her mouth open. The wig portion of the evening produced the most chaotic interlude of the day, involving a brief bob, a rapid rethink, and a sequence that concluded with the line ‘wig snatched, I got to go finish my videos.’
The night ended back in the room with an order from a spot the group had apparently returned to every single night of the week: two sushi rolls, shrimp tacos with avocado, matcha crepe cake, and wagyu ramen. The shrimp taco earned a first-look score of seven out of ten from Madison before Rachel tasted it and upgraded it to a ten. The wasabi in the ramen did not earn a similar rescue.
The shrimp taco that changed ratings mid-bite
Madison’s fork never arrived. The matcha crepe cake got stabbed. Rachel declared herself a ‘slob’ and moved on. The running joke of the night was that every day at Miami Swim Week follows the exact same loop: Cafe Umbria, fittings, hair and makeup, shows, back to the room, Moshi Moshi order, brief delusion that they might go out, and then absolutely not going out. ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting a different result,’ Madison offered. Rachel agreed. They ordered more sushi.
One more day remained.
The matcha crepe cake sat on its side on the hotel bed, whipped cream leaning, while someone debated whether to stab it or scoop from the bottom.
