Palm DYNASTY

PALM BEACH HAS LONG BEEN AN EPICENTER OF POSH, but now its design lure has the luxury world buzzing louder than ever. With the BOOM IN DESIGN EVERYTHINGfrom shops to events to contemporary arts-could the SIZZLING ISLAND PLAYGROUND get any hotter?

- MADOLINE MARKHAM KOONCE

SHOPPING'S Fever Pitch

For decades, Palm Beach's Worth Avenue has been a venerable destination for top-tier couture shoppers. And while the gilded avenue remains a high-society playground, an increasing design focus on and off Worth-signals an exciting new era. Retail outposts by decorating giants like Chicago-based Alessandra Branca-whose flagship store Casa Branca opened on the island a few years ago and quickly expanded into West Palm Beach-and mother-daughter duo Mimi McMakin and Celerie Kemble of The Kemble Shop are flourishing, while recentyear openings by fashion and jewelry boutiques arrive with big design flexes. For instance, Mish Tworkowski's fine jewelry studio and showroom in an Addison Mizner building is a Katie Ridderdesigned masterpiece. Connecticut import ASHA showcases jewels and caftans in a radiant, mint-green boutique designed by Meg Braff, while a few doors down, table linen and dress designer Julia Amory >displays block-printed and embroidered dresses and pareos in a tented paradise designed by Caitlin Kah.

Typewriter Eraser, Scale X at the Norton Museum of Art.

A Flourishing CONTEMPORARY ARTS SCENE