Vintage blazer available at Fly Boutique, Miami Beach. Vintage sweater by Yves Saint Laurent available at C. Madeleine’s, North Miami Beach. Vintage slacks available at Fly Boutique, Miami Beach. “Chukka” boots by Vans available at Shoe Gallery, Miami.

DJ ROSS ONE
29, Cancer
Club DJ

DJ Ross One comes from a long line of almost-famous people. His great-uncle Frank wrestled bears in a German side show, and his grandma Ruth was a Rockette in the ’30s: “That’s where I get most of my moves.” He also beams with pride over his uncle Mark, who became a matador in Mexico to avoid Nixon’s draft, “a celebrity in my book.” In spite of holding a master’s degree in photography from New York’s School of Visual Arts, Ross One stands alone as one of Miami’s coolest DJs, with fans who run the gamut from Prince to Bill Clinton.

Born Ross Schwartzman in Cincinnati, Ohio, he scored his first gig at 16 after watching the movie Juice. “Where I grew up, DJing was considered a foreign interest.” Listening to old-school giants such as Red Alert and Kid Capri, Ross taught himself how to scratch and mix, heading for New York in his teens to make his first mark as a breakdance-battle DJ. He relocated to Miami after a promoter heard him spin at a house party and got him work with The Opium Group on South Beach.

His current residencies include Rotten Apple Thursdays at Set and a monthly gig at Butter in New York, but Ross is most proud of Favela Chic on Tuesdays at Mokai, a local’s favorite wholly produced by a tight-knit group of friends. “I live for nights when I have the crowd’s trust. It thrills me knowing the next song I spin will make the room go nuts.”

myspace.com/djrossone.

	Vintage floral dress available at C. Madeleine’s, North Miami Beach.

TIM YEHEZKELY
25, Taurus
Singer

It might surprise you to discover the next great American talent is a chemistry student at FAU in Boca. It surprises her, too. “I write songs for fun but never thought I’d wind up in a hit band receiving international attention.”

Tim Yehezkely—whose first name isn’t abbreviated and often gets her mistaken for a boy—may have inadvertently stumbled into her gig as the silky-voiced chanteuse of The Postmarks, but the nouveau-pop trio scored huge with their eponymous debut, praised in Spin as “enchanting and multidimensional” and hailed by the on-line music authority Pitchfork Media as “a contender for Album of the Year.”

Born in Tel Aviv and raised in South Florida, Tim admits her musical leanings began in the fourth grade, when a penchant for “strange instruments” fed her childhood dreams of becoming an oboe player. “I got braces, so I gave up the oboe, took up guitar and taught myself how to play accordion and piano. I wrote my first song when I was 13 for a band called Gilligan’s Bitch.” At 21, she braved the stage at open-mic night and caught the ears of musicians Jon Wilkins and Christopher Moll. “On that fortuitous evening The Postmarks were born.”

Recorded wholly in Coral Springs, the album combines the instrumental erudition of French pop with simple melancholic lyrics, served up blissfully by Tim’s charming vocals. It’s the perfect companion for mending broken hearts on rainy Sunday afternoons, music inspired by “falling in and out of love, movie soundtracks, and everything French.”

Her success—her band is set to release their sophomore offering, a collection of covers—has not persuaded Tim to abandon dreams of becoming a pharmacist and changing the world. “I study chemistry because I want to understand the fundamental laws of the universe. If I can make the world a better place, even in a tiny way, then I’m fulfilling my purpose.”

myspace.com/thepostmarks.

Shirt by American Apparel available at american apparel, miami beach. jeans by material london available at macy’s, miami beach. Shoes by adidas designed by logan real.

LOGAN REAL
24, Scorpio
Artist; fashion and accessories designer

Logan Real offers the bling only a unique work of art can bring, and celebrity patrons P. Diddy, Omarian and M.C. Hammer agree. His eponymous line of custom-painted sneakers and accessories combines his talent for elegant, clean, detailed design with a dance of color. Logan doesn’t just sell shoes, he re-creates them, transforming your Nikes or Adidases into wearable, walkable one-of-a-kind artworks.

Born in Miami during the days of Mariel, Logan is a Cuban-American who never learned Spanish and is “the last Real in the family.” While attending the University of Florida, he began his future career “designing T-shirts and doodling on sneakers as a way to kill boredom.” After graduating with a degree in business marketing, Logan was adrift: “I was just sitting back, waiting for the right opportunity to shine. I knew it would come.”

A few years passed before the break he anticipated came with a call from a high-ranking member of the Saudi royal family (still a loyal Logan Real customer). “He wanted a pair of my shoes. It was the first time I used my signature stained-glass design, and he flipped for them. I knew then that with dedicated practice, I could take it to the next level.”

During the day, Logan works at Britto Central, but the evening and early-morning hours find him toiling away in his Miami studio, designing kicks, wallets, watchbands, briefcases and an upcoming apparel line for his thriving business. And he plans to tag his signature designs on other forms of modern luxury products: “Car interiors, yachts, jets, furniture, cell phones—there are just so many possibilities. I’m extremely focused. There’s no time to waste. I want to be the next Louis Vuitton. I want to see my mark everywhere I look.”

loganreal.com.

White graphic t-shirt by the beautiful ones available at Urban Outfitters, Miami Beach. black jeans by Wesc available at Leo, Miami Beach. Vintage belt available at Fly Boutique, Miami Beach. Vintage gold necklace available at C. Madeleine’s, North Miami Beach. Vintage black rosary necklace available at C. Madeleine’s, North Miami Beach. Watch by Swatch available at Swatch, Miami Beach.

ANDREA “BABY DRE” O’BRIEN
26, Aries
Celebrity stylist; female lead on TLC’s Miami Ink

Andrea “Baby Dre” O’Brien—a sexy-tough punk pixie with a tight, tattooed frame, deep, dark eyes and a killer Mohawk—grew up dirt-poor but blessed with a close, supportive family in Winter Garden, a small Central Florida town “with one stoplight and no style.”

Holding a few bucks and the keys to a rented U-Haul, Baby Dre left the confines of Winter Garden for South Beach when she was 18 “after just barely graduating from high school,” determined to spread her wings. She lives here eight years later “because I need the sun and ocean to function, and I’m crazy for Lincoln Road.”

Dre has styled celebrity bad girls such as Pink and Michelle Rodriguez and shared a stage with Juliette Lewis and the Licks, but her gig as the new female shopkeeper on TLC’s hit show Miami Ink is her first real shot at stardom. “It’s a huge deal,” she beams. “It’s the third-most-watched syndicated television show on the air right now.”

She landed the role when her good friend Ami—a sharp-tongued, hot-tempered Israeli and the undisputed boss of the celebrated tattoo shop—suggested she try out for it. “They interviewed me, like, six times, and talked to all my friends. It was a long and tedious process—but I nailed it.”

Dre admits she suffers from a bad obsession with cheap hot sauce, “because the pricey stuff is just no good.” She’s a big fan of country music and confides her tattoos are “a timeline of my life, all the important moments and people, the good and the bad.”

Aware that a hit show such as Miami Ink offers a tremendous opportunity for exposure, Baby Dre is currently hard at work designing a line of sunglasses and looking forward to promoting it on the show. Surprisingly, she’s single, but half-teasingly adds: “Not for long, ladies. Call me.”

myspace.com/babydremia.

	Plum taffeta dress by Zara available at Zara, Miami Beach. Vintage belt available at C. Madeleine’s, North Miami Beach. Shoes by Naturalizer available at DSW, Miami. White-gold vintage necklace available at C. Madeleine’s.

LAUREN “LOLO” RESKIN
25, Gemini
Music and event promoter; owner of Sweat Records

More than a record-store owner, music promoter, DJ, band manager and champion of all things 305, Lauren “Lolo” Reskin—whose shock of magenta hair reflects her vibrant personality—is one of South Florida’s coolest people.

Born and raised in South Miami, Lolo is the progeny of a long line of working musicians. “I grew up with an orchestra for a baby sitter,” she says. In 2005, she opened Sweat Records next to Churchill’s (the CBGB of Miami). The city had been yearning for an authentic indie-music store—that hole-in-the wall shop romanticized in Empire Records—and, boasting an impressive inventory of esoteric records and a global clientele, Sweat filled this void.

It also provides an invaluable platform for local artists. Lolo wields her giant mailing list like a weapon, promoting showcases she puts together and securing opening-act gigs for bands (such as Awesome New Republic) that would normally give up before getting a real break.

Meanwhile, her Saturday-night party at Circa 28 is thriving, far from the bustle of the South Beach club scene, offering a no-cover, no-guest-list, no-attitude oasis, where discerning locals flock to celebrate homegrown indie music.

Lolo aims to dispel the notion that Miami’s only culture involves cocktails, Cuban music and cocaine. She wants to enlighten local “haters,” who live here unaware of the genuine coolness happening across the causeway. “It’s a shame they don’t know better, because Miami is full of crazy, fascinating fusions that can only happen in a city with this many different people and influences poured into it. I wouldn’t live anywhere else.”

myspace.com/sweatrecords.

Custom uniforms by Aja Albertson. Boots by Army Surplus Store available at Army-Navy Surplus, North Miami.

AWESOME NEW REPUBLIC
Indie rock band
John Hancock, 25, Guitar/lead vocals | Nick Kruge, 23, Bass guitar, vocals | Richard Hargett, 24, Drums | Brian Robertson, 24, Keyboards/vocals

“Some people assume we’re not sincere with the words we write and the music we play,” John Hancock says. Laughter erupts, then two seconds of absolute silence. With sitcom timing, ANR’s lead vocalist continues: “We’re not joking.”

The boys of Awesome New Republic, Miami’s unchallenged indie-music front-runners, are a curious collection of imports. John (part Mongolian, married to an artist and master of a ferret named Fairy) and Richard (who scored his first drum kit at age four and counts former U.S. V.P. Hubert Humphrey among his relatives) both hail from Washington, D.C., and moved here to study music at U.M. Brian escaped to South Florida from the rainy summers and bitter winters of Rhode Island, and Nick, who dropped his scholastic pursuits at Cornell to enroll in U.M.’s music-engineering program—moved here from Southern Illinois, “a liberal oasis in a conservative desert.”

“We live in Miami because it’s fertile ground for musicians like us,” Hancock says. “There’s a variety of inspiring culture, the weather is consistent, and then there are the sunsets. We love the sunsets.”

ANR creates alternative music infused with the rock ’n’ roll of The Clash and the soul of David Bowie. Their first big show was opening for Animal Collective in 2004 at I/O Lounge. “Our drummer at the time had a broken arm,” says John, the band’s undisputed leader. “We only knew a few songs; it was not a great show. But that night we decided we were good and went home to rethink things. We started taking our performances, as a group, very seriously.

“ANR has always been an eclectic mix tape on which we can dub our favorite sounds,” continues Hancock, whose brilliantly uncomfortable lyrics are as bawdy as they are serious. “Then we push those sounds as far as they can go. Inspiration comes from improvisation, conversation and half-informed recording techniques.”

The band—known for its tight, mesmerizing live performances and ferociously loyal fans—has just released a four-song EP and is currently working on a full-length album. Globally conscious, they agree their ultimate goal, as a collective and as individuals, is “to have minimal impact on the environment with maximum impact on the world.”

myspace.com/awesomenewrepublic.

Vintage velvet coat available at C. Madeleine’s, North Miami Beach. Button-down shirt by Penguin available at Penguin, Miami Beach. Black slacks by Theory available at Neiman Marcus.

SANTIAGO RUBINO
28, Aries
Artist

Santiago Rubino—muralist, performer, graffiti virtuoso—landed in South Florida at age nine when his parents decided to escape Argentina’s crumbling economy. “Growing up in Miami was crazy fun,” he says, with the pride of a real local. “All my friends were graffiti vandals.”

Self-taught and schooled by the works of surrealists Salvador Dali, Hieronymous Bosch and Tim Burton, Santiago started drawing seriously in 1993 when high-school friends convinced him to consider art as a profession. Although he has “created a new piece of work every day since then,” his real break came last year in the form of a triumphant solo art show at the Spinello Gallery in Miami’s Wynwood art district.

You may not consciously recognize his work, but if you drive in the city, it lives in your mind. Santiago has painted myriad “legal and illegal murals” across Miami. His signature characters silently inhabit the landscape, a gothic army of pissed-off, ponytailed, creepy little girls who look like they could leap right off the concrete and strangle you. His drawings combine the innocence of youth with the evil air of a haunted mansion, evoking the familiar terror of a boo geyman under your bed. He admits he discovered his particular style “through anger,” and describes his work as “surreal, geometric, dark and melancholic. Everything around me is an inspiration, from cartoons to Rembrandt.”

Graffiti is often considered lowbrow, but Santiago disagrees, preferring an illicit session on the streets of Miami to working alone in the studio.

“Most people think it’s messy vandalism; they don’t understand it’s an important outlet for artists who may not have connections to a gallery. I have more freedom on the streets, and people can see me working. It’s a great way to get yourself out there.”

spinellogallery.com

	Dress by Tricia Fix available at Nordstrom, Coral Gables. Vintage hoops and cuff, both available at C. Madeleine’s, North Miami Beach. Vintage sandals available at Fly Boutique, Miami Beach.

TRICIA FIX
28, Sagittarius
Fashion designer

Tricia Fix got her start in the fashion business at 16 for practical reasons. “I wanted a car, so I made children’s hair bows for my mom, owner of the Stride Rite shoe stores for 30 years. People drove for miles to buy these little hair pieces I adorned with delicate lace and pearls, feathers and rhinestones. Those bows paid for my car, and the insurance.”

Born in Anderson, Indiana, but reared in Tampa, a teenaged Tricia fashioned T-shirts into sexy, lace-up bustiers and sold them in a kiosk at the WestShore Plaza, “an experience that taught me you can’t make a living if you design, sew and sell all by yourself.” At FSU, she earned a degree in textiles and apparel design but only started “seriously designing” three years ago. “My first collection was a hit, picked up by Nordstrom and other upscale boutiques nationwide.”

Despite dressing A-list beauties such as Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton and Eva Longoria, Tricia Fix originals “strike a balance between high-end, red-carpet style and affordable comfort.” Fresh and flirty, her pieces combine daring animal prints with sinuous feminine fabrics trimmed in unique textures, resulting in sexy, striking contours. She admits her inspiration is “vintage-driven, but changes every season. This year was all about origami silhouettes.”

Tricia lives in Miami’s Design District because “it’s cheaper than New York and far from my family in L.A.” She hopes one day to collaborate with Oscar de la Renta and design clothes for the Olsen twins, “who have an amazing eye for vintage design.” Although her collection is a national success—featured in People, Us Weekly and Allure and sold in boutiques such as Henri Bendel and Atrium in New York, Chroma in Miami Beach and Notorious in Los Angeles—Tricia has her entrepreneurial sights set on an even bigger fish: “I’m just finishing up the details on a very interesting distribution agreement with a group of European investors.”

Triciafix.com.

	Blue silk dress by Marc Jacobs available at Neiman Marcus.

COLBY KATZ
32, Aries
Photographer

Born in our nation’s capital to a clan of Russian-Romanians, Colby Katz moved to South Florida at a young age and admits growing up here “wasn’t great. I got kicked out of five different high schools.” At 16, Colby was “emancipated from Broward County” and let loose on the streets of New York, where she later enrolled in NYU’s celebrated Tisch School of the Arts and earned a BFA in photography.

Although she insists that she has no famous relatives, the more infamous fruit in her family tree includes “a dwarf grandmother, a stripteasing aunt and an uncle rumored to be a swinger.” It’s no surprise they inspired her choices in subject matter. Colby’s distinctive work documents subcultures by humanizing them, inviting us into worlds we may have heard about but never understood. Her eerie portraits provide microcosms of her varied subjects, which range from side-show freaks and quirky nudists to committed conventioneers and teenage rabbit hunters.

In 2003, Colby was selected to be in the book 25 Under 25, a Duke University publication showcasing the talent of the country’s most promising photographers. A few years later, the industry bible Photo District News chose her from among thousands as one of its top emerging photographers of 2005. The following year, Canada’s Magenta Foundation, a pioneering charitable-arts publishing house, bestowed on her the same honor.

As a shutterbug for hire, Colby has worked for Time, Newsweek and ESPN. Her photographs have been exhibited in galleries that span the globe, from the Foam Fotografiemuseum in Amsterdam and London’s National Portrait Gallery to the A.I.R. Gallery in New York, Toronto’s Lennox Contemporary and the Miami Art Museum.

Today Colby is finishing up her latest series, a collection of haunting portraits documenting the odd and touching world of child beauty pageants. She could never imagine herself doing anything else, and hopes one day to work with a filmmaker to further delve into the shadowy lives of her fascinating subjects.

Colbykatz.com.

Dress by Alice + Olivia available at Neiman Marcus. Belt by Adriana Castro available at Aura, Coral Gables. Shoes by Chanel available at Chanel, Bal Harbour.

ADRIANA CASTRO
25, Libra
Fashion-accessories designer

Reared in Colombia’s dense Amazon jungle, Adriana Castro knew early on her future would be inspired by the sluggish swamps of her father’s working crocodile farm near Barranquilla. Fascinated by the reptiles that inhabited the many lagoons of her playground, she “learned to appreciate every part of their skin,” and soon discovered her passion lay in the design of crocodile fashion accessories. After earning a bachelor’s degree in economics at Purdue University, she arrived in Miami, and at 23 launched her first collection, the aptly titled Amazonia.

Combining bold colors and the sensual texture of her favorite skin, Adriana hand-crafted an elegant collection of luxurious crocodile bags and accessories. Her skill as an artisan has been praised by national fashion authorities such as Women’s Wear Daily, and her big break came this year when she won the Gen Art Fresh Faces in Fashion award, which helped launch the careers of industry notables such as Zac Posen and Louis Verdad.

She lives with her husband on Brickell Key, working as creative director and head of marketing, PR and quality control for her fashion company. She calls Miami “a lush refuge, where blue sky, endless sunshine and sea wrap around you like a tropical pashmina.”

Coleccionadrianacastro.com.

Shirt and brown slacks, both by Penguin, available at Penguin, Miami Beach. Sneakers by Vans by Marc Jacobs available at Base, Miami Beach.

JACIN GIORDANO
29, Pisces
Artist

Miami-bred but born in Stamford, Connecticut, to a brood of Irish-Italians, Jacin Giordano was classically trained to be a painter and sculptor from the age of 10 in South Florida’s best magnet art schools. He would have been a rock star, but “art has always been the most natural pursuit.”

Jacin attended high school at New World School of the Arts in downtown Miami but felt restricted in a city with few outlets for a budding artist. “My priority growing up was always to move away.” He headed to Baltimore to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he earned a B.F.A. in painting. After college, he sowed his artistic oats traveling throughout the States and Europe until he ran out of money and moved back home in 2000, surprised to find a city with a burgeoning art scene that rivaled any he had seen on his journeys. “I saw a lot of friends I went to school with making great work, and the city was responding to it. For the first time, there was a real opportunity for a professional artist to live in Miami and really contribute something.”

Shortly after Jacin’s return, contemporary-art star Hernan Bas curated his first exhibition at the Fredric Snitzer Gallery, a brilliant collection that caught the discriminating eye of the gallery’s owner and led to an offer of representation. His paintings are “expeditions in color,” abstract pieces tagged with Jacin’s signature method of crafting his works with yarn, glitter and glue, creating a collage of painted fragments. The effect is meant to represent the triumph of childhood and whimsy over the callousness of adulthood and logic, “physically demonstrating the unweaving of rainbows.”

Previously exhibited at Galerie Baumet Sultana in Paris, White Box Gallery in New York and the Moore Space in Miami, Jacin is currently working on paintings to be shown at the Fredric Snitzer booth at Art Basel 2007. He continues to live, work and thrive in Miami, a city he lovingly describes as “filled with terrible and beautiful art.”

snitzer.com.

	Yellow dress by Thread Social available at Intermix, Bal Harbour. Peep-toe shoes by BCBG available at BCBG, Miami Beach. Vintage bangle available at C. Madeleine’s, North Miami Beach. Stylist is Nicole Tafur. Photographer’s Assistant is Fabio. Hair by Luis Beltran/Blink Management. MakeUp by Micol/Green Apple Management, Milan.

MONICA GLASS
30, Capricorn
Director of events, Gen Art

Born in Fort Hood, Texas, Monica Glass is a well-traveled Army brat whose first memories include a magical Christmas in Nuremburg and girlhood explorations in the Mayan ruins of Tegucigalpa. She refers to her adventurous dad as “Indiana Jones,” and weaves an animated, nail-biting tale of the day he rescued her from certain death off the precipice of a mile-high waterfall in South America. “Our family vacations were not your typical trip to Disney.”

Considered the “unofficial social director” of her teenaged group of friends, she was 22 when she produced a spectacle called Funk Shui, a weekly affair where musicians, poets and DJs improvised live before a packed house. “It was thrilling. People couldn’t believe it wasn’t rehearsed, it flowed so well.” Her first big break in the real world was at Clear Channel, a leading concert and event producer, where she created and executed ad campaigns for 15-city tours and managed million-dollar budgets. “I was extremely unqualified for the job. The VP of marketing, Kate Ramos, saw past my irrelevant résumé and into my hungry eyes. It was the first time someone gave me the opportunity to do more than I imagined I could.”

Monica presently expends her considerable energies as director of events for Gen Art Miami, the nation’s premier arts organization supporting emerging talent. She helps produce more than 100 parties annually for the influential group and can barely contain her zeal as she confides the details of her event for Art Basel this month: “We are working with curator Francesco LoCastro to exhibit 40 of the top urban-contemporary and pop-surrealism artists.”

She hopes one day to produce a heavenly collaboration between famed director Julie Taymor and fashion bad boy Alexander McQueen, with music by John Coltrane. “I could create something pretty captivating with them. A girl can dream, can’t she?”

genart.org.