Miami Swim Week

Unlike the ready-to-wear weeks in Paris or Milan, Miami Swim Week has no single founder or organising body — it is a loose ecosystem of independently produced swimwear shows that grew up around Miami Beach’s fashion and hospitality calendar. Funkshion launched runway shows in the city in 2003, adding dedicated swimwear programming the following year, the same year IMG Fashion partnered with the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau to launch Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim at the Raleigh Hotel — long the anchor production of the swim calendar.

IMG postponed and rebranded its event in 2015 after Mercedes-Benz ended its sponsorship, a shift that decentralised the ecosystem into competing, independently run shows. Funkshion itself rebranded as Paraiso Miami Beach in July 2018, and in 2020 producer Moh Ducis founded a rival event, Miami Swim Week — The Shows, which grew to more than 150 designers across over 20 venues by 2025; Ducis died in October 2025, and the event has continued under new management. The competing use of the "Miami Swim Week" name among rival producers has led to an active, unresolved trademark dispute in federal court as of 2026.

The 2026 season ran across an extended late-May window, with Paraiso Miami Beach’s core programme staged 28–31 May alongside concurrent producers including the Art Hearts Fashion Swim Show, the Flying Solo Cabana Show and Destination Miami by Coterie, together spanning more than 20 venues — continuing the ecosystem’s role as the swimwear industry’s dedicated counterpart to the general ready-to-wear fashion-week calendar.