Presenters

Born and raised in Palm Beach, FL, Christina is the founder of Coniglio Palm Beach. After studying design and working for several fashion brands in New York City, Christina returned to her hometown in 2023 to launch a lifestyle brand focusing on resortwear, family values, and a true-to-Palm-Beach style. What sets it apart is its commitment to size inclusivity and ultimate comfort, creating pieces that are meant for women in every stage of life. The designs are influenced by the spirit and color of Palm Beach, and Christina’s mission is to tell the city’s story from her authentic point of view.

Emily Hikade is the Founder and CEO of Petite Plume, a luxury sleepwear and home company. In 2024, Emily was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year. Also in 2024, Petite Plume was included in the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S.

Prior to launching Petite Plume, Emily spent over fifteen years under cover in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), focusing on Counterterrorism. Serving mostly in austere conditions, Emily was on the frontlines of Human Intelligence (HUMINT) collection in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. After a near plane crash during a mission, Emily made the decision to seek out a significant career change.

In 2015, while still living and working abroad, she bootstrapped and launched Petite Plume. Without prior retail experience, Emily built Petite Plume from the ground up and eventually evolved the business into a luxury sleepwear brand for the entire family to now a full lifestyle brand that includes home, bedding and linens. Today Petite Plume is available in nearly 500 stores nationwide, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus and is beloved by the Royal Family, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Hart, and so many more. In 2023, Esquire declared Petite Plume “The Best Damn PJs on the Planet.”

Born and raised in California farm country, Lewis Miller developed a respect for nature at a very young age. At 18 years old, he moved to Seattle where he studied horticulture and landscape design. After seven years of successfully pursuing his interest in design, flowers and event planning, Lewis moved to New York City in 2000 and launched his own company: LMD New York, Lewis Miller Design in 2002. It quickly became one of the premiere floral design houses in New York City. Miller’s clients include the world’s leading industry professionals in fashion, design, photography, art direction and architecture. Clients include American Express, Dior, Ralph Lauren, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and JP Morgan Chase, just to name a few.  With nearly two decades of experience, LMD has grown into one of the most sought after and well-respected multi-event production houses in the world.

Miller’s stand-out projects include designing the 2024 iconic 30 Rock Channel Gardens and writing his first book published by Rizzoli New York, titled Styling Nature: A Masterful Approach to Floral Arrangement and more recently his book Flower Flash published by Monacelli.

Miller is also the creator of The Flower Flash, street art installations made of fresh-cut flowers. Miller repurposes flowers from events when he can to create pop-up street installations. These floral works of art are created under 30 minutes and typically made before dawn. Miller’s business focuses on flowers and fantasy, transforming key life moments in his client’s lives into magical, everlasting memories. The impetus for the Flower Flashes was to recreate just a sliver of that sentiment and offer it to everyday New Yorkers and the tourists that visit this great city.  His main vision and goal are to create an emotional response through flowers. To brighten and beautify someone’s day and to make them smile, the way one smiles when they witness a random act of kindness. Miller continues to flash New Yorkers with flowers and has flashed in Los Angeles, Miami, Charlottesville, and Nashville. His goal is to continue this work and bring joy and surprise to urban neighborhoods and their city dwellers! To date, Lewis has created over 100 Flower Flashes for New York City.

Miller was featured in Phaidon’s recently published book titled Blooms and The Rose Book, which features the most innovative and contemporary floral artists around the world.

“…A MODERN-DAY SLIM AARONS” — Town & Country

Nick Mele is a lifestyle, fashion and fine art photographer known for his whimsical take on American luxury and elegance. Nick’s passion lies in his love for fabulous interiors and the people who inhabit those spaces. His images have been said to evoke feelings of both old-world glamour and modern irreverence.

Over the last 10 years, Mele has become known for spinning tales of surreal characters in dreamlike domestic spaces. Documenting a lifestyle at once familiar yet fantastic, his imagery feels like a fanciful peek into life in the country’s most luxurious resort towns. As viewers, we are offered a glimpse into a world, sometimes real and sometimes imagined, that is normally inaccessible to the public eye.

Nick Mele (b. 1982, Southampton, NY) received his BA and MBA from Georgetown University and is an alumnus of the International Center of Photography in New York. He began his career working under famed society photographer Patrick McMullan, before developing his own trademark style and body of work.

Like many current artists creating today, Mele has demurred from the traditional gallery route. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at some of the nation’s most exclusive private clubs, hotels and retail outlets; most notably being his recent takeover of the entire 7th floor of Bergdorf Goodman in New York. Mele’s photographs have been featured in a myriad of online and print publications including Town & Country, The New York Times, Avenue, Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Vogue and Vanity Fair. His commercial clients include brands such as Vineyard Vines, Sam Edelman, J.McLaughlin and Lilly Pulitzer, as well as several high end hotels and interior designers. Mele’s first book, A Newport Summer, was published in May 2022 by Vendome Press. It was followed not long after by Palm Beach Living in February 2023 by Vendome Press.

Society Social is a modern lifestyle brand with a fresh take on timeless design. Founded by Roxy Owens in 2011, the brand expertly blends traditional craftsmanship with customizable, vibrant furniture and decor for the decorating enthusiast and modern traditionalist.

Raised in Hickory, North Carolina—the heart of American furniture making—Roxy was surrounded by design from an early age. Her path led from the halls of High Point Market to NYC’s Parsons School of Design, where she learned from seasoned retail and design veterans. She later refined her expertise in corporate retail, managing product assortments across 300 stores. Inspired by her upbringing and a passion for high design at attainable prices, she launched Society Social, debuting colorful bar carts and custom upholstered pieces that quickly gained acclaim. Society Social’s playful aesthetic—think vivid hues, tassels, trims, and tailored options—has garnered attention from Vogue, Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Oprah, Town & Country, Harper’s Bazaar, Veranda, and more, earning Roxy accolades such as a “Pioneer of Modern Day Traditional Design.”

Today, you can find Society Social at www.shopsocietysocial.com, select high-end partners, and the rooms and suites at The Colony Hotel Palm Beach. Roxy has traded her NYC Soho showroom for a newly outfitted manufacturing facility in her hometown of Hickory, North Carolina where Society Social continues to design and craft custom, small-batch furniture.

A native of the Midwest, Sarah Wetenhall is a nomad by nature having lived in more than six cities during the first twenty years of her life. Her vagabond roots inspired a love of travel and developed storytelling skills that proved essential in molding this natural-born hotelier. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, she began her career in New York where she spent a decade-plus spearheading public relations efforts for major fashion houses including Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana and Hugo Boss. Her experience in the fashion industry honed her keen aesthetic acumen and a strong sensibility for the luxury market. She currently serves as a board member of the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Worth Avenue Association, the Children’s Museum of the East End, and the Women’s Committee of the Central Park Conservancy, as well as the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City. Sarah has also been recognized by Hotels Magazine as one of the top ten independent lifestyle operators in the world.

Steele Marcoux’s design education started during her childhood in Atlanta, where she spent many afternoons with her artist mother browsing through galleries, antiques stores, and fabric showrooms. After graduating from Williams College, where Steele studied art history and played on the varsity tennis team, she worked in Washington, DC as a reporter before returning to the south to pursue a Master of Arts in American history at the University of Alabama. She is a veteran of the shelter publishing industry, having served as editor of Coastal Living, Executive Editor and Style Director at Country Living, Design Editor at Southern Living and Coastal Living. She has been a freelance writer, editor and producer for brands such as Hamptons Cottages & Gardens, Flower Magazine, HGTV Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens. Steele serves on the board of directors for the Alabama School of Fine Arts. She lives in Birmingham, AL, where she enjoys cooking for her family, volunteering at her sons’ schools, playing tennis and golf, walking her dogs, and taking her sons to browse through galleries, antiques stores, and fabric showrooms.