Breaking Vegas Babies

Words: Lauren King
Photos: Vera Hong

The party point for Snoop and Steven Tyler, Las Vegas is permanently painted red. Enlivened by eclectic people joining over common slur, Sin City serves a 24/7 brew of unsurpassable experience laced with promiscuity – constantly asking: ‘truth or dare’?

‘The question is; will Vegas survive?’ Muttered a mix of mates upon news of my gig in the City of Lights. No denying it, I’m a wild child – a renowned one at that. Most were expecting a shot-gun ’I Do’ and impending divorce, others didn’t doubt the capacity to wind up MIA. Rather, baffled and bemused, my time was spent balancing upright upon a tantalizing torrent of experience, constantly wondering if the little girl in the sparkly shoes was right.

This is why Las Vegas is unlike any city on Earth. It ridicules your comfort zone, stands you face to face with stark opportunity, strokes desires, fantasies and sexual connotations you never knew existed, and sheds colour and life on your skin.

No longer a destination dedicated to slots and silicone, the world’s entertainment capital has evolved on a visionary quest to manifest a palpable environment where dreams come true. The man with his foot on the pedal is Sir Steve Wynn – the switchboard marking Vegas the brightest landmark from space. The billionaire added glamour to gambling in the 1980s with the development of Las Vegas’ fist luxury hotel – The Mirage – the beginning of a sophisticated shift for the strip.“I’ve gotten too much credit for that really. If you look at Las Vegas in the 1980s, there hadn’t been anything new built since 1973. And so the city was in a time warp and has so often been the case, in the valley of the blind, the one eyed man is king,” Steve Wynn told 60 minutes. And a Kingdom he begun – white tigers, active volcano and all.

Fast forward 20 years and The Mirage (now owned by MGM Grand) is the mere beginning of a posse of palaces for well-heeled adults. These days, deluxe rooms, acclaimed chefs and quintessential night spots are run-of-the-mill. A ‘boutique’ hotel in Vegas is akin to Australia’s largest most lavish sort, when aligned with The Palms, Justin Hemms’ playground provides as much purpose for promiscuity as the local church, and ‘nightlife’ has become so passé in Sin City, ‘daylife’ now bats its eyes at inhibitions. With this in mind, had it been afternoon, perhaps I would of accepted the request of Annabelle – the polite and perfectly rounded inductor of the lap dance – to get cosy behind the red drape of her private sector?

No, a general night-out doesn’t usually result in denial laced with self-doubt toward another woman, but Vegas audaciously invoked it.

“The opportunity Las Vegas presents is what pushes people to live outside their regular boundaries. The fact that it’s OK to walk on the street in the morning with a cocktail in your hand, and exit a night-club at 6am in a cocktail dress is what fuels the stigma ‘what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’ – there truly is no other place like this on Earth, it’s like Disney Land for adults,” says Publicist for Cirque du Soleil; Erin Burcham.

Built to stir the suppressed with almost-fictional props and plots, Sin City lures imagination and aspiration out to play. A smart motive by the wheelers and dealers of Las Vegas – caterers to characteristics built on self-indulgence; a universal tendency unable to resist the gratification of whims and desires including Fantasy Suites, pitches of Mai Tai and fevered entertainment.

Studded with more celebrity bad-boys than Paris Hilton’s little-black-book, The Palms boasts a diverse mix of award-winning bars and restaurants – not to mention a jingling 95,000 square-foot casino. Within this complex stands the Fantasy Tower; an entertainment mecca host to the first Playboyâ Club to open in more than 20 years – the revival of a cult that defined an era.

Enter via a glass-escalator before bounding between the ultra-lounge and gaming venue – authenticity frolicking in iconic Playboy bunnies decked in both vintage and updated Roberto Cavalli costume designs. Deeper debauchery sprawls upstairs in a foray of Fantasy Suites. The Erotic Suite has one thing on the agenda with a round-rotating bed, mirrored ceiling and signature Show ShowerÔ, while the Hardwood Suite entices bounce of a different kind with an indoor half-basketball court – the only one of its kind in the world.

Serving satiation to those living life so high stimulation touches them few place else, Las Vegas is like the Karl Lagerfeld of design for adult-entertainment. Drawing on a fetish to feel good, the city constantly evolves the pinnacle of pleasure – with the poolside most recently elected for revolution.

Instigated by the Hard Rock Hotel’s ‘Rehab’ – the Beach Club Pool party narrating a tru.TV series - the beautiful, tattooed, rich, local, famous, large and small know nothing spells party like pool-time. As Rehab on Sunday grew as the hottest place to see and get seen, surrounding hotels quickly followed suit with their own water-haven for hedonists – each launch unveiling a new level of sheer excess. The MGM Grand’s WET REPUBLIC features two spectacular saltwater pools measuring 2,500 and 3,500 square feet respectively, whilst six cascading waterfalls accent the vast poolscape in the illusion of a never ending flow of cool, blue indulgence. A 4,100 square-foot sundeck serves up hot entertainers at off-the-hook events – an elevated custom DJ booth often spinning the sounds of Deadmau5, Roger Sanchez and Kaskade among others. With the latter caliber of turntable giants churning tunes till the sun-goes down, it’s a wonder revelers delve beneath the surface (for whatever reason) in fear of missing snippets of a stellar set – the MGM Grand have it covered with state-of-the-art underwater speakers to keep the beats belting in every square inch of what some may consider heaven.

Within Las Vegas’ Five Diamond Award winning hotel; The Venetian, expands TAO – the highest grossing independent restaurant in the USA where Chilean sea bass competes with Jamie Foxx for attention. With colossal clientele to sustain, the trademark has introduced its own beach club – home of the $1,000 minimum poolside cabana loaded with refreshments and decked with high-definition plasma screen televisions and Xbox gaming consoles. Pre-programmed iPods are available – distributed by staff unidentifiable alongside patrons; Heidi Klum and Karolina Kurkova. Expect to pay anywhere between $300 and $5000 for bottle service – a cultural option for clubbers eager to stamp their night-out with a fifth star.

“For $5000 dollars you will be assigned a table on the dance floor on a busy weekend or a Dom Pérignon Mathusalem (the equivalent of eight bottles of champagne),” co-owner of the TAO nightclub component; Noah Teppeberg, told the New York Times. “We sell stratification, but we have an entry point for everyone – from retirees to 21 year olds who have saved up to blow it out on their first trip to Vegas,” Mr.Tepperberg continued.

Beneath the celebrity-clad marketing, gluttony and gloat, this is the beauty of Las Vegas – from the lost Elvis impersonator to loaded A&R crew, Vegas platters-up a plethora of possibilities for pursual of the simplest to most sophisticated of dreams – a concept relevant to everything from fun to fashion.

Factory Outlet stores are huge in Las Vegas and offer savings of up to 65% in some locations. From home décor and shoes to corporate and cocktail attire, over 100 high-end stores including Armani, Paul Smith, Coach, Dolce Gabbana and Ralph Lauren fill an outdoor complex luring the exchange of  green bills for new-season stock. Hotel of choice to The Hangover boys, Ceasers Palace flaunts 62,700 square meters of retail space in The Forum. For those who can relate to the Oscar Wilde quote; ‘I have the simplest of tastes, I only like the best,’ prepare to be accommodated. Do as Roman’s do and stroll European streets lined with over 120 world-class merchants including Gucci, Hugo Boss, Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton – corners of luxury working alongside fountain shows and a 50,000-gallon saltwater aquarium to manifest the ultimate retail experience. You will be forgiven for losing track of time as The Forum sky dances from dawn to dusk in an hour – further inducing Las Vegas visitors into a world where time is of no essence.

Despite a bottom line enthusiastic for over-consumption and carelessness, even Sin City is, right now, ditching kitsch for contemporary in a move toward a sustainable future. Although promising to retain the ‘excitement’ of Las Vegas, a new community titled CityCentre represents fresh ethos as one of the world’s largest green developments. “CityCentre bridges the vitality of Las Vegas with the experiences travelers seek when they visit great cities around the world – spectacular architecture, culturally significant art, great public spaces, sophisticated hotels, unique restaurants and incredible amenities,” said Bobby Baldwin, president and CEO, CityCentre. “It is an evolutionary destination that aims to transform Las Vegas as a new symbol at its core, like the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Pompidou in Paris or the SONY centre in Berlin. The international, architectural achievement integrates the talents of world-renowned artists, architects and designers in one development – a landmark of global taste and style – evident no more so than in Crystals; the 500,000 square foot retail and entertainment district.Flagship stores flourish in capacities unique to Las Vegas – Prada, Christian Dior and Hermes will join Louis Vuitton, Ermenegildo Zegna and Mikimoto in the ultimate temptation to American Express cards. Unique-to-the-market retailers opening their first locations in Vegas include Tom Ford, Porsche Design, Miu Miu and Paul Smith – a luxurious style menu neighboring the consumable type from restaurants including Eva Longoria Parker’s; Beso and Mastro’s; Ocean Club. In keeping with the avant garde benchmark of dresses and dining, CityCentre hotel; ARIA will feature the USA’s most technologically advanced guestrooms. Extra-terrestrial like gimmicks include rooms that ‘greet’ guests upon entry – lights fill the room, curtains part to reveal the view and the TV springs alive with a display of automated controls ready for personalization. Once tailored to specific tastes, preferences are recalled at every entry – wake up gradually through controlled temperature, appropriate lighting and choice tunes, all with the tap of a remote.

As Las Vegas evolves into somewhat cleaner territory, will sin become secondary to sophistication? Not likely. The face of Vegas is growing-up with aid from the world’s most contemporary architects, but it is those who transit that have built the character within. Evident no more so than in the face Sin City’s elaborate clientele, cosmetic-surgery doesn’t dull the devil inside – the inner-child constantly fidgets, human desire will always burn  and journeys are built from dreams – Las Vegas will live-on as the destination to play, indulge and grant your wish, because where there is life, there is hope.

Writer and Photographer were sent using Hawaiian Airways and put up at the Luxor.

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