Madewell's Alexa Chung Says 'No' Las Vegas Style

Mandalay Bay, Las VegasRefreshed 1-20-10, with Madewell’s appointment of Alexa Chung as design muse:

(Originally written 8-27-07 as New American Reality: Las Vegas Style 8-27-07, when Anne wrote only a weekly journal. She saw the Madewell store as a test concept in Las Vegas and loved it.) Prior writing on Alexa Chung at end of article. See entirely new article about Madewell and American retailing soon.

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Hello, dear friends. I’m behind schedule this week, writing you now from Las Vegas and the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Resort.  This new American city is diametrically opposed to life in Carversville and Bucks County. 

Mandalay Bay is a beautiful property, except for room service. Waiting over an hour for a pot of coffee, ordered at 5am LV time, is not my idea of great service. This morning I dressed at 6am and found coffee in the lobby.

New Reality

Five years ago, I was impacted by the dream-like nature of my Las Vegas experience. Visiting the Desert Passage Aladdin shops  so soon after a real life trip to Marrakech was disruptive, even to my creative mind. I was not hallucinating.

Trying to create an “authentic” experience for mall shoppers, the developer imported Arab men from Morocco or Tunisia to sit in the cafes all day. Watching their animated conversations, hands waving in enthusiastic self-expression, I often wonder what they thought of their uniquely American paid sabbaticals.

The Ultimate Vagabond Experience

Arriving in Vegas, I was prepared for artificial skies overhead, perfect clouds in carefully designed morning to evening colors, an occasional rain shower orchestrated in 500 sq. feet of ceiling — sorry sky — over a strategically designed bridge.

In a single afternoon I wandered though the Forum Shops at Caesar’s Las Vegas and strolled along the cobblestone walkways of The Venetian’s Grand Canal Shoppes.

Visitors to Las Vegas enjoy a new and improved Venetian experience, “authentic” gondola rides unsullited by the unsavory, August sea stench, commandeering the senses in the real Queen of the Adriatic, halfway around the world from Las Vegas.

Instant Entertainment

Today, as a design consultant, I can come to Vegas for people watching. The high-end crowd expects and receives every kind of luxury experience in Vegas. The city is now a high-end shopper’s paradise, and temperatures are escalating.

Attached to Mandalay Bay is The Four Seasons Hotel, where the Ty Warner Suite is never discounted from its $30,000 per night, period. The new $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas is the ultimate luxury indulgence.

The Best of the Best

Writers vie to create Best Lists to guide us in our Vegas experience. They all agree that today’s Vegas touches every luxury button in our mind’s eye. Nothing is left to the imagination or accidental life encounter.

In many respects, I think that Vegas symbolizes the confusion in our American culture. Vegas is great, but what is the essence of this city? Where is the soul?

Spirit Search

Chagrined over this landscape of manufactured experience, I set out on a deliberate quest to find brands, shops or experiences with genuine soul in Las Vegas.  

I expected them to be little brands. Mulling this idea of soul, I considered that perhaps we can balance this trend towards artificialty. Consumers are crying out for more Anthropologies, more personality and unique spirit, in our retail assortments.

After all, doesn’t an aging population search for soul? Don’t the numbers of New Yorkers arriving to live in Bucks County confirm this fact? My quest was a hot, long and ardulous one, not at all like wandering the streets of Paris, where creativity lies in every quiet corner. I did smile three times in the last two days.

Three Jewels

Vosges Haut-Chocolat

Voseges Chocolat BarYou probably consider lingerie in a chocolate store to be a distraction. But in fact, chocolate is a sensual aphrodisiac, and the small amount of clothing in the shop is dwarfed by the luscious, primitive-meets-Paris chocolates.

If you prefer Dunkin Donuts, you have every right to chastise me for falling in love with a shop selling designer chocolates at haute prices

For me, Vosges Haut-Chocolat is more than a store. Indeed, it’s a place, and a place with soul. The marketing message is clear in the chic, uncluttered but casually mixed interior: Choose your indulgence and stay awhile. I did.

Tao Las Vegas

This sibling of Tao New York took my soul hostage. It overwhelmed me in every way. Rose petals drifting in bathtubs, fronting the entrance to the restaurant returned me to an exquisitely memorable night in Marrakech. I walked three floors to the Persian carpet roof, with rose petals and votive candles at my ankles.

TAO Las VegasEach item in the small Tao shop felt significant, even the t-shirts. In fact, the entire Tao brand experience is larger than the celebrities who frequent it. In the case of Tao, big is very beautiful. Tao Las Vegas is the highest grossing restaurant in the U.S., its success coming under the watchful eye of a 20-foot golden Buddha, a figure not awed by Las Vegas or its luxury lifestyle. 

Madewell 1937

My Carversville friends will embrace the history of Madewell, a Bedford, Mass defunct brand bought by ex-Gap Guru Mickey Drexler. Madewell is the antithesis of celebrity branding. Simply stated, Madewell is made to last, ordinary clothes

Although part of J Crew, Madewell feels more like a decluttered Anthropologie. Props like an old sewing machine are part of the store décor. Shoppers delight in this highly-edited, anti-brand shopping experience.

You would never know it in Las Vegas, but an entirely different consumer mindset is coming. Large numbers of Americans will grow weary of the blatantly consumerist spend-spend-spend mentality in America.

Mickey Drexler taps into the American minds like no other merchant. Steve Jobs of Apple is his equal.

Ciao Las Vegas

Hardly satisfied, my retail soul is a tiny bit hopeful about our future, as I move to South Beach tomorrow night.

Client-time permitting, I’ll be searching for another heart breaker around Lincoln Road. If companies only understood that these shops — brands with earnest heart and not merely flash appeal — are the very best kind, and they’re in short supply today.

I’ve told my clients for two years now: big problems coming! This monopoly game cannot continue.

Love,
Anne

Mickey Drexler’s Madewell Hires Alexa Chung

Updated Jan 20 2010: Alexa Chung hired by MadewellCalling It ‘Practifashion’, London Times Confirms Smart Sensuality Fashion Trend

Update on Wed, September 8, 2010 by Anne

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