THE ADVANCE LOOK AT THE NEW $40 MILLION-PLUS CHRISTIAN AUDIGIER NIGHTCLUB
It’s being called the most fashionable nightlife venue to ever style Las Vegas, and tonight (THURS) famed fashion designer Christian Audigier holds the “soft” opening of his new club. Talk about the ultimate in luxurious opulence and decadence!
Tomorrow (Fri) actor comedian and MTV personality Nick Cannon will DJ and bring his own celebrity pals to add to Christian’s contingent. He commented: “Quite simply it feels amazing. I feel like I can do anything and this is just another facet of who I am. I have so much to offer this world from what to wear to how to relax, party and enjoy life. This will be an extension of how I do it and everyone will be able to do it with me. Let’s party.”
Audigier is the fashion industry’s creative genius behind such best-selling lines as Ed Hardy, Crystal Rock and his own rock’n’roll glam-inspire Christian Audigier line. He’s even got his own wines and champagne!
I checked on all the rumors of Audigier working with pop-king Michael Jackson on a new clothing line but if anybody there knows anything about it they are completely ‘mum’ on the subject’ saying they know nothing about it. They did confirm they’d heard rumors that Christian might bring Michael with him for the opening, but they point out “they are only rumors.”
Here’s our exclusive Luxe Life interview with Club A’s general manager and partner, Jason Cooper:
RL: What is the concept of Audigier, and a name that’s a little difficult to pronounce?
JC: Christian Audgier the nightclub is the entire name and our expectation is that how Body English became BE over time, this will gradually be shortened into either CA or club Audigier. It’s the first Pure Management nightclub to have stripper poles. We had the dance boxes at Tangerine. Girls love to get up and dance, and we wanted to create an environment where we could do the same thing. The theme is going to be Audigier fashion, lifestyle, tattoo work, the skulls, roses, the velvet crush drapes, the black glass chandeliers, the faux croc leather boots, a lot of glass and reflection. We have intricate mirrors in here too. It is a rock and roll nightclub.
RL: When did it change over from Miami Inc to Club A?
JC: Miami Ink was out months and months ago. We were trying to do it in the original design, but it didn’t come together. We couldn’t reach an agreeable compromise between the two groups and we had gutted Tangerine at that point. We had an initial design, which was towards the theme; it would be the fashion, tattoo lifestyle, rock and roll. The original thought and design went perfectly with what it ended up becoming with Christian. It wont be rock themed, but it will have an alternative feel than the standard club format. We have two different music formats playing. The inside will be a combination of hip-hop, top 20, mash up, standard dance music to keep high energy. The patio will be eclectic style specializing on rock mash ups. World house music, old school hip-hop and things that are not typically played in a nightclub.
RL: How do you differentiate this from Pure and LAX and how do you avoid plundering from one of the other nightclubs?
JC: I think this far north on the Strip, Tangerine always captured a unique market, we are surrounded, especially now with the opening of Palazzo, by three, four major hotels. The Wynn feeds directly into this hotel, the Fashion Show, new Palazzo tower, the Mirage and the Venetian. You could not be surrounded by better hotels with great clientele in them at all times, so naturally, they will visit Tryst, and Jet, and Tao. They will spend one night in our venue.
RL: Just how hot is Audigier?
JC: He is the leading fashion designer or gurus in fashion right now. I think between his different brands he will create, Audigier is a name that will be in fashion for many years to come. It goes beyond Ed Hardy, and it is his name Audigier. His work will be evident from the materials and textures used inside the club to the artwork on the walls, to handcrafted champagne buckets, head to toe uniforms for the staff, custom pieces sewn on the drapes. Things not seen anywhere else before tonight. (THURS) We will also have the Audigier boutique out in the casino, not in the club. It is where the watch shop was, next to the Mist ultra-lounge. It will carry all his Audigier lines and including a new Audigier Nightclub line, created exclusively for here, genuine CA club wear. He’s been really excited and involved in having a nightclub, and he likes to party.
RL: How often does he say that he will be here?
JC: For the first six months I expect to see him at least every other weekend. He spends a lot of time in Vegas already for fashion for conventions etc. He has been a regular throughout our venues. He brings the highest clientele and friends with him when he comes.
RL: What are your favorite three places around the club.
JC: The jellyfish tanks. We have two tanks that have between 60 and 100 jellyfish. It is going to be a real center of attention. It is always changing and because they are translucent we have the ability to light it in a million different ways. No one has done that before. We moved them over from The Mirage check in area when they changed that backdrop recently. They have come from next door. They are going from one tank to another. We have a full time jelly man employed over here to look after them. The second is the ultra VIP section; this is the area where the celebrity clientele and high-end clients will be sitting on black-crocodile embossed leather banquettes beneath the vibrant red-velvet tufted walls. The VIP area is segregated from the club and will be enclosed with a floor to ceiling cable, it will look exclusive. You can see into the section, but it is private. You can see the small skulls on the rose-encrusted mirrors and the amazing black glass chandeliers will be a conversation piece. The third is the VIP on the patio. We extended that patio much further onto the Strip and the bridge for the Siren show. The seating now is the best. There is a DJ booth in the middle of the dance floor. The dance floor is the same as the previous dance floor but it is an optical illusion that makes it look smaller and more intimate. We have created wide-open sections so that you can dance on the furniture, and all around where you sit there will be a lot of energy throughout the club. Physically the bar is almost identical in size even if it looks shorter to you with its black pebble stone and red mirror bar top. We just moved some equipment.
RL: So the changes here did they come about from learning things from Tangerine or the way the industry has changed or you are predicting the way the industry is changing.
JC: This will be our fourth major project in the states. We took things that we liked at all the clubs and duplicated them here. These durable leather couches have added to the energy at LAX, so that’s what we did here. We also created areas that feel more intimate. As the town, the industry, and nightclubs change, people are opening mega clubs and they are getting tougher and tougher to fill and here we can be selective in whom we let in. We are under 10,000. We can be exclusive and have a high-energy party without dead spots in the club and rooms. We should have from the front door out to the patio one consistent party of people.