Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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Cat's Meow CHANEL IS BETTING ON THE LION AS ITS NEXT GREAT ICON, AS SEEN IN ITS INFLUENTIAL NEW HIGH-JEWELRY COLLECTION, THE APTLY NAMED LEO, A MONIKER WITH ITS OWN LAS VEGAS HISTORY. BY LAURIE BROOKINS L as Vegas has spawned its fair share of legends since it rose out of the dust, but chief among them is the story of how a lion was tamed at MGM Grand. When the hotel opened in 1993, it was touted as a game changer on the Strip, with the distinction of being the largest hotel in the world (it has since moved into the number-two slot, with 6,852 rooms, while Moscow's Ismailovo Hotel earns top honors at 7,500 rooms). But MGM Grand possessed one design flaw, which also happened to be its most conspicuous feature: a massive golden lion, representing the iconic cat that for generations has roared at audiences at the start of every MGM film. As an homage, he was a glorious, gargantuan wonder, positioned sphinxlike at the hotel's entrance, and guests walked between his paws—and beneath his mouth— to enter. But 20 years ago, the developers of Las Vegas casinos didn't take into consideration something they now think about routinely: the reaction of their Chinese guests, who thought the imposing lion was both terrible feng shui and immense bad luck. Five years after MGM Grand opened, the owners changed the hotel's façade at great expense: Leo is still present, but in the form of a decidedly more innocuous bronze statue outside an otherwise simple entrance. Decades later, another iconic lion enters the luxury sector, this time in the high-jewelry collection from Chanel. The luxury market's worldview has changed immeasurably over the years, yet superstitions are stubborn— and the Chinese audience, with its appreciation of status products, has if anything grown to dominate global conversations. So when a lion's influence on a luxe category promises to alter the landscape of Las Vegas and beyond, it must naturally give one pause (no pun intended). Sous le Signe du Lion ("Under the Sign of the Lion") is the debut in question, a 58-piece high-jewelry collection launched this summer by the celebrated French house. As its name implies, the collection explores Coco Chanel's love of the big cat. Several designs take their inspiration from the abundant lion sculptures found throughout her famed apartment above her 31 Rue Cambon atelier. "She surrounded herself with this symbol, which was not an animal, a beast," says Benjamin Comar, international director of Chanel Fine Jewelry. "She looked at it as a source of protection." Fiercely independent and laser-focused in her quest to alter the fashion landscape, Coco Chanel was indeed thoroughly enamored of the lion and all it represented, for reasons both easily discernible and intensely guarded, concealed to all but her innermost circle—names like Picasso, Dalí, and Stravinsky. The resulting dichotomy—between her headstrong spirit and VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 131 130-133_V_Feat_Chanel_Dec13.indd 131 11/19/13 9:54 AM