Crystals Brings Platinum Designers to Vegas

The hottest address for fashion in Vegas resides at CityCenter. Crystals, the 500,000-square-foot retail center, opened last December with some of the biggest and best in runway fashions. While some labels went for bigger digs, others landed with a Vegas address for the first time.

On the new side, look for the fashionable bookstore Assouline, lingerie designer Kiki De Montparnasse and fashion icons Carolina Herrera, Tom Ford, Lanvin, Marni and Miu Miu. Tiffany & Co., Prada, Roberto Cavalli and Ermenegildo Zegna call their new addresses flagships.

From a design standpoint, Crystals stuck to the environmental inspiration found throughout CityCenter. Studio Daniel Libeskind and David Rockwell conjured up an abstract 21st century park as the setting for this shopping extravaganza. Hanging gardens and flower carpets change with the seasons while the two-story Treehouse houses Mastro’s Ocean Club.

Academy Award nominee and designer extraordinaire Tom Ford opened his  first freestanding location on the West Coast at Crystals with a view facing The Strip. The 7,700-square-foot store features Ford’s menswear collection as well as ready to wear, footwear, accessories, eyewear, fragrances and beauty products. Ford, who designed womenswear for Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent and conjured sexy couture before creating his own line in 2005, is rumored to be toying with a women’s line as well.

Lanvin just opened its second U.S. location this spring. This couture house has become coveted by Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Aniston. Designer Alber Elbaz favors cocktails dresses, often in asymmetrical designs with cascades of volume and Duchesse satin. The creative mannequins are reason enough to window shop.

Marni, designed by Consuelo Castiglioni, favors upbeat, artsy looks. Look for innovative materials in its women’s, men’s and children’s collections, as well as shoes, handbags and eyewear. Bright colors and geographic designs make this line in a 2,500-square-foot store stand out.

Miu Miu, the kid sister to Prada, features fashions favored by the younger set, such as celebrities Kirsten Dunst and Kate Bosworth. Designer Miuccia Prada leans toward sexy silk dresses and mod prints in this quirky line. The Crystals store will carry ready-to-wear, bags, footwear, accessories and eyewear collections. The store, along with the Prada flagship store, opens later this year.

Roberto Cavalli’s largest store in the United States combines the looks of its boutiques in Paris and Dubai. Since Cavalli first opened in 1972, he’s been known for glamourous rock star looks in animal prints favored by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Jennifer Lopez. This, his seventh store in the United States, features women’s, men’s and children’s collections, accessories, fragrances and for the first time in the United States, the Cavalli pet line.

Kiki de Montparnasse designs intimate apparel for those with a romantic imagination. You can find loungewear and lingerie along with jewelry and bath and body lines at the boutique.

The Louis Vuitton flagship store is not only the largest in North America, but the fifth largest in the world. When designer Marc Jacobs jumped on board in 1997, he added a line of covetable clothing adored by Madonna and Rihanna. Be sure to see the store from Las Vegas Boulevard. The facade facing the Strip (another first for the store) turns into a dazzling light show at night thanks to 4,000 LEDs that cascade into different tags from the line’s infamous luggage and handbags.

Also along The Strip just steps away at Mandarin Oriental but still part of Crystals sits Carolina Herrera, which opened its fifth free-standing boutique. The 5,000-square-foot boutique finds comfort in macassar wood details with upholstered couches and club chairs in signature Herrera brown and ivory satin stripe. The store carries the Carolina Herrera New York collection, Carolina Herrera Bridal collection, sunglasses and fragrances as well as accessories by Judith Leiber, Nancy Gonzalez, Kotur, Manolo Blahnik and Faraone Mennella.

Assouline takes the fashions and puts them in book form. The 2,200-square-foot store features more than 25,000 volumes, a collection of rare vintage books and exclusive items such as gilt-edged leather notebooks. The store has the feel of a contemporary home library.

For more information on Crystals, visit www.crystalsatcitycenter.com.