Fashion and entertainment have always gone hand-in-hand, but there seems to be a growing discrepancy between what is widely considered fashionable on television, in magazine ads, in music videos and on celebrity red carpets and that which is commonly acceptable to meet the typical dress-code standards for men at most major Las Vegas nightclubs. With mainstream fashion trends that feature designer T-shirts costing upwards of $150, a variety of similarly priced accessories and brightly colored vintage-style sneakers costing easily in the $300 range, many locals and visitors alike can often find themselves confused by the range of acceptable dress codes that are enforced when they show up to the door. And even more so when they watch red-carpet footage of celebrities walking into venues wearing absolutely everything they themselves wouldn’t be allowed to. Clearly, it can be a scary and confusing world when it comes to getting ready for a night out!
But it doesn’t have to be that way if you just realize that there are surefire ways to break the dress code—if that’s what you wish to do—and still get in.
VIPs—the original code-breakers
A group of very stylishly dressed men was recently overheard in an elevator, passionately irate over the fact that they were just rejected at the door of one of our newest megaclubs after waiting in line for well over an hour. “I’m wearing $350 vintage sneakers. There are only 10 of these in the world, and I managed to get a pair. But then [the club’s doormen] reject us, and then they let in a group of guys right in front of us who were wearing $15 buy-one-get-one-free loafers from Payless? Come on. If that’s what they want in their club, I don’t want to be inside anyway!”
Unfortunately, the overall confusion and gap between the classes (celebs and everyone else) gets even deeper. Celebrities—the truest trendsetters for all things entertainment and fashion—are almost always admitted to nightclubs wearing whatever they want to. T-shirts, hats, sneakers and torn jeans are not only all perfectly acceptable but are also often preferred amongst the A-list clientele, high-profile table customers, VIP clients and Las Vegas nightlife-industry members.
It would be wise to take note here that women are largely released from these rules. Ladies, historically more attuned to fashion trends and appearance on the whole than men, are generally admitted in whatever sexy ensemble they don. On rare occasions, women—those who were perhaps unprepared to head out to the clubs for the night—will be denied entry for excessively baggy clothing or athletic gear and inappropriate footwear such as gym sneakers. While it’s true that breasts do overcome most fashion transgressions, there is little that can be done to redeem a fanny pack, visor and white-on-white Reeboks.
So, gentlemen, why is it that some Las Vegas clubs will let you in wearing one kind of shirt, while others would simply turn you away at the door in a fit of smirky laughter? Why is one person able to wear the sportiest of sports shoes, and another wouldn’t stand a chance under the best of circumstances? Empire Ballroom managing partner and Vegas Alliance founder Gino LoPinto offers his take on the matter: “Yes, there is a bit of a gap with what fashionable trends are allowed into the clubs, but it really comes down to more of a personality code. This means that if you know somebody, or, more importantly, if you are somebody, that you will get into a club wearing something that the unknown tourist couldn’t get in wearing. But hey, this town was built on juice.”
There is a reason for everything
By and large, love them or hate them, dress codes actually do serve a very necessary purpose. “They keep out the riffraff,” Gino explains, “and they encourage a higher, more upscale clientele.” When it comes to certain aspects of the standard nightclub dress code, there are also a number of safety issues being addressed. Customers let into a crowded area wearing baggy clothing or athletic gear could easily be smuggling in or out weapons, bottles of alcohol, contraband or even explosives.
As one of the crew of nightclub operators who has been in the Las Vegas nightclub business well before Vegas nightlife’s post-9/11 mega-boom, LoPinto further explains that, if anything, “dress codes have only gotten stricter.” Furthermore, it is palpably obvious that in a tourist-based nightclub market, clubs are forced to provide at least something of a cookie-cutter dress code that makes sense to visitors from far and wide well before they plan their Vegas entertainment itinerary.
A growing movement for change
Safety and customer-base concerns aside, the fashion-stifling collared-shirt requirement that most clubs include in their general dress code has plenty of people (both sexes) irritated by what they see as an antiquated set of rules enforced by doormen who are forgetting why dress codes were put into effect in the first place—to keep the right crowd inside.
As Miami’s renowned Opium Group moves into Planet Hollywood Las Vegas next month with their newest venues Privé and the Living Room, they hope to shake up the scene by encouraging people to dress against the norm. Managing partner Justin Levine runs his doors with an iron fist (blinged-out, of course), preferring to open the ropes to a trendy couple or even a few well-dressed men in fashionably chic attire over a pack of typically club-dressed men, the ones wearing the office Uniform: collared shirt, slacks, work loafers. If you make it into one of his clubs, “you’re in there because you belong there,” he explains. Expect fashion-forward, European-style (specifically southern France) nightlife at Privé and the Living Room.
Opium Group Las Vegas’s VIP service manager Todd Rubin takes it one step further. “There’s all these rules. ‘You can do this, you can’t do that.’ It’s about having a good time. It’s about dancing on the furniture. It’s about spraying champagne. If you don’t feel like you’re on another planet then we’re not doing our jobs.” While, by default, most Las Vegas nightclubs operate under a similar mantra, it is pleasantly refreshing to hear that the newer operators coming into town are absolutely hell-bent on showing people an amazing time.
Interestingly enough, it isn’t just the new nightclubs and trendsetting celebrities who are helping to provide additional diversity and options for what is acceptable attire; it’s also the event promoters who are changing how the existing nightclubs are operating. M.A.D.a.M. (Music Artist Development and Management) boldly modifies the tone of some of our more popular nightclubs on a weekly basis through their weekly fashion-forward events, events that allow even the nightclub staff themselves to let their hair down and dress the way that they want to, if only for a single night.
Ducky Slaughter of M.A.D.a.M. proudly explains, “Tao is definitely on the forefront of taking note of the major changes going on in the fashion world, and have been very accepting of what we do with our weekly Vinyl Wednesdays. They open their arms to the people who are used to nightclubs in New York and LA that have already adopted an updated, more stylish dress code.”
Safety at the door comes with awareness
It is highly unlikely that the baseline dress-code standards and preferences of the major nightclubs in Las Vegas will alter too drastically any time soon, and it is absolutely anyone’s guess what trend will come about in the near future, challenging today’s tastemakers to rethink what they find acceptable within their club. For now, you should stay aware, work within the rules but bend them where you can, and, most importantly, have a good time doing so.
Jack Colton is a contributing writer for Las Vegas Weekly, and also operates the nightlife website www.jackcolton.com. Xania Woodman is the Weekly’s nightlife editor.