I spent 24 hours in Las Vegas over the President's Day holiday, staying at the Mandarin Oriental which may be the only hotel on the Strip that does not have a casino. Indeed, I was convinced that it is also the only establishment of its type that does not have a restaurant until the concierge told me that the dining room was closed Sundays and Mondays. In a hotel. Who would have guessed? Fortunately they still had room service.
I had not stayed at the Mandarin before but the MRket menswear show was in town as part of the Magic galaxy of somewhat related other shows that it travels with. MRket is not very large but the other shows must be as the rates at the Four Seasons were completely unaffordable unless one was a high roller from some tax advantaged place which California certainly is not (that said, I did manage to walk away from the tables $200 ahead, which almost covered the cost of transportation to and from the airports).
My business was done fairly quickly, and that gave me time to observe that Las Vegas, or Vegas! as it is apparently known, has one of the world's more interesting dress codes. A walk through any of the major casinos passes by hundreds of relatively attractive young women in heels and cocktail dresses and 99% of them seem to be escorted by males in sneakers and ratty pants with shirts worn untucked. It strikes me that the women must approve of this as all it takes to get the normal male to dress better is a simple "Wear some decent clothes or get a separate room tonight."
After all, life is so much better when one stays on her good side.
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3 comments:
Agreed. It's embarrassing (or ought to be) how sloppily so many men dress these days. All a guy needs to do is look at any Land's End, J. Crew, or L.L. Bean catalog, and he'll see how easy it is to put together a comfortable, relaxed look, which comes nowhere near a jacket and necktie, but still looks acceptable.
Best Regards,
Heinz-Ulrich von B.
It is an interesting sidelight on American society. The girls glam up in a place like Vegas or indeed other resort venues like Nawlins while the men generally look like slobs. Given that America is essentially a matriarchy how does one account for it. Mind you the menswear industry doesn't help. Take a look at the current edition of Esquire.
The casino in Melbourne Australia is no different. Except maybe in the "mahogany room". But I'm only guessing. The high rollers are probably in slippers.
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