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.
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/715647
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF FASHION SHOW (EXTERIOR, DENIM BAR, NEIMAN MARCUS); BY BRYAN STEFFY/ GETTY IMAGES FOR FASHION SHOW/GRAND CANAL SHOPPES SUPER SATURDAY VEGAS-STYLE Time flies! Fashion Show's entrance looks distinctly different from its 1981 opening— including this massive "flying saucer" landmark, added in 2003. FASHION FORWARD THE 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF FASHION SHOW MALL CELEBRATES THE LARGEST SHOPPING DESTINATION ON THE STRIP, AND EARLY DAYS THAT WERE STRICTLY "ONLY IN VEGAS." BY LAURA JANELLE DOWNEY Since its opening in 1981, both locals and tourists have flocked to Fashion Show, which brought five top department stores under one roof for the first time in the city and opened as only a Vegas institution can. Terri Monsour, now senior VP of corporate retail for Caesars Entertainment, helped open Neiman Marcus as an assistant public relations associate in 1980. "In those days, the only luxury shop- ping was Joseph Magnin, next to the Desert Inn. Our population wasn't even half a million, and along came Fashion Show and blew everyone away!" she recalls. It was the heyday of Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Anne Klein, and Escada, she describes, and well-heeled locals regarded it as a retail sanctuary. "Gloria Fine modeled hats at the opening on Valentine's Day, 1981," Monsour recollects. "And Stanley Marcus came to the opening, where [legendary publicist] KJ Howe mooned the governor!" she laughs. A bull imported from Dallas (Neiman Marcus headquar- ters) named Red River—for whom a men's denim bar was named—greeted new shoppers from a pen at the store's entrance. And, these being 66 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM STYLE MILESTONE