Las Vegas makes its mark with glamorous style

"Style is the perfection of a point of view." Richard Eberhart (1904-2005), American poet, "Meditation Two"

Hollywood, Bollywood and Dollywood. How confusing. However, Las Vegas is fast becoming Hollywood East, or L.A. East or however you wish to express it. Let’s face it, we’re becoming some version of Hollywood — even down to the traffic, house prices and style.

The young, hip, Hollywood set flocks here for our hotels and casinos that cater to them and the easy, breezy club culture. It hasn’t been that many years ago that clubbing meant joining the locals slot club and a fancy after-hours place wasn’t one that was particularly mainstream.

Now any casino hotel worth its salt has a club, where after 10 p.m. you can’t afford to go unless you have a trust fund.

Home prices are through the roof, sometimes to the point of excluding locals from buying. Gaming isn’t the only draw as it once was; now we have world-class shopping and dining — and that attracts yet another moneyed crowd.

When the glitzy, glamour-crazed California folks visit long enough, they soon realize the benefits of living in one of the greatest cities on Earth — and they want to move here and bring their lifestyle and style with them.

Las Vegas is just now enjoying a renaissance as far as design and style go. When I first landed in Las Vegas in the early ’80s, the design style wasn’t quite Southwestern, but a combination of that plus a Western, country style that didn’t have a lot of pizzazz. Now, don’t get me wrong, there was nothing particularly wrong with our style back then, but it didn’t have the punch it does today.

Style is definitely personal, and the influx of Californians, along with 5,000 or 6,000 others who arrive here each month, brings with it a more sophisticated design style. This is not meant to put any longtime, local style mavens down, it’s just a fact. "The times they are a-changin."

So, exactly where are we today in the style department? For my money, Las Vegas can compete with any city, here in the United States or abroad, in the interior design world. There is definitely talent here; over the past 20 years, design experts from all over the globe have discovered Las Vegas and have chosen to either make it their home or at least leave their stamp on other people’s homes.

We’ve grown up to fit into the global design world and it is evidenced in models, show houses and upscale homes around the valley. Not only are we importing talent, Las Vegas also is home to several design schools turning out talented local folks every semester.

The long and short of it is that Las Vegas "has arrived" on the design scene and shows no signs of wavering. Along with our many talented designers, the appearance of the World Market Center Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Design Center has changed our style and design outlook forever. It will only get better, and Las Vegas will never again be considered short on style.

In keeping with our more sophisticated look, you can check out these awesome new pieces from Excelsior Designs. With this look, we could be in Hollywood, or right here in home sweet home Vegas. It’s easy to get the look and the look is easy to be with. Glitz and glamour have found us and show no signs of going away.

Carolyn Muse Grant is a founder and past president of the Architectural & Decorative Arts Society, as well as an interior design consultant/stylist specializing in home staging. Her Inside Spaces column appears weekly in the Home section of the Review-Journal. Send questions to creativemuse@cox.net.