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WY
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SPRING/SUMMER 2016
STEVE WYNN
FROM DEVELOPING
HOTELS TO SETTING AN
URBAN STANDARD
ENDLESSLY LUXE JEWELS
AND THE SEASON’S MOST
GLAMOROUS FASHIONS
GONE FISHINGHOW AN ANCIENT WAY
OF LIFE FOUND ITS WAY
TO THE TABLE AT LAKESIDE
THE FORUM SHOPS AT CAESARS
DA
VID
YU
RM
AN
.CO
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70
2 7
94
45
45
OYSTER PERPETUAL SUBMARINER DATE
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F O U N D I N G M E M B E R O F T H E Q U A L I T Y F L E U R I E R C E R T I F I C AT I O N
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TODAY THIS PIONEERING SPIRIT INSPIRES US TO
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I N F U S E D W I T H N O U R I S H I N G A R G A N O I L
ROSIE HUNTINGTON-WHITELEY
O N E B R A N D: A WO R L D O F O I L - I N FU S E D B E AU T Y
PARIS ◇ ST. MORITZ ◇ HONG KONG
MACAU ◇ SANYA
fabiocaviglia.com
18
ph
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features 28 master plan
In the process of building
luxury hotels around
the world, Steve Wynn
created a powerful brand
that now holds sway in
urban planning.
By Andrea Bennett
34 hana calling
The search for the right
fish to serve in Lakeside
at Wynn results in an
unshakable bond between
a chef and a fishing family
in Maui—and a journey
to the unspoiled paradise
that yields its bounty.
By Andrea Bennett
44 made in italy
More than just words on a
label, it’s a way of life—and
a law—whose cachet is
rooted in uncompromising
Florentine craftsmanship.
By Reid Bramblett
54 fragile beauty
When a quartet of famous
Chinese porcelain pieces—
known as the Buccleuch
vases—reaches its new
home in Wynn Palace,
it will have completed a
journey spanning more
than two centuries and
thousands of miles.
By Andrea Bennett
74 Spring’s most
elegant jewels
bloom against
handmade
chinoiserie papers.
18k white-gold, 5.7 carat, 256 brilliant-cut diamond,
and 173.9 carat black- diamond bead Nuit de
Diamants necklace and 18k white-gold, 28.9 carat, 992 brilliant-cut diamond,
and 2.6 carat, 538 brilliant-cut black spinel Ruban de Camélia brooch by Chanel
Fine Jewelry (price on request). Chanel, Encore,
702-770-5468
spring/summer 2016
Diamond Collection
©C
art
ier
Wynn Las Vegas (702) 696-0146The Shops at Crystals (702) 487-3160 The Forum Shops at Caesars (702) 418-3904
www.cartier.us
20
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62 lounge acts
The high-wattage glam
of spring fashion takes
its cue from slinky ’70s
silhouettes and fabrics.
Photography by
Bonnie Holland
74 precious blooms
Spring’s most fabulous
jewels come to life on
a backdrop of elegant
chinoiserie to suit
the season.
Photography by
Jeff Crawford
62 Retro-cool 1970s-
inspired glamour
takes center stage
in spring fashion.
spring/summer 2016
H A P P Y S P O R T
Discover the Wor ld of Chopard:
Wynn Las Vegas • 702.862.4522
Explore the col lect ion at us.chopard.com
22
Ph
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(c
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(b
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)
ON THE COVER Barbara Kraft captures the
tranquil beauty of the laguna at Costa di Mare.
86 The Fleur
chocolate cake
at Jardin.
80 red hot
The lively redesign of Mizumi,
the Japanese restaurant at
Wynn Macau, summons
both serenity and fun.
By Gabriel Cohen
82 wynn news
Wynn exclusives from
Moncler, Veneziani, Dior,
Versace, and Jude Frances.
Plus: the new Encore
Players Club, and Wynn’s
sports-wagering app.
86 garden party
The bright, fresh new
décor and dishes in Jardin
transform the restaurant into
a light-filled centerpiece for
Wynn’s colorful gardens.
By Larry Olmsted
90 of the essence In Enzo Febbraro’s kitchen
at Allegro, some of the
simplest, most impeccably
sourced ingredients come
together in the restaurant’s
greatest showpieces.
By Andrea Bennett
94 haven sent
At The Spas at Wynn and
Encore, it’s a man’s world, too.
By Michael Shulman
96 wynn moment
34 Yesterday’s catch
can be today’s
dinner at Lakeside.
94 Where the men
are: the spa.
The treatments to
try right now.
spring/summer 2016
MIK
IMOTO.CO
M
Wynn magazine is published by GreenGale Publishing, LLC. The entire content is copyright
of GreenGale Publishing, LLC. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the
express written permission of the publisher. Wynn magazine does not assume liability
for products or services advertised herein. Wynn magazine is a registered trademark.
Chief Editorial and Creative Officer Mandi Norwood
Vice President of Creative and Fashion Ann Y. Song
Creative Director Nicole A. Wolfson Nadboy
Senior Managing Editor Karen Rose
Art Director Allison Fleming
Photo Director Lisa Rosenthal Bader
Photo Editor Marie Barbier
Senior Fashion Editor Faye Power
Associate Fashion Editor Casey Trudeau
Assistant Fashion Editors Connor Childers, Lisa Ferrandino
Copy Editors David Fairhurst, Julia Steiner
Senior Digital Imaging Specialist Jeffrey Spitery
Digital Imaging Specialist Jeremy Deveraturda
Advertising Sales
Susan Abrams, Irena Hall, Debra Halpert, Alison Miller,
Jennifer Palmer, Maureen Schafer, Dan Uslan
Sales Assistant Rue McBride
Director of Production Paul Huntsberry
Positioning and Planning Manager Tara McCrillis
Production Artist Marissa Maheras
Traffic Supervisor Estee Wright
Traffic Coordinators Jeanne Gleeson, Mallorie Sommers
ANDREA BENNETTEditor-in-Chief
MAUREEN SCHAFERPublisher
Wynn Editorial Advisory Board Maurice Wooden, Michael Weaver
Wynn Resorts Liaisons Nehme Abouzeid, Aga Abram,
Deanna Pettit-Irestone, Hedy Woodrow
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Managing Partner Jane Gale
Chairman and Director of Photography Jeff Gale
Chief Operating Officer maria Blondeaux
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer John P. Kushnir
Chief Executive Officer Katherine Nicholls
Multishape diamond graduated
necklace with 39.19 carats of
diamonds (price upon request),
Graff Diamonds. Graff, Wynn,
702-770-3494
Gabriel Cohen
The writer of our Macau
Spotlight story on the
recent redesign of Mizumi
at Wynn Macau, Gabriel
Cohen is the author of five
novels and a nonfiction
book. He has written
articles and essays for The
New York Times, the New
York Post’s Page Six
Magazine, Time Out New
York, Gourmet.com, and
other publications. For
the Mizumi story, Cohen
interviewed Roger
Thomas, Executive Vice
President of Design for
Wynn Design and
Development. Says Cohen,
“Interviewing Roger
Thomas is an easy
assignment because his
enthusiasm for interior
design is so palpable and
articulately expressed. It’s
impressive to witness how
that passion extends to
every single element,
whether walls or chairs or
dinnerware, and how those
choices are all guided by
an overriding vision of the
space. I also appreciate the
alchemy of how so many
rich historical and cultural
influences are incorporated
into—and transmuted
through—the design.”
erin KunKel
Erin Kunkel, who shot
our feature on the fishing
family behind Lakeside’s
Hawaiian fish program,
is an award-winning
photographer who works
around the world and
calls the foggy outer-
lands of San Francisco
home. When she’s not
behind the camera, she
can be found gardening,
cooking, and dreaming
of warm-water surf
destinations. She has
photographed more than
40 cookbooks, and
worked with clients like
Food & Wine, Bon Appétit,
and Travel + Leisure. “I
always love shooting in
Hawaii,” says Kunkel,
“but this trip combined
several of my favorite
things—working with a
great chef, amazing food,
and high-seas adven-
tures. I especially loved
getting a local’s perspec-
tive on Hana, where [the
fisherman] Greggie and
his family showed us
remote beaches, took
us fishing, and had a
pig roast!”
reid bramblett
Who better to pen our
“Made in Italy” story
than Reid Bramblett,
who developed his
popular ReidsItaly.com
site after covering Italy
in more than 25 guide-
books? “On the very
first day of researching
my very first book,
Frommer’s Tuscany &
Umbria,” Bramblett says,
“Ferragamo’s Florence
flagship was across the
street from my hotel, so
it became the first store
(and museum) I ever
reviewed.” Bramblett
has since won awards
for his trip-planning site,
ReidsGuides.com, and
as a daily travel reporter
for MSNBC.com. He
has also been Associate
Editor of Budget Travel
magazine and a contrib-
uting writer to Traveland
Leisure.com and Condé
Nast’s Concierge.com. “It
was fun to revisit the
Florence fashion scene,”
he says. “Especially at
a time when Gucci is
rediscovering its roots—
and its mojo—under new
creative direction.”
leilani laCson
Leilani Lacson is a
wardrobe stylist based
in Los Angeles. For the
past decade, her work,
including this issue’s fash-
ion feature, has graced
editorial, commercial,
and red-carpet projects.
Her versatile style has lent
itself to working with a
diverse range of clients,
including Nordstrom,
Bebe, Benefit, Nike,
Target, and Disney. She
has also styled celebrities
such as Meagan Good
and Sarah Hyland. “I
absolutely enjoy every
opportunity I get to style
shoots at Wynn,” says
Lacson. “It is a pretty
great feeling to see each
story we shoot here
come to life. We find new
locations throughout the
property that help tell a
beautiful story, not only
through the fashion but in
the details of the décor.”
26
28
masterPlan
In the process of building luxury hotels around the world, Steve Wynn
created a powerful brand that now holds sway in urban planning.
by Andrea Bennett
Ph
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No piece of popular marketing jargon seems to be so desirable these days
as the personal brand. Few, of course, have delineated theirs quite as clearly as Steve
Wynn, whose name, in his own curvilinear handwriting, has become a lodestar on
the Las Vegas Strip. The same can be said about his name on the swooping side of
Wynn Macau. And when Wynn Palace opens this year on the Cotai Strip followed
by Wynn Boston Harbor in Everett, Massachusetts, they will bear the same recog-
nizable name. Wynn himself hatches resort- and even city-altering plans the way
other people write grocery lists. So perhaps it is not a surprise that when I ask him
about the Wynn brand, he is indifferent to the idea. What he’s doing, he insists, is
what he’s always been doing—albeit on a grander scale. �
30
Steve Wynn
increased his stake
in the Golden
Nugget in 1973,
becoming the
youngest casino
owner in Las Vegas.
above: Wynn started in Downtown Vegas with the Frontier and the Golden Nugget, followed by the Mirage, Treasure Island, and Bellagio on the Las Vegas Strip. Wynn Las Vegas (right) opened in 2005, Wynn Macau in
2006, and Encore in 2008.
By the time Wynn got his start after having
graduated from college, he’d experienced the
glamour of Las Vegas and Miami, he
explains. “I came away from those experi-
ences, when my father died, having inherited
a bingo operation next to a concrete-block
tobacco warehouse in southern Maryland. I
have the Fontainebleau in my head, and the
only thing I’ve got going for me is the bingo.
So I’m hustling to get the bingo going so I can
go to greener pastures and be a developer.
The casinos have allowed me to spend more
money on fancy destination hotels than I ever
thought would be possible. And then I had
the great luck and privilege to do it during the
golden age of Las Vegas.”
In fact, the Wynn ethos was born decades
before he built the Mirage in 1989, which,
at a cost of $630 million, was the most expen-
sive hotel built to date—and credited with
changing the Las Vegas landscape. “The
building of a brand was a side effect of a sim-
ple observation I made when I was younger,”
he says. “I never wanted to be in a business
where you were selling price, because the
only place to go is down. Instead, I opted to
sell experience. And when you’re selling
experience, price is irrelevant as long as you
keep the promise.”
ph
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ua
de
/ul
ls
te
in b
ild
via
ge
tt
y i
ma
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s (
go
ld
en
n
ug
ge
t);
ro
be
rt
a.
va
n h
et
ho
f/s
hu
tt
er
st
oc
k.c
om
(w
yn
n l
as
ve
ga
s)
As owner of the Golden Nugget in the
1970s, he says, “I made it a four-star place. I
was ill-suited to [Downtown’s] Fremont
Street, so I tried to remake Fremont Street to
suit me.” As a result, on his watch the Golden
Nugget made more money than the other
Fremont Street casino hotels combined.
Fast-forward to the 1990s, and the Mirage
gave hoteliers permission to spend, Wynn
says. “Instead of building little $150 million
hotels, they could spend north of half a
billion, and everybody started doing it.”
After opening the Bellagio in 1998, Wynn’s
name may have become synonymous with
luxury to hotel cognoscenti, but he was reti-
cent to put it on the side of a building once the
time came to name his new property prior to
its 2005 opening. “It seemed egocentric,” he
recalls; besides, he wanted to name the hotel
after a famous Picasso painting he owned, Le
Rêve (“The Dream”). He enlisted advertising
guru Peter Arnell, who polled Vegas regulars
for weeks and came up with this pronounce-
ment, Wynn says. “‘My answer to you, Steve,
is that you can call it “Le Rêve,” but you’d
damn well better say it’s the guy who built the
Mirage and Bellagio and it means “The
Dream.” And for my money, that’s too much
information.’” �
CALIBER RM 60-01 REGATTA
LIMITED EDITION
THE SHOPS AT CRYSTALS, LAS VEGAS
702-588-7272
RICHARD MILLE BOUTIQUE
32
The spewing
volcano in front of
the Mirage began
an era of showman-
ship along the
Las Vegas Strip.
But Wynn didn’t solidify the decision
until he’d made calls to Barry Diller, Donald
Trump, and Steven Spielberg to ask their
professional opinions. Characteristically for
Diller, Wynn laughs, the media mogul
responded, “‘Why are you asking me a
stupid question like this? I don’t know what
the “Le Rêve” idea was about in the first
place. Call the place the Wynn and stop
screwing around with this “Le Rêve” busi-
ness.’” Wynn perfectly intones Trump’s
voice to recall the second conversation. “‘I’ll
tell you one thing. Everybody in New York is
talking about your new hotel. They know
you’re calling it “Le Rêve” because you’ve
got the painting, but they know it’s you. So
you might as well call it Wynn—you’re gonna
get the flak anyway.’ I said, ‘Okay, thanks,
Don,’ and called Spielberg.”
The third call sealed the deal for Wynn. “‘If
you told Katie [Kate Capshaw, Spielberg’s
wife] and me we were going to a new hotel in
Las Vegas called “Le Rêve,” we’d need more
information. If you told us we’re going to
Steve Wynn’s new hotel, we don’t need more
information. Why are you having trouble with
your surname? It’s not Lipschitz or Spielberg.
And what about the double entendre of
Wynn? Your name’s not “Lose.”’”
Putting his name on his hotels, Wynn
says, came down to accountability—whose
gate, he muses, swings both ways. “People
love accountability. People think they know
me that don’t. Or people ascribe to me
qualities that I don’t deserve because the
people I work with do something wonderful.
If something’s wrong, then I’m a jerk, but if
something’s nice, I’m a genius. The counter-
point is that accountability is a good thing
when people are trusting you with their stay.
They want to know that someone cares.” All
over the Wynn and Encore grounds, he says,
people approach him to thank him for creat-
ing a wonderful place. In-person criticism?
“Only my mother did that once,” he laughs.
What started as Wynn’s modus operandi
has become the brand. But Wynn doesn’t see
his properties as a string of luxurious
one-offs. “Our idea in China and Boston is
the same,” he emphasizes. “The board and I
feel that if we do a wonderful job on a metro-
politan grand destination hotel and casino,
we’ll create the template for cities like
Atlanta or Dallas that would want to do this.
The hotel we’re building in Boston is a desti-
nation—not a box of slots in a regional casino,
but an addition to a city that makes people
want to go there and vacation. Similarly,
Wynn Palace in Cotai is going to be the
photo-op for the city. It is orders of magnitude
fancier than the competitors—and that’s not
developer-speak,” he says. “They’re case
studies of why you can trust our brand if you
really want to improve your city.”
That won’t be the end of Wynn’s to-do list.
“They say you’re only as good as your track
record,” Wynn says, a flicker of what is
perhaps some new idea crossing his face. “So
I’m busy creating a track record in Boston
and China. And if we do that well, I want to
reinvent Las Vegas one more time.”
“
“
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“I opted to sell experience. And when you’re selling experience, price is irrelevant as long as you keep the promise.”—steve wynn
RIMOWA Store:
Las Vegas The Shops at Crystals
www.rimowa.com
BOSSA NOVA
WHEN STYLE BECOMES
A STATEMENT.
The search for the right fish to serve in Lakeside at Wynn results in
an unshakable bond between a chef and a fishing family in Maui—
and a journey to the unspoiled paradise that yields its bounty.
by Andrea Bennett
photography by Erin Kunkel
hana
Calling
35
Whole opaka and onaga stuffed with ginger and
lemongrass; fresh fiddlehead fern salad;
grilled ahi loin; Maui tomato, onion, and goat
cheese salad; and big-eye poke are all on the menu at
Chef David Walzog’s impromptu post-fishing
party in Hana.
clockwise from top left: Freshly caught skipjack
tuna (or aku); David Walzog hooks an aku aboard the Kaihawanawana;
Greggie Lind puts Walzog to work unpacking
snapper from the cooler after a day of fishing.
37
ina Lind stands in front of the house that she and her fam-
ily are renovating in Hana, on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
Statuesque and strikingly beautiful in shorts and a tank
top, her long, curly hair casually tied up and tucked with a
plumeria flower while the youngest of her five children—
3-year-old Kaihawanawana (“Kai Kai”) and 10-month-old
Adrianna—cling to her limbs, she’s calmly directing a snarl of family traffi c.
Eight-year-old Talia and 6-year-old Wai’oli are trying to corral the litter of pup-
pies that was a surprise feature of the new property. Her oldest, 13-year-old
Ekolu, is helping his father, Greggie, unearth the 70-pound pig that’s been
steaming in the imu in the front yard. The compact earth oven is meticulously
layered with wood and basalt stones to hold in the heat, and the pig is wrapped
in ti leaves and chicken wire to keep the tender meat from falling apart. It’s
a fragrant, smoky, labor-intensive once-a-year treat—an indication of just how
excited the family is that Uncle David has come to visit.
The “uncle” designation is honorary, but David Walzog, Executive Chef of
Lakeside and SW Steakhouse in Wynn Las Vegas, and Greggie Lind greet each
other like long-lost brothers. They’ve been texting all morning, planning the
logistics of the next few days of fi shing, cooking, and entertaining. Greggie has
recently switched mobile phones, since the last wasn’t consistently picking up
Walzog’s texts. “Forget about his wife,” Gina says in her characteristically gentle,
teasing way. “He needs to make sure he can be in constant contact with David.”
Yet what Gina laughingly calls the “bromance” between the fi sherman and the
chef has become crucial to Walzog’s deceptively simple menu of Hawaiian
fi sh at Lakeside—2,700 miles away from this scene of celebratory chaos.
Walzog is well aware that restaurants will go to great lengths to engineer a
narrative in the name of attracting diners who, now more than ever, care about
the origin of their food. Certainly any restaurant with sufficient resources
could create the Epcot version of Mama’s Fish House, the famous beachside
restaurant on Maui’s north shore. But Walzog wanted to dig deeper. The story
behind Lakeside’s now-renowned Hawaiian fi sh program, which brings snap-
per, mahimahi, and ono, among other species, directly from their clean Pacifi c
waters to Wynn—sometimes within a day—involves this friendship, naturally.
But at its core, it is about supporting the traditions and practices of family fi sher-
men for whom conservation has been an unspoken principle for hundreds of
years. And of course, it’s about the purity and the freshness of the fi sh that
Walzog can deliver to diners in less time than many Maui restaurants can.
A longtime Maui vacationer, Walzog had always been drawn to the idea
of living off what is abundant and available. “You’ve got to love the freshness
right out of the water,” he says on the fi rst day of our fi shing trip, his slim boning
knife zipping through a snapper. “So the question has always been how we take
this experience to the next level and really tell the right story about it.” �
G
“You’ve got to love the freshness right out of the water. The question has always been how we take this experience to the next level and tell the right story about it.”—DAVID WALZOG
clockwise from left: Ekolu throws his net at dawn
from the family’s ancestral land in Mu’olea; opihi are split open and
await the fire; ha’uke’uke, the dark purple helmet
urchins, are prized for their roe.
39
At its core, the story is about supporting the traditions and practices of family fishermen for whom conservation has
been an unspoken principle for hundreds of years.
The backyard in Maka’alae before the
party arrives.
40
When he was beginning to plan Lakeside’s Hawaiian fish menu, he knew he
didn’t want to employ an ordinary commercial fishing operation. “Typically,
those boats are out on the water for 12 to 14 days, and they keep their haul on
ice until they sell it at auction,” he explains. “That length of time is still con-
sidered fresh by the standards of most restaurants.” So he called his friend
Eric Kingma, the environmental policy coordinator for the Western Pacific
Regional Fishery Management Council, for ideas. “He recommended the
Linds based on what honest, responsible, and good people they are,” Walzog
says. After a flurry of phone calls, he was on a plane to meet them in Hana.
A typical day for Greggie and Ekolu starts before dawn, when Gina helps
them launch their fishing boat and then drives back home to get the children
ready and go to her teaching job at the local elementary school. She’ll come
back when their day is done in the late afternoon. The boat is Kaihawanawana,
or Whispering Ocean, the name given to the Linds by Greggie’s paternal grand-
mother following age-old custom. “She had offered us a second name, Ehukai,
but that reminded us of rough oceans,” Gina says. “The area of Maka’alae is
known for its ehukai [salted breezes] when the ocean is rough.” Because their
livelihood is entirely dependent on good seas and the fair treatment of their
contents, for the Linds, tradition and protocol—even a bit of ancient supersti-
tion—are everything. When a member of the crew grabs a banana to take on
the boat, Greggie stops him. “No bananas,” he warns. “It’s bad luck.” We ask
why, expecting some romantic Hawaiian origin story, and Greggie is flum-
moxed. It’s just not done, he responds. A single banana can be a scourge to a
whole day’s fishing. The reason doesn’t matter.
On board, Ekolu and Greggie reel in fish with the intricate choreography
that only a father and son born to this life can achieve. Ekolu can’t imagine
another way; in fact, he has negotiated a homeschooling arrangement with his
mother, his days of fishing contingent on his grades. The waters are choppy,
but Ekolu scans the sea for the flocks of birds that signify there are fish below.
He looks far older than a newly minted teen as he reels in fish after fish,
the densely green hills fronting Haleakala Crater as his backdrop. He and
Greggie won’t catch more than they can sell, and nearly all of their haul will
go to Walzog. In fact, for Walzog, the fish shopping happens while Greggie
is still at sea: “He’ll call me and say, ‘I’m at 200 pounds of mahimahi. Stop or
keep fishing?’” Once they’ve reached Walzog’s target, the Linds will return to
shore, pack the haul into coolers, drive for two hours down the winding road to
Kahului, and ship their fish to Wynn. If they time things right, the shipment will
be served at Lakeside the next night. �
clockwise from top left: Walzog demonstrates his knife skills on a freshly caught tuna; Wai’oli and Kai Kai serenade each other on ukuleles; Gina
and Adrianna Lind; Greggie and Ekolu Lind
tend the grill with Walzog.
42
below: Fresh ahi poke is garnished with ogo
seaweed, sesame seeds, and spring onions and
served from a coconut. right: Greggie Lind serves
daughter Kai Kai a plate at the party, while Wai’oli
awaits his turn from a tree. opposite: Grilled ahi loin
anchors a guest’s plate.
hat afternoon, it’s Walzog’s turn to go to work, and he takes
his cues for the evening menu from the mountain of local
ingredients sitting in the tiny kitchen of the house our crew is
renting in Maka’alae. A 40-pound tuna is cubed for ahi poke,
and tuna loins are seasoned and tossed on a grill in the back-
yard. Little Lind children scatter to find ti and banana leaves
to hold the food; the lemongrass they’ve picked is stuffed inside whole snap-
pers, with fat ginger slices in slits in their flesh. The shredded pork from the imu
is seasoned and warmed; native fiddlehead fern shoots, pohole, become a salad
spiked with sweet Maui onions; and the island’s famous tomatoes are simply
dressed and tossed with basil and spring onions and studded with goat cheese
from Surfing Goat Dairy in Kula, in Maui’s upcountry. In Las Vegas, Walzog
serves dishes he has refined for a fine-dining audience, but the idea remains the
same: Coax the flavor from the fish with the simplest ingredients possible. (His
favorite at Lakeside: the onaga, or long-tail red snapper, whose slight sweetness
he offsets with an Asian set of pickled Japanese vegetables and ponzu broth.)
The beers come out and trucks show up, bringing friends from all over Hana.
All this food is a good excuse for a party, which becomes almost too perfectly
photogenic when Gina’s father, Hank Eharis, Jr., appears with his ukulele.
To say that fishing is in the Linds’ DNA is something of an understatement:
Both Greggie and Gina have fishing roots that go deeper than recorded his-
tory. On our final morning, we drive to the coastal area of Kanewai in Mu’olea,
the family’s ancestral land, where Ekolu sometimes goes fishing at dawn, gath-
ering up his net and tossing it in one smooth motion from the jagged black
volcanic rocks into the sea. There is a distinctly sacred feeling to this area,
which was owned by 13 families, seized as “crown lands” during the Great
Mahele—the Hawaiian land redistribution carried out in the mid-19th century
by King Kamehameha III—and temporarily used as a royal summer palace
by King David Kalakaua. The matriarch of the House of Kalakaua, Analea
Keohokalole, returned it to the families, from which both Gina and Greggie
are descended, in the late 1800s. “But people needed money in the mid-1900s,”
Gina explains, “and the only thing they had of value was their land, so they
traded it.” After the land was nearly developed, the county and private donors
interceded to make the area a kapu, or preservation district.
We walk down toward the water, through tangles of yellow liliko’i (passion
fruit) vines, mango trees, and coconut palms, and past a horse that ambles
through a grassy clearing. The place, announces a sign, is an opihi resting
area, referring to the small cone-shaped mollusk that the nonprofit group Na
Mamo o Mu’olea, which oversees the district, is trying to protect from pro-
fessional opihi pickers (consuming a few on-site is allowed). Greggie cooks
two over the fire; they’re rubbery and salty and bathed in their own liquid. He
splits open purple ha’uke’uke, the helmet urchins that cling to the rocks, so we
can taste the buttery yellow roe. Gina’s father, who heads Na Mamo o Mu’olea,
considers it a sacred duty to preserve the lands all the way up Haleakala and
down to the sea: Every change in the landscape has a cascading impact, even-
tually affecting the waters that hold the key not only to their livelihood, but
also to their culture and their history. “We were married down here, and our
families have had their ashes spread here,” Gina says. “It is a ‘piko place’ [liter-
ally a ‘navel cord’] for us, lineal descendants who have a close spiritual tie to
Kanewai. It is as much a part of us as fishing is.”
Greggie and Walzog watch the kids scramble over rocks and through
dense trees as the men talk a little shop, discuss Greggie’s next visit to Las
Vegas, and, most important, plan what they’ll make for lunch (as it turns out,
the world’s most precious tuna sandwiches, from yesterday’s ahi). It is through
this friendship, and this family of stewards of the land and sea, that David
Walzog has found a story to tell every night in his kitchen.
T
madeitaly
in
More than just words on a label, it’s a way of
life—and a law—whose cachet is rooted in
uncompromising Florentine craftsmanship.
by Reid Bramblett
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46
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ust across the river from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence,
Italy, is the Oltrarno, the city’s traditional artisan quarter.
Step off the Ponte Vecchio, a medieval bridge barnacled
with tiny goldsmith shops, and you’ll see a pocket-size
boutique called Madova, opened in 1919 by Amedeo
Donnini. Inside, surrounded by inventory stacked almost
to the ceiling, Donnini’s grandchildren carry on the fam-
ily practice of crafting some of the finest leather gloves in the world. One pair
looks like sober black dress gloves, until you move your hand and bright
colors flash from swatches hidden between the fingers—elegant yet playful.
This is what “Made in Italy” means in the fashion world: thorough mas-
tery of a craft, including attention to the smallest details; the impression that
everything is perfectly made to measure; discipline steeped in generations
of cherished tradition but unafraid to be modern and fun. Thousands of
miles away, Wynn guests likely recognize the same spirit of uncompromis-
ing detail and luxury married to a sense of whimsy that draws the best Italian
fashion designers to Wynn’s locations—in Las Vegas, Macau, and soon Cotai.
Because even as tiny Madova’s Florentine neighbors have become titans of
20th-century fashion around the globe, the “Made in Italy” label remains as
precisely defined and prized as it always has been—representing the best in
craftsmanship just as Wynn represents the highest in luxury standards.
As a liftboy at London’s Savoy Hotel in the early 1900s, teenager Guccio
Gucci admired the guests’ elegant and sturdy bags. When he returned to his
native Florence in 1921, he opened an English-style luggage store. Gucci’s
goods soon became fashionable among moneyed horsemen. This—and a
family legend that the Guccis had been saddlers during the Renaissance—
inspired the brand’s equine symbols: the horse-bit spangle, the green-and-
red-striped ribbon resembling a cinch strap.
By the 1960s, Gucci bags had become stars, seen on the arms of everyone
from Elizabeth Taylor and Jacqueline Kennedy to Peter Sellers and Samuel
Beckett. Despite its fame and fortune, however, the Gucci firm has remained
committed to its core ideals, declaring that “100 percent of its leather goods,
shoes, and ready-to-wear are still produced in its Florentine workshops,
J
Florence, Italy, birthplace of the Renaissance and home to luxury brands such as Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Emilio Pucci. below: The Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River in Florence.
�
WYNN LAS VEGAS AND ENCORE T +1 702 691 2950
48
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employing over 45,000 people in Italy alone.” This is in
part because “Made in Italy” is not just a label. It’s a law.
In 2009, Italy passed one of the world’s strictest label-
ing regulations for domestically produced goods. The
full rules for “Made in Italy” certification are available at
madeinitaly.org, but they boil down to this: The product
must be manufactured entirely within Italy to the compa-
ny’s exclusive designs, using Italian workers, traditional
methods, and grade-A natural materials, and in hygienic
and safe working conditions. This devotion to quality and
custom has paid off: A 2013 survey of 10,000 luxury con-
sumers in 10 countries by the Boston Consulting Group
found that knowing an item was made in Italy generated
the highest level of consumer confidence in the categories
of clothing, accessories, and jewelry, and the second-high-
est in watches (after Switzerland) and cars (after Germany).
Jay Lipe, a senior lecturer at the University of Minnesota’s
Carlson School of Management, who teaches an advanced
course in Rome and Florence called “Made in Italy” Brand
Management, says the label conjures in the consumer’s
mind “this idea of a certain quality of the raw materials, of
an element of craftsmanship, and of a skilled artisan who is
involved in the final processing.” It’s no wonder that Italian
brands celebrate their Italianness.
In 2011, Gucci even opened a museum and café in a
stately palazzo that had been, appropriately enough, the
seat of Florence’s medieval merchant guilds. Overlooking
the Palazzo Vecchio on bustling Piazza della Signoria—
“the living room of Florence”—this was where the city’s
powerful cloth importers, wool manufacturers, furriers,
and silk weavers once held sway. The guilds’ timeworn
stone crests are now on display in the bookshop,
The “Made in iTaly”
TreaTMenT in
las Vegas
In February of 1951, a Florentine antiques
and art dealer named Giovanni Battista
Giorgini took it upon himself to make
Italian clothing fashionable—and
exportable—by inviting buyers from the
biggest North American companies to
swing by his Florence villa after the annual
Paris runway season. As part of the soirée,
Giorgini mounted Italy’s very first fashion
show, featuring, among others, the
designs of a local marchese named Emilio
Pucci. The gamble paid off, orders poured
in to local ateliers, and “Made in Italy”
became all the rage. In 1952, the event
moved into the Pitti Palace, where the
Roman fashion house Brioni hosted
another first: a men’s fashion show. Since
then, Florence’s annual fashion parade
has introduced such designers as
Valentino and Armani to the world, and
today’s Pitti Immagine calendar includes
half a dozen annual fashion shows in
Florence’s Renaissance-era Fortezza del
Basso. But fans no longer have to make
the pilgrimage to Italy to get a bespoke
Brioni Su Misura suit like the one Daniel
Craig wore in Casino Royale.
The Brioni boutique at Wynn is the
only one in the US to offer the brand’s
Miror technology, a kind of virtual closet
in which a computerized 3-D tailoring
system allows clients to choose from
among 1,500 fabrics and 8 million styling
combinations. While the suits may take
shape in Vegas, this is still a “Made in
Italy” experience: All Brioni master tailors
are trained at the company’s own
tailoring school in the Abruzzo moun-
tains, where they study no fewer than
220 steps of workmanship, from drawing
and cutting to the proper way to iron.
above: A Gucci bag display at the Gucci Museum in Florence, and a model
walking the runway during Gucci’s show for Milan Fashion Week, Spring/
Summer 2016. below: The Gucci store at Wynn
Macau. top right: The Brioni store at Wynn Las Vegas.
�
Wynn Las Vegas · 702.770.3520
50
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replaced on the building’s façade by a new crest, featuring a suit of armor
carrying Gucci handbags.
In 2015, Gucci promoted a relatively unknown 43-year-old associ-
ate designer named Alessandro Michele to creative director, and he has
embraced the sense of elegance-meets-fun that defines Florentine fashion.
Michele has brought back the floral prints and swishy fabrics once beloved
by Princess Grace. His exciting new designs mix Art Nouveau details, 1920s
flapper style, hippie peasant dresses, and the smart lines of mid-20th-century
fashion. And he has returned the brand’s famous interlocking G’s to pride of
place in its roster of pattern and clasp designs.
While the Gucci Museo also has—naturally—a small shop on-site, the com-
pany’s primary Florence boutique is on Via de’ Tornabuoni, the main artery
of the city’s shopping district. Anchoring the base of this boulevard, a block
south of Gucci, is the mighty 13th-century Palazzo Spini Feroni, its castlelike
battlements profiled against the sky. A luxurious hotel in the 19th century, the
palazzo became the seat of the municipality of Florence during its brief 1860s
reign as capital of the new Kingdom of Italy. In the 1930s, a cobbler named
Salvatore Ferragamo purchased the building, filling its frescoed halls with
craft workshops, fashion ateliers, and offices for what was by then already a
footwear empire.
Ferragamo had made his first shoes—for his sisters’ confirmations—at the age
of 9. He was apprenticed to a cobbler in Naples at 11, and by 13 he had opened
his first shoe shop. Three years later, in 1914, he emigrated to America to join
his brother on a shoe and boot assembly line outside Boston. Impressed by
the industrial techniques he saw but devoted to old-world craftsmanship, �
Craftsmen at work in the studio of footwear designer and manufacturer Salvatore Ferragamo in Florence’s Palazzo Feroni circa 1937. above: Vara shoes, by Salvatore Ferragamo SpA, on display at the company’s museum in Florence.
Ferragamo soon decamped to Southern California to forge his own alchemy of modern
methods and the traditional cobbler’s art. By 1923, LA newspapers were calling him the
“shoemaker to the stars” for a client list that included nearly every screen goddess of the
early 20th century: Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner, Mary Pickford, Rita Hayworth, Ava
Gardner, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn.
Ferragamo succeeded not just because he crafted flawlessly elegant, occasionally
outrageous confections and slipped them onto famous feet to grace Hollywood’s red
carpets. He emphasized comfort as much as style, taking anatomy and mathematics
classes at the University of Southern California to puzzle out how to distribute body
weight over the arch of the human foot. His research allowed his artisans to mass-
produce shoes that retained the elements of a made-to-measure fit. Today the brand
still offers more than 70 fit and size combinations.
Ferragamo returned to Italy in 1926, settling in the emerging fashion capital of
Florence, where he eventually turned the Palazzo Spini Feroni into not only his brand’s
global headquarters, but also a museum displaying shoes made for his celebrated
clients. (His firm continues its Hollywood association, especially in period films, pro-
viding footwear for Madonna in Evita and Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, for example.)
Like his Florence neighbors Gucci and Pucci, Ferragamo and the house he founded
gained worldwide fame without losing sight of the important role that Italian artisanal
traditions played in his success. He likely could not have anticipated that he and his
contemporaries would come to epitomize the luxury that people flock to Las Vegas
and Macau to experience at Wynn. He wrote in his autobiography, “All over Italy—
even today, and in the cities as well as the poor villages—you will see cobblers sitting
in their tiny stone rooms, surrounded by heaps of shoes all higgledy-piggledy, working
crouched over their lasts under the beam from a naked electric-light bulb.” That was
written half a century ago, but wander the side streets of the Oltrarno neighborhood
today and you can still glimpse that very scene through the open windows of 21st-
century Florentine craftsmen. Wander the Esplanades of Wynn and Encore and you’ll
understand how this painstaking, time-honored craftsmanship has become the ulti-
mate in contemporary luxury.
clockwise from top left: The Palazzo Spini Feroni, home of the Ferragamo museum in Florence;
Salvatore Ferragamo in 1956 with a stack of
celebrity shoe forms; a shoe exhibit in the Museo
Salvatore Ferragamo.
52
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Ferragamo emphasized comfort as much as style, taking anatomy and mathematics classes at USC to puzzle out how to distribute weight over the arch of the foot.
For people who would never,
ever wear a digital watch.
During the development of the Zeitwerk, we questioned every thing
– except the mechanical drive. The result is a watch with digital indica-
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boasts a jumping numerals mechanism that in a split-second advances a
grand total of 1440 times a day. Delivering that kind of accauracy requires
the equivalent of 5 kg of torque, a probably unprecedented amount of
force for such a precision timepiece. The final result means that every
60 seconds you are witness to a remarkable event. With its precisely
jumping numerals, the Zeitwerk even wins the hearts of people who
would never, ever wear a digital watch. www.alange-soehne.com
A. Lange & Sohne at Bellusso Casino Level • The Palazzo® Resort-Hotel-Casino
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11
When a quartet of famous Chinese porcelain pieces—known as the Buccleuch
vases—reaches its new home in Wynn Palace, it will have completed a
journey spanning more than two centuries and thousands of miles.
by Andrea Bennett
Fragile Beauty
Packing and shipping four vases that have
virtually no equal in the world is, as you might
imagine, not a matter an art handler takes
lightly. When a set of legendary vases from
China’s Jiaqing period (1796–1821) fitted with early-19th-
century French ormolu journeys the mere six miles from
its current location in the lobby at Wynn Macau to the
Wynn Palace VIP registration area in June, the logistics
involved will be nothing short of “intense,” explains Wynn
Design and Development’s Director of Purchasing,
Pamela Cyr. On moving day, a specialty fine-art mover
and installer from Hong Kong will arrive with six employ-
ees to de-install the vases, detach them from their ornate
gilt-bronze mounts, secure them in the crates that origi-
nally took them the 6,000 miles from London to Macau in
2011, and move them to the Cotai Strip. Flanked by heavy
security, the art handlers will transport the vases to their
new home, where the process will begin in reverse. “Even
a short move is very complex, due to the value of the vases,
the coordination needed, and the staff it takes to make the
move happen,” says Cyr, who managed their original
move from Christie’s in London.
The four-foot-high vases, painted with Buddhist and
Daoist emblems, with their 19th-century gilt-bronze han-
dles and bases, are not ordinary parlor decoration.
Purchased by Steve Wynn at the Christie’s International
“Exceptional” sale in London in 2011, they were the most
expensive of 50 lots and set a world auction record for
ormolu-mounted porcelain when Wynn paid $12.8 million
for the set. But in fact they had been parlor decoration �
54
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Montagu House, Whitehall, was one of London’s grandest private mansions in its day, housing the exceptional Buccleuch art collection.
for two centuries prior, albeit for a family of
Scottish nobility that included two of the fore-
most art collectors of the early 19th century.
The quartet, known as the Buccleuch vases,
was either first acquired by Elizabeth Montagu,
3rd Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry
(1743–1827), and later inherited by her grand-
son Walter, 5th Duke of Buccleuch and 7th
Duke of Queensberry, or they were purchased
by him in the late 1820s. By 1827, Walter was
one of the richest landowners in Britain (the cur-
rent Duke of Buccleuch is still the largest private
landowner in the United Kingdom). And
though a property inventory for Elizabeth’s
Montagu House prior to his inheriting it listed a
number of vases, including “Sea Green China
Vases” and “enameld [sic] China Jars,” it was her
grandson who became one of England’s great-
est collectors, with the largest stores of not only
Boulle furniture and Sèvres porcelain but also
of ormolu-mounted Chinese porcelain.
Montagu House, Whitehall, was one of
London’s grandest private mansions in its day,
hosting aristocracy and housing the excep-
tional Buccleuch art collection, which included
works by Raphael, Rubens, Rembrandt, and
Canaletto, along with many porcelain objets
d’art. The vases resided with the Buccleuch
family, later in the family’s Dalkeith Palace in
Scotland, until the death of Walter Montagu
Douglas Scott, 8th Duke of Buccleuch and
10th Duke of Queensberry, in 1973. They were
auctioned twice after that, including in 2011,
when Wynn Executive Vice President of
Design Roger Thomas spotted them in his
Christie's catalog and immediately made
plans to fly to London to bid on the quartet.
The find was so memorable, he recalls, he still
has the catalog.
The vases likely originally arrived in London
via one of the importers of “foreign curiosities”
in the West End, who sought exotic items for
wealthy clients for whom oriental objets were in
vogue. The ormolu mounts were attached to
“improve” the porcelain—dealers worked with
Parisian marchands-merciers (merchants) to
clockwise from top
left: The vases at Wynn Macau; a vase in its home in Dalkeith Palace in 1902; Dalkeith Palace; a print of Montagu House, Whitehall, 1896.
commission the mounts. To the credit of the
bronziers who made them, they recognized the
incredible quality of the porcelain, says Robert
Copley, Christie’s Deputy Chairman and
International Head of the Exceptional Sale of
Decorative Arts. “Often the pieces were
pierced to accommodate the ornate mounts,”
he notes. “What’s interesting about the combi-
nation of these vases is that the French respected
the porcelain enough to leave it intact.”
Not only are the vases of incredible quality,
they are also significant for combining images
and motifs from both Buddhism and Daoism.
The 2,000-year-old indigenous Chinese reli-
gion of Daoism thrived throughout the
300-year-long Qing Dynasty, during which
these vases were produced, despite the emper-
ors’ preference for Tibetan Buddhism. The
many bats in flight depicted on the celadon
background are an auspicious symbol of happi-
ness and prosperity, as the word “bats” is a
homophone in Chinese for a word meaning
“happiness.” According to the lot notes by �
56
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above: The only known similar
vases were acquired by the Prince Regent,
and seen here in an aquatint
engraving of the Blue Velvet Room at Carlton House by Charles Wild,
circa 1816. left: One of the
Buccleuch vases without its mount.
Christie’s historians, the eight Buddhist and
Daoist emblems, of central importance on the
vases, are believed to bring blessings and har-
mony: “The Lotus symbolizes purity and
harmony; the Vase or Jar alludes to the elixir of
life that stands for victory… the Twin Fish
expresses the freedom and happiness that true
knowledge brings.”
The only parallels known to these vases
were acquired by the Prince Regent (George,
Prince of Wales, later George IV), and are still
in Buckingham Palace. To give a sense of the
workmanship involved, the 1814 commission
for the Prince Regent required 31 different
craftsmen. Today, visitors can see the vases
that originally adorned Carlton House in the
palace’s State Dining Room, transferred there
when George became king.
For Steve Wynn, who has been dubbed one of
For Steve Wynn, acquiring vases was part of a goal to repatriate some of China’s most important art.
58
the 21st century’s “Medici buyers,” acquiring the
vases was part of a goal to repatriate some of
China’s most important art. Wynn began collect-
ing Chinese art in 2006, when he purchased a rare
red porcelain vase from the 14th-century Hongwu
period and donated it to the Macau Special
Administrative Region, where it is now in the per-
manent collection of the Cultural Affairs Bureau’s
Macau Museum. “It’s not only important that
Macau expands economically, but also cultur-
ally,” he explained. When Wynn brought the
Buccleuch vases back to China, he announced in
a ceremony at Wynn Macau that returning the
pieces was part of a continuing policy to add to
the cultural enrichment of the community.
“China is where the vases have their roots and
their story,” he said. And after a long trip abroad,
collecting some embellishments on the way, the
vases have found their way back home.
WORLDTIMER
SWISS MADE
OFFICIAL TIMEKEEPING SPONSOR OF
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NIE
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WYNNWYNN
StyleThe golden age of ’70s-era Vegas will always
be in style, as far as we’re concerned. And
while fashion is cyclical, the arbiters of style
are harking back to the glamour of metallic
and gossamer fabrics, slinky contours, and
flowing bohemian silhouettes. The season’s
most wearable and dazzling looks seize the
best elements of years past, updated for
today’s glamour girls.
Wool tweed cardigan ($3,600), top ($1,300), shorts ($1,000), and Dior Conquest shoes ($1,100), all by Dior. Dior, Wynn, 702-770-3450. Metal brooch ($1,250) and metal and plexiglass bracelet ($2,525), both by Chanel. Chanel, Wynn, 702-770-3532
Cutout dress by Yigal Azrouël ($890). Wynn Collection,
Wynn, 702-770-3545. Metal necklace by Chanel ($575).
Chanel, Wynn, 702-770-3532. Sandals by Charlotte
Olympia ($825). Bags Belts and Baubles, Wynn,
702-770-3555
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The high-wattage glam of spring fashion takes its cue from slinky ’70s silhouettes and fabrics.
photography by Bonnie Holland styling by Leilani Lacson
LoungeActs
opposite page: Embroidered jumpsuit by Naeem Khan ($8,490). Wynn Collection, Wynn, 702-770-3545. Metal and plexiglass bracelet by Chanel ($1,825). Chanel, Wynn, 702-770-3532. Gold nappa Piloutin Laminata small studded handbag by Christian Louboutin ($990). Wynn Collection, see above. Metallic silver/gold platform sandals by Giuseppe Zanotti Design ($795). Wynn Collection, see above
this page: Off-white double-faced linen, cotton, and silk dress by Hermès ($4,250). Hermès, Encore, 702-650-3116. Metal and glass pearl necklace by Chanel ($12,000). Chanel, Wynn, 702-770-3532
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Figured toile dress ($3,850) and glass pearl and plexiglass bracelets ($1,300) and cuff ($1,425), all by Chanel. Chanel, Wynn, 702-770-3532
opposite page: Top ($1,130), earrings (price on request), and shoes (price on request), all by Prada. Prada, Wynn, 702-770-3495. Leather skirt by Chanel (price on request). Chanel, Wynn, 702-770-3532
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Chalk crepe sleeveless dress with organza flutter ruffle by Jason Wu ($1,995). Wynn Collection, Wynn, 702-770-3545. Patent heels by Ralph Lauren (price on request). Ralph Lauren, Wynn Macau (opening June, 2016). Jean Star Cluster clutch by Edie Parker ($1,295). Bags Belts and Baubles, Wynn, 702-770-3555
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Garden Party bird-print silk dress by Valentino ($2,990). Wynn Collection, Wynn, 702-770-3545. Small Trunk Vintage Stripes clutch, Edie Parker ($1,695). Bags Belts and Baubles, Wynn, 702-770-3555. Lima sandals in suede/mirror leather in marble/light champagne by Jimmy Choo ($1,150). Wynn Collection, see above
opposite page: Silk faille off-the-shoulder top ($1,295) with ladder detail paired with silk crepe cigarette pant ($995), both by Marchesa. Wynn Collection, Wynn, 702-770-3545
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opposite page: Multiwear dress by Camilla ($600). The Swim Shop, Encore, 702-770-5460. New Bisque platform heels by Salvatore Ferragamo ($1,150)
this page: Raffia organza pastel rose gown by Roland Mouret ($4,065). Available for special order at Wynn Collection, Wynn, 702-770-3545. Silk tassel Devon Kite clutch by Judith Leiber ($3,995). Wynn Collection, see above
Precious blooms
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Precious blooms
18k white-gold, 29-carat diamond briolettes, and
60.14-carat fancy-cut diamond High Jewelry
Collection necklace by Chopard (price on
request). Chopard, Wynn, 702-770-3469
Spring’s most fabulous jewels come to life on a backdrop of elegant chinoiserie to suit the season.
photography by Jeff Crawford
styling by Casey Trudeau
set design by Betim Balaman/Apostrophe
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from top: 18k white-gold, rubellite, ruby, and white champagne diamond brooch ($9,630) and 18k white-gold, diamond, champagne diamond, golden diamond, rubellite, and tsavorite ring ($15,180), both by Wendy Yue. 7.35-carat diamond and 25.67-carat ruby diamond Classic Butterfly earrings by Graff (price on request). Graff, Wynn, 702-770-3494
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45.15-carat diamond Nuage necklace by Graff
(price on request). Graff, Wynn, 702-770-3494
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6.20-carat diamond and 8.66-carat sapphire FloralGraff watch by Graff (price on request). Graff, Wynn, 702-770-3494. 18k white-gold and pink-sapphire, ruby, champagne diamond, white-sapphire, and tsavorite ring by Wendy Yue ($18,880).
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White-gold, diamond, pink-sapphire, and tsavorite garnet Rose Dior
Bagatelle ring (price on request) and white-gold and diamond Rose Dior
Bagatelle necklace (price on request), both by Dior Fine Jewelry. Dior, Wynn,
702-770-3496. 18k white-gold and diamond Caresse D’Orchidées par
Cartier necklace by Cartier ($51,500). Cartier, Wynn, 702-770-3498
opposite page: 18k white-gold, 14.5-carat oval-cut ruby, and
40.65-carat round-cut diamond, pear-shape diamond, and
marquise-cut diamond necklace (price on request) and 18k white-
gold invisibly set 42.5-carat diamond Mesh cuff bracelet (price on
request), both by Jacob & Co.
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Guests returninG to MizuMi in Wynn Macau are in for a treat before
they even sit down at their table: a dramatic, freshly imagined space. Previously the
restaurant favored natural colors of stone, straw, and wood, but as Roger Thomas,
Wynn’s Executive Vice President of Design, explains, “When I look at Japanese art,
some of the pieces I’ve most loved are red lacquer with gold accents, and that’s what
inspired the new room.” As they had done in renovating Mizumi in Wynn Las
Vegas, Thomas and his design team added a coat of deep red lacquer to the
restaurant’s split-face sandstone walls and then applied gold leaf to create what
Red Hot
The lively redesign of Mizumi, the Japanese restaurant in Wynn Macau, summons both serenity and fun.
by Gabriel Cohen
80
looks like stacks of gold. They added similarly striking new colors and textures
to the wooden walls and ceiling beams.
Various other aspects of Japanese art, architecture, and crafts influenced the
redesign, which complements the new menu, created in consultation with three
of Japan’s best-known Michelin-starred chefs, heralded in the culinary traditions
of sushi, tempura, and teppanyaki. Diners may feast on delicacies flown in from
that country on a regular basis, including abalone from Iwate, sea urchin from
Hokkaido, and marbled beef from Ishigaki Island.
The restaurant’s iron entry gates, a symbolic nod to a 1910 gift of cherry trees
from the people of Japan to the people of the United States, were retained, but
large sake barrels near the front door were removed to help create a more open,
flowing entrance. Above the foyer, tubular red silk fish kites were hung vertically
to produce a vivid chandelier. The design team also collected magnificent
examples of antique obis—brocade sashes worn on elegant kimonos—which they
unfolded and placed on the walls to create vertical stripes. The carpet design,
based on one of the obis, was custom-woven for the room. The new chairs in the
dining rooms feature embroidered Japanese family crests.
The new look also reflects Thomas’s love of traditional Japanese lacquered
writing boxes, which held inkstones, brushes, and other implements. “I’ve always
found them to be remarkable works of art,” he says, “and really marvelous
because they were also used for creating art. So if I could walk into a Japanese
writing box, it would look like this.”
Although the influence of traditional Japanese art and culture is unmistakable,
a number of lively contemporary elements were added as well. To reinvent and
highlight Mizumi’s outdoor rock garden, translucent stones were sculpted and lit
from beneath so they glow. The reception area now features a large yellow folded-
steel origami dog (“Dogami”) by Los Angeles–based sculptor Gerardo Hacer.
The sushi bar and the private and teppanyaki rooms are graced with paintings
by Las Vegas artist Sush Machida, who created colorful large-scale images of
waves in a style that, while very modern, was inspired by 19th-century Japanese
woodblock prints.
Overall, diners may find that the new décor at Mizumi has a dual impact.
“Japanese art is able to evoke festive and serene feelings at the same time,”
Thomas explains. “I hope we’ve managed to do that, too. You walk into a space
that has lively energy, but at the same time there’s a certain amount of reverence
to it. A joyous serenity.”
“If I could walk into
a Japanese writing
box, it would look
like this.”
—RogeR Thomas
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The arrival of JudeFrances’s
spring and fall jewelry
collections at Tiny Baubles
on the Wynn Retail
Esplanade is always eagerly
awaited, and this spring’s
Encore line is no exception
The new sterling silver
collection incorporates
styles and motifs from the
brand’s most popular
designs since its launch in
2002, such as the Provence
quad, Lisse kite, and
Moroccan Casablanca and
quad motifs, all crafted
with semiprecious stones,
including white topaz,
moonstone, iolite,
and amazonite.
The Encore collection
provides endless combina-
tions of JudeFrances’s
signature styles, including
the earring hoop and
charm concept, stackable
gold bangles, long layering
chains and pendants,
cocktail rings, and simple
gold stackers. Stack up!
Bangles and cuffs ($450–$1,320) from
the Encore Collection by JudeFrances.
Tiny Baubles, Wynn, 702-770-3559
Bravo, EncorE!Wynn’s Tiny Baubles boutique is home to a highly curated selection of designers, including lauded jewelry brand JudeFrances.
Versace
palazzo empire
Versace’s new It bag for
Spring/Summer 2016, the
Palazzo Empire in Jungle
Green Python is offered
exclusively at Wynn
Macau in the Asia Pacific
region. The supple python
leather bag’s signature
Medusa head clasp is
painted tone-on-tone.
MOP 24,000, or around
$3,000; wynnmacau.com
from left: Women’s Corail silk striped jacquard
jacket with coulisse ($1,355); men’s Samuel cotton
gabardine jacket ($880), both by Moncler.
Moncler, Wynn, 702-770-3452
From an all-black tribute to the Rolling Stones for guys to white-as-snow après skiwear for everyone, the latest and greatest of Moncler’s luxury clothing and accessories are on offer at the brand’s newest US boutique on the Wynn Esplanade this season. The brand, known for its ultra-lightweight outerwear since it was founded in Grenoble, France, in 1952, offers a Spring/Summer 2016 collection awash in natural hues—think sand, cognac, chestnut, and tobacco—and sinuous patterns like macro camou-flage (reproduced from specifications for British colonial uniforms).
WanTa LiFT?From the slopes to the streets, and now with an address on the Wynn Retail Esplanade, Moncler redefines après ski.
Diorama
The Diorama bag was an
instant hit when it
launched in 2015, and
Wynn Macau is the only
place to find its most
covetable 2016 iteration in
lambskin with a leather
and exotic fish marquetry
flower. Its delicate scales,
in a rounded fan pattern,
recall the corolla on Dior
dresses. MOP 42,000, or
$5,250; wynnmacau.com
Bag patrol
Wynn Macau’s exclusive exotic offerings.
82
AFTER ALL, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOO MANY BRACELETS. BESIDES, I’M IN VEGAS AND I DIDN’T COME HERE TO BE
BORING. Treat yourself at Tiffany & Co., Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Michael Kors, Forever 21, Henri Bendel,
Louis Vuitton, Topshop, Swarovski, and over 250 stores and eateries. YOU DESERVE IT. Located on The Strip across from The Venetian, Wynn and TI.
702.369.8382 | thefashionshow.com
On The Strip across from The Venetian, Wynn and TI. 702.369.8382 | thefashionshow.com
NEED IT? WANT IT? DOES IT MATTER?8 DEPARTMENT STORES 25 DINING CHOICES 250 STORES IN THE HEART OF VEGAS.
NEIMAN MARCUS | SAKS FIFTH AVENUE | NORDSTROM | MACY’S | MACY’S MEN’S STORE | DILLARD’S | FOREVER 21 | TED BAKER
TOPSHOP TOPMAN | ZARA | DICK’S SPORTING GOODS | DAVIDOFF BAR CIGARS & COCKTAILS | LOUIS VUITTON | ANTHROPOLOGIE
MICHAEL KORS | TIFFANY & CO. | COACH | APPLE | TORY BURCH | UNDER ARMOUR | MICROSOFT | THE LEGO STORE | ST. JOHN
TADASHI SHOJI | HUGO BOSS | EL SEGUNDO SOL | THE CAPITAL GRILLE | MAGGIANO’S LITTLE ITALY | STRIPBURGER
CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN | GRIMALDI’S PIZZERIA | KONA GRILL | LUKE’S LOBSTER
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interior motives Often referred to as Wynn’s “design guru,” Roger Thomas’s full title is Executive Vice President of Design for Wynn Design & Development. Thomas was recently inducted into Interior Design magazine’s Hall of Fame; at the ceremony, he offered this simple philosophy: “I want to create interiors for the most sophisticated person in the world, and I want them to be comfortable.”
play time Lounge and wager at the new
Encore Players Club.
a time-honored (and timeworn)
casino floor formula the world
over has been to stock the floor
with table games and slot
machines—encouraging players
to focus only on the task at hand.
Wynn’s new encore players Club
has departed from that template,
realizing that today’s younger
guests want a social space.
enter the club just across from
andrea’s, Surrender, and VDKa
haute! who
goes there?
Carrying a Veneziani
bag, offered exclusively in
the United States at
Wynn, is a sure sign of a
fashion insider. The
brand was founded by Jole
Veneziani, a grande dame
of Italian fashion who
was among the few
designers selected to take
part in the first Italian
Haute Couture show in
Florence in 1951.
here’s an app
for that!
Account-based wagering
has arrived at Wynn in
full force in the form of
the Wynn Mobile Sports
app for iOS and
Android. Sign up at the
Sports Book and
download the app. Then
just log in and place your
bet, no matter the place.
84
Norma pailettes embroidery bag
($3,800) by Veneziani. Bags Belts
and Baubles, Wynn, 702-770-3555
bar, stocked with everything
from interactive and social
games to a rotating roster of
great DJs. look for Suzo Happ
interactivepro tables, roulette,
craps, blackjack, and slots, and a
specialty cocktail program. Or
you can settle in to watch sports
on 23 56-inch HD televisions.
(Order from a special menu from
Wazuzu on major game days.)
But for bragging rights—and one
of the best selfies you’ll take in
Vegas—play Steve Wynn’s own
white-lacquer Blatt Billiards
table shipped in from his
manhattan penthouse.
The makings for the
SW English Laundry
espresso martini.
The recently redesigned
SW Steakhouse at Wynn.
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For years the restaurant at the beginning of the Encore Esplanade
greeted diners with Seated Lady, a giant bronze by Colombian artist Fernando Botero
and known affectionately by regulars as “The Fat Lady.” Now gone, the big, dark
statue personified the restaurant Botero, the dinner-only steakhouse that has given
way to its polar opposite, the light, bright Jardin. The new three-meal-daily eatery
overlooks the Encore pool, and its very name, French for “garden,” evokes warmth.
“I don’t design to theme. But the name of the restaurant says it all: It’s about
gardens in all the beauty they present. Our job is to connect the inside to the outside
and vice versa,” explains Roger Thomas, Executive Vice President of Design for
Wynn Design and Development. “The dining room was completely refurnished
with cabinets specifically selected for Jardin and used to separate the space into
more intimate dining areas while maintaining the focus of the view on the beautiful �
garden party
The bright, fresh new décor and dishes in Jardin transform the restaurant into a light-filled centerpiece for Wynn’s colorful gardens.
by Larry Olmsted
The Fleur chocolate cake at Jardin tells the
restaurant’s story in layered dark chocolate
mousse and moist chocolate cake in a
chocolate “flower pot.”
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gardens that surround the circular room.” The overall
architecture was not changed, since the restaurant
lends itself to being either dark and more formal or full
of light, he says. The focus of the space is now on a giant
flower arrangement and a mirror-filled light well. And
since a busy room that serves three meals a day can
accumulate carts and other elements, part of Thomas’s
job was to eliminate clutter.
Bridging the gap between the more formal Tableau
and the casual Terrace Pointe Café, Jardin brings
gourmet riffs on American favorites and comfort foods
to Wynn—along with a wealth of institutional memory.
Chef Joe Zanelli helped open Tableau in 2005, then
launched the Country Club, before running room ser-
vice for both hotels when Encore opened. After a stint
with popular local restaurateurs Blau + Associates at
their Honey Salt and Andiron Steak & Seafood eater-
ies, he returned here to wind down Botero and oversee
its transformation into Jardin.
“I was doing a hundred filets a night at Botero,” says
Zanelli. That was just months ago, but today the lead-
ing dinner choice at Jardin is herb-crusted salmon
sitting atop a sunny yellow sauce of lemon, confit fen-
nel, and Peruvian yellow peppers served with a quinoa
and vegetable medley. “Usually you have a fish dish in
the top four or five, but I never expected it to become
so popular. It is definitely number one.”
While the salmon reflects the lighter, fresher aes-
thetic at Jardin, with its quarterly menus focused on the
best seasonal ingredients, this is still Vegas, and
Zanelli is quick to point out that “filet is number two.”
Other heartier favorites are the short-rib ravioli at din-
ner, and what has quickly become the breakfast
signature, the chef’s inspired take on fried chicken and
waffles. The classic soul food dish has enjoyed a
national resurgence, but he did not want to do another
cookie-cutter version—and had no plans to serve waf-
fles at all. Instead, he borrows from the classic Toad in
a Hole egg dish and makes a slice of thick, crispy
clockwise from far left:
Jardin’s take on the ever-popular bacon and
eggs, with Kurobuta pork belly, quail eggs, kimchi
fried rice, and black garlic aioli; patio dining outside the restaurant; Chef Joe
Zanelli in his kitchen; housemade butterscotch maple bourbon pudding
with bourbon maple cream and bacon almond brittle.
Jardin brings gourmet riffs on American favorites and comfort foods to Wynn—along with a wealth of institutional memory.
French toast with an egg set in a hole in its center,
paired with double-breaded, buttermilk-soaked fried
chicken. The same poultry preparation anchors one of
the most popular lunch choices, the buttermilk fried
chicken sandwich, on a challah bun with house-made
ranch dressing and cole slaw.
“You have to appeal to every taste here,” says Zanelli.
“Everyone in the two hotels comes for breakfast. At
lunch you get shoppers and conventioneers, plus some
players. For dinner we get a big pre-show crowd and big
club crowd. It is very varied, but we wanted to elevate the
three-meal restaurant. Using high-quality ingredients,
we make as much as we can here from scratch, try to be
creative, and do as much tableside preparation as we
can.” That means soups poured individually and a flashy
signature dessert, the Fleur “flower pot cake”: dark choc-
olate cake inside a hard chocolate-shell “pot” sprayed
the color of terra cotta. Serving three to four, the cake is
presented whole and sliced tableside. “So many people
started ordering them to go that I had to find special
boxes. We make at least 30 a day.”
Other tableside flair includes the rolling Bloody
Mary cart at breakfast, and Moscow Mule cart the rest
of the day. Designed by Wynn property mixologist
Damian Cross, this includes a giant copper mule mug
that holds an entire bottle of vodka and all the fixings,
which is then ladled out like punch for the table in indi-
vidual copper cups.
To keep things seasonal and garden-style, Zanelli
contracted with a local farmer and has booked an
entire greenhouse to provide tomatoes, zucchini,
arugula, and other vegetables. “I’m an East Coaster,
but I have been out here long enough for my f lavor
profile to lighten up. I use more spices, herbs, and
acids, and we put a lot of f lavor in, but we are not
cooking with butter or heavy cream,” he notes. “It is
related to the weather here in Vegas, and this space,
which is very bright with lots of natural light. It’s like
eating on your sun porch.”
An American Wagyu ribeye cap is served with arugula salad, fork-mashed potatoes, trumpet mushrooms, and sauce au poivre.
To keep things seasonal and garden-style,
Zanelli has booked an entire greenhouse to provide tomatoes,
zucchini, arugula, and other vegetables.
89
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It Is 11 am and I am sIttIng across from Executive chef Enzo Febbraro
at one of his tables in allegro, where passersby on a heavily trafficked path toward
the casino floor can see me, through a large window, ostentatiously eating a creamy
mound of burrata—a mozzarella curd pouch bursting with salty mascarpone,
cream, and ricotta. a big sign at the door announces that the restaurant won’t open
until 3 pm, but it’s not stopping Febbraro’s supplicants from seeking special dis-
pensation. the flash of guilt I almost feel is gone in the next bite.
Febbraro pushes the cork lid of a prized salt container toward me. It reads:
“Ingredienti: mare, sole, vento.” or sea, sun, wind. “Brilliant, isn’t it?” he says with
a broad smile. It’s not surprising that this very simple compound spelled out on the
label of a jar would resonate with him. the salt is sprinkled over a plate we are
sharing whose ingredients are nearly as elemental as those on the label: tomatoes,
burrata, olive oil, basil. and by sharing, I mean I am eating as he cheers me on like
an indulgent grandmother.
the quality of the ingredients is crucial. the olive oil is tondo d.o.P., a bright
green-gold oil made from the famous tonda Iblea olives on the estate of marchesi
achille Paterno’ di spedalotto in sicily. “It’s just a little bit peppery at the very end,” he
enthuses. the tomatoes are the deeply pigmented red-brown Kumato variety origi-
nally bred on spain’s costa almería and now sourced from california; he’s picked
them because they’re firm and sweet, with a hint of sourness that gives the creamy
burrata just a bit of edge. the salt has been harvested from salt pans since the
Phoenicians established their western colonies in sicily 2,000 years ago, and he
Of the essence
In Enzo Febbraro’s kitchen at Allegro, some of the simplest, most impeccably sourced ingredients come together in the restaurant’s greatest showpieces.
by Andrea Bennett
�
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describes where it hits on your tongue with the poetry
of a master sommelier. When you are eating with Enzo
Febbraro, you have to make a concerted effort to distin-
guish his charm from the food. Is this plate really so
seductive or is it Enzo’s exuberance that attracts 270,000
diners to this 160-seat restaurant each year, hoping to
dive headfirst into his lasagna Napoletana? Since he
isn’t dining with all those clients, it must be the food.
Febbraro may have picked up the grandmotherly
urging from his own, whose kitchen in Naples he
began cooking in as a child. At 13, he was working in
a Neapolitan pizzeria. “I’m a cliché!” he laughs. By 15
he was laboring in a restaurant kitchen in the Adriatic
coastal town of Cattolica in Emilia-Romagna, and at
16 he had graduated from culinary school and was
embarking on apprenticeships across Europe. Cooking
took him through Paris, Nice, Munich, Garmisch-
Partenkirchen, Madrid, Milan, and London. But Chef
Gino Angelini, for whom Febbraro worked at the
Grand Hotel des Bains in Riccione, south of Rimini
on Italy’s Adriatic coast, was the mentor who not only
taught him about fine dining, but also brought him to
the United States. Angelini had decamped to the land-
mark Rex il Ristorante, credited with introducing Los
Angeles to grand Italian dining. “He brought me over
for a quick job to cook for the Grammys,” Febbraro
recalls. “That was 20 years ago, and I never left.” His
tour of the US was no less extensive, winding through
Philadelphia, New York, Las Vegas, and Washington,
DC, where he was recruited by Steve Wynn, for whom
he’d cooked at an event a decade earlier as chef of the
famed Filomena Ristorante in Georgetown.
When he came to the US, Febbraro says, he was at
a philosophical crossroads: “You can end up on this
campaign to collect Michelin stars, or you can do what
is true to your heart. Of course there is a place for that
exalted and complicated food, but I want people to
come here and get their soul filled—and reminisce
about some wonderful place in Italy they traveled to.”
To that end, dishes from grandmother and mama are
on the menu, tweaked and perfected over time: lasa-
gna with “Sunday Meat Ragu Sauce” and smoked
mozzarella, and seafood risotto studded with shrimp,
scallops, calamari, mussels, and clams.
Febbraro and his team begin making burrata at 4
PM each day, tempering the mozzarella curd in a pot of
hot water, melting it in a hotter pot so it can be shaped
into a ball, then stretching it into a paper-thin sheet
and cutting it into precise little squares. In one quick
motion, he fills each square with a mixture of mascar-
pone cheese, mozzarella, heavy cream, and salt and
pepper, then quickly wraps it in plastic, twisting it into
a perfectly round little purse. It takes his kitchen crew
only 45 minutes to make the 50 or so they’ll need for
the evening. “You have to eat it within the evening,”
he says firmly. The fresh burst of cream just isn’t the
same on day two. On some days, the burrata is filled
with lobster or crab as a menu special.
“You know, I’ve traveled a lot and I love the inter-
national inf luences,” Febbraro says, but a culinary
life spent all over the world has only confirmed his
love for his rich Italian heritage. “The greatest Italian
cuisine is the simplest. You know that you can’t fake it.
You choose a great olive oil, and a great tomato, and
you can’t find a surrogate for good quality.” If this is
a cliché, I’ll have another.
“The greatest Italian cuisine is the simplest. You can’t fi nd a surrogate for good quality.”
—ENZO FEBBRARO
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Febbraro stretches hot mozzarella curd; mozzarella lovers can also order this burrata as part of a larger mozzarella platter, which includes stracchino, mozzarella di bufala, and fried stracciatella; the curds are tempered in a hot bath.
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Find the spa intimidating? Statistically, you’re no longer in the majority, says Erika Valles, Director of Spa Operations at
The Spa at Encore. In fact, the ratio of male to female spa visitors is one-to-one. “The spa is no longer looked upon as
purely recreation,” she says. “They’re viewed as preventive health care.” While weekends are always busier than weekdays,
the peak times in the Encore Gentlemen’s Lounge are over Super Bowl Weekend and during March Madness. The lounge’s
secret: luxe chaises and couches facing the enormous 80-inch flat-screen television, one of the largest on the property.
PICK 5
1. Is your shoulder
sore after playing the
back nine? Try
The Spa at Wynn’s
arnica oil-enhanced,
deep-tissue Muscle
Melt Treatment.
2. For those who have
overindulged—or are
suffering from jet
lag—both spas
pair a 50-minute
aromatherapy
massage and a
pedicure in The
Revitalizer.
3. To get ready for a
late night: the Men’s
Executive Retreat, an
80-minute deep-
tissue massage
followed by a
50-minute facial
targeted just for men.
4. Seeking the highest
state of tranquility?
Try the 4 Hands
Relaxation Ritual,
where two therapists
work in harmony,
giving the guest the
Spa’s “most
sensational massage.”
5. Before or after
any treatment: hydro-
therapy circuit in the
men’s spas—seven
different plunge pools
and showers, 10 to 15
minutes each.
Haven Sent
At The Spas at Wynn and Encore, it’s a man’s world, too.by Michael Shulman
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wing leiWynn Las Vegas
3:14 pm
2001-2016 Celebrating XV Years
of Fine Jewelry
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H A R M O N Y
D U A L T I M E
Geneva official watchmaking certification
Our continuous history is reflected in the Harmony collection.
A new legacy has dawned.
C R A F T I N G E T E R N I T Y
S I N C E 1 7 5 5
