If the idea of dressing for casino nightlife brings to mind tight-and-bright bikinis for EDM DJs and poolside bacchanals, or animal-print spandex on the bus to Atlantic City, well, that’s not exactly what Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig had in mind. No, their vision for Marchesa’s latest Resort collection was casino nightlife by way of 1995’s Martin Scorsese film Casino; namely all of the sequins, beads, jewels, and trappings sported by the ex-hustler Ginger McKenna, played by Sharon Stone, a woman who celebrates her nuptials by spreading out a chinchilla coat on her bed by all of her gold Bulgari jewelry. Stone’s character, by the way, was based on a real Las Vegas showgirl named Geri McGee, who married the infamous gambler and, as his New York Times obituary put it, “gangster-when-necessary” Lefty Rosenthal, and who ran away with his violent gangster friend and died in a “mysterious collapse” shortly after a car bombing. She was a woman for whom rules would be broken, basically. This was the 1970s and 80s, of course, and Las Vegas, a city infused with synthetic energies and an uber-glam look—think shimmering gowns and illusion netting.
Unrepentant and potentially unrealistic glamour is something that Craig and Chapman know a thing or two about, having long been the go-to designers for starlets looking to make a red carpet splash. Theirs are not dresses for those looking to change their fortunes at the slot machines, these are dresses for those with plenty of luck already. While it didn’t offer anything particularly new for Marchesa, those looking to catch an eye across a crowded floor will find plenty to like in the collection's ultra feminine “feathers galore” (as Craig put it), plunging V-neck gowns, alluringly bejeweled floor-length sheaths, pearl-embellished fringed frocks, handcrafted 3-D floral embroideries, and full skirts both ball and tiered, as well as a relatively understated rainbow sherbet tulle gown that was arguably the best of the bunch. For those unsure of pulling off a sequined train on the Las Vegas strip, there were corseted, embroidered, jeweled cocktail frocks too, and the odd jewel-toned caftan for the poolside morning after.
