Visitors get to sample fashion world with beauty tips, couture, photos

Lindsay O'Brien stood under the bright studio lights striking her most intense female assassin pose: hands on hips, her ample cleavage jutting out, providing a fleshy contrast to the black fabric of her couture gown.

Black, lacy wings peeked over her shoulders, adding just the right touch to what she called her "Glamour Witch" look.

"This is like my dream," she says after a fashion photographer takes her picture. "If someone asked me, 'Would you like to walk into a room full of vintage couture clothes, try them on and get your picture taken?' I would say, 'Yes, please.' "

And the fact that celebrity stylist Emma Trask dressed her, from head to toe? That was just icing on an already sweet cake.

On a recent Thursday, O'Brien took a break from her job at a vintage eyeglass shop in The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas to see what was happening in the hotel's art studio, P3. Within minutes of walking through the door, she found herself modeling a couture gown, shoes and accessories for an Argentinian fashion photographer. She could barely contain her excitement, at one point gushing, "This is the best day of my life."

O'Brien was fully immersed in the latest experience offered by The Cosmopolitan. For six days, visitors to P3 were given the chance to be a model not unlike those seen in the hotel's award-winning advertising campaign, "Just the Right Amount of Wrong."

The hotel has carved itself a niche in unique, offbeat guest experiences. Think Pop Up Wedding Chapel, video game bar and secret pizza. A free, interactive couture fashion shoot? Just more of the same.

It was a little performance art meets high fashion, dreamed up by Lisa Marchese, The Cosmopolitan's chief marketing officer.

The idea was to give people a behind-the-scenes experience they might never have, Marchese says. She enlisted Trask, the fashion director for The Cosmopolitan's advertising campaigns and creative director at The Style Contingent.

Using more than 1,000 one-of-a-kind pieces, Trask styled willing guests who walked into the studio. She gave them a fashion tip or two that they could incorporate into their wardrobes.

Photographer Luciano Ferreyra snapped a Polaroid photo for the guests to remember their experience. The whole thing was free, too.

And the clothing was also available for rentals, just in case someone forgot their New Year's Eve outfit.

On the other side of P3, Decades, a Los Angeles-based boutique, operated a temporary pop-up shop, selling couture clothing.

Trask, who has styled Brad Pitt, Scarlett Johansson, Cameron Diaz and Kristen Stewart among others, enjoyed her P3 Studio residency. Las Vegas, she says, has an advantage over other cities in that one can be a bit more frivolous with their clothing choices. Her goal during her residency was to push people toward that edge.

"I think in Vegas, you can be kind of playful," she says. "People haven't taken the extra step with what they wear. That's what I think is missing when I look at people in Vegas, the fantasy."

Originally, the exhibit was scheduled to run through tonight. But it ended early, because of the overwhelming response from people who wanted to wear couture.

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564. Follow @StripSonya on Twitter.