Sommaire pour Autumn 2018 de Chic Compass

Summer arrived in Las Vegas bringing with it the heat. How appropriate that Nathan Tanouye and Clint Holmes’ “Las Vegas Suite” is in recording session. “Heat” is one of the selections and Clint’s lyric tells it all. The 35 members of the Las Vegas Connection have brought the Suite to life with their incomparable talent. I am amazed at how easily I slipped into this orchestral jazz world. Twelve years ago I heard a composition for a big band by Nathan Tanouye and knew instantly this was the one who could arrange my late husband Russ Freeman’s bebop classics for big band. I wanted Russ’ music to live on. Nathan’s younger ears could bring it to this century. Three CDs later Nathan and the Las Vegas Connection are thriving…

The fashion designer Anne Fontaine is a genius alive with exposure and capabilities in so many areas. Her fashion ideas have made a huge impact on feminine styles and identities. And as we know, they are a key fashion plate here in Las Vegas, as around the world. One of the staples in her fashion line is the iconic white shirt for women. When asked about her inspiration for the style, she believes that “a white shirt is a timeless elegance and one with which each woman can express herself”. We know that all women have white shirts and they all take on different “roles” in their wardrobes. A lot of appreciation and thanks goes to Anne Fontaine for her love of the white shirt! And part of the awesomeness…

I have always been attracted to travel. See The World!! I started my travel at a young age with cut out photos for what was to become my bucket list. Being a designer and importer traveling the world in search of products to import included working with the Ministry of Culture in the Forbidden City in China. I was immersed into the Chinese Culture far beyond a normal tourist’s experience and I never got over it. That only encouraged me to see and do more. I have been very lucky in that regard and I have managed to make my original bucket list dwindle considerably. But, a new bucket list seems to have more and more items on the agenda. What’s next? A day here, maybe a few days there?…

Cristina Pajara Clarke is a very stylish Las Vegas woman. In the nursing world she is considered the most glamorous nurse practitioner in history. Doctors tell her she is in the wrong profession and should join a pageant! But she is a woman of substance and would rather spend most of her day helping and assisting the sick, the dying and curing the homeless and assigning them to homes. She came to the United States in 2004 pursuing the American dream. Her career began as a hospital ward unit secretary, earned a nurse assistant degree, later a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and got her job as a registered nurse in the Intensive Care Unit at St. Rose Hospital San Martin Campus. She now holds a Master of Science in…

Carlo the Photographer. The name rolls off the tongue with a sense of familiarity and flair. Upon meeting him, his larger than life personality and his genuine curiosity of others is undeniably disarming. It does not matter if you are in front of his camera or behind it, his spirit is magnetic and intoxicating. His keen ability to read people provide him the insight to capture the beauty of every person he photographs. You cannot help but fall in love with Carlo Ronconcio. His multi-sensory, high fashion soirées at his lavish mid-century home in Paradise Palms are nothing short of epic. When you are with Carlo, something magical happens. You are transported into world of culture, an aesthetic that blends old world grandeur with modern form, and a moxie to…

Mark Gunter can honestly say that the seed of a career as a Fashion Photographer was planted in the 70’s with a photograph that he snapped of his Mother dressed with style on her way out for the evening. Gunter went on to enlist in the Military Services and served in The Gulf War. He used every opportunity to get behind the lens of a camera which allowed him to perfect his talents as a photographer. Fast forward to the year 2013, Mark Gunter got his first opportunity to shoot for Sacramento Fashion Week. Mark’s goal was to get the best shot, which has become his motto ever since. From that point, Gunter set his sights on the bigger picture, New York City’s Fashion Week. Shooting the runways of…

Las Vegas designer David Tupaz was trained in the manner of the Haute Couture tradition. Paris, France is the main headquarters of Haute Couture with the institution called the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne. It votes to qualify those to be a “couture” designer… but just IN PARIS! Tupaz feels that in the USA the Couture center is Hollywood, California. It is the place where the most spectacular, fabulous and glamorous costumes, dresses and gowns that the world has ever seen were all designed, created and manufactured from the days of silent films to the time of Garbo, Monroe, Hepburn, and Kelly. The films documented the brilliance of American high fashion. So, the new Tupaz brand is labeled DAVID TUPAZ “American Couture” Tupaz has always been fascinated with…

The season of summer madness arrived and the town was alive and hot with all sorts of wonderful shows, art gallery showings, concerts and musicals. I was one of the fortunate ones to be able to see Hamilton at the Smith Center in June and it was as fabulous as everyone said it would be. I still sometimes can’t believe we have a place like The Smith Center to call our own. One of my favorite spots at the center is Myron’s Jazz Cabaret. I have witnessed so many outrageously talented performers in that room over the last several years that I would have to take this entire column to list them all beside what I have seen in Reynolds Hall. There is one show, however, that is very…

I have enjoyed a lifetime love affair with the camera. I find it very compelling that you can use a piece of technology to extend the vision of our physical eyes and capture a unique moment in time. As everyone well knows, a picture is worth a thousand words, and nowhere is that fact more evident than in the evocative images from the World Heritage Collection of Mario Basner, one of only 30 artists worldwide to be invited to the 2018 Venice Biennale, a highly prestigious, internationally renowned exhibition which will explore the deep communion between architecture, society and our surroundings. Mario brings us images lifted from the pages of life, casting over us a spell of humanity, compassion, nostalgia and wonder that mirror the energy with which our community…

The Las Vegas Market is the local shopping area for designers. “Las Vegas Market is the nation’s fastest growing gift and home décor market and the leading furniture marketplace in the western U.S. presenting 4,100+ gift, home décor and furniture resources in an unrivaled market destination. Las Vegas Market features thousands of gift, furniture and home décor lines, allowing for cross-category commerce among these industries.” It is an amazing place to shop for designers and their clients, and new things are coming. Lee Hershberg, Vice President of Home Decor Leasing at the market tells us about “a new extension of work with the design community - a venue showing off kitchens and bathrooms.” The LVDC Kitchen & Bath Resource Center was ready for the summer market. Several local designers were…

Surely, it is poised to create tidal (air)waves in the near future. Asian Culture TV (ACTV), a 24/7 Asian television network on Digital Channel 30.6 (Las Vegas), is distinctly making constant ripples since its launch a year ago. And there is no stopping it from creating ripples… till it churns into a tsunami over the airwaves, or online sooner than expected. Conceived in August 2016 by joint venture partners ACA and VAsianTV, ACTV was formally launched on January 21, 2017 with its premier telecast of Asian News, the first ever newscast dedicated to Asians and Asian Americans in the Las Vegas Valley, and now, the world. Since its launch, ACTV has not stopped its ascent from a single television newscast to its current programming that encompasses multi-ethnic cultures, arts,…