The magic of Creative Director Alessandro Michele’s coveted designs is on full display in all its glamorous glory at the new Gucci store at The Shops at Crystals. With entrances on both the casino and street levels of the luxury shopping destination, the nearly 12,000-square-foot boutique is sprawled across two stories, with an enchanting one-of-a-kind mural by Spanish artist Ignasi Monreal connecting the Italian terrazzo marble-clad floors.
External view of the Gucci storefront at The Shops at Crystals
A friend of the House of Gucci, Monreal was previously tapped by the brand for its spring/summer 2018 advertising campaign and the Gucci Hallucination campaign collection. “I received this commission while on a trip to Naples, where I visited the San Severo chapel, which houses some of the most incredible sculptures I’ve ever seen, each representing an allegory of a specific virtue and showing a secret path to enlightenment,” says Monreal.
“The main source of inspiration for the chapel was Cesare Ripa’s 1709 book, Iconologia or Moral Emblems, which has served as a guide for artists and poets for centuries, creating conventions for visual representations of abstract themes in art, such as the virtues or the vices. It seemed ironic to bring the Italian tradition of moralist painting back to America’s capital of sin.”
Artist Ignacio Monreal mural inspired by the Las Vegas desert and culture
The result is a site-specific mural about “ascension into enlightenment in Las Vegas, with an allegory of the vices downstairs and an allegory of the virtues upstairs,” reveals Monreal. Among the painting’s figures are Michele, portrayed as Sisyphus, “carrying the weight of Gucci with each new collection every season, only to have to start all over again whenever he succeeds,” says the artist, who also captures Bacchus, the god of wine and parties; Eve with a snake and golden apple; and Las Vegas as the ancient Babylon.
The shoe display area decorated with custom-designed Gucci branded furniture
“It’s the first time my work has been shown in Vegas, and it’s been a major source of inspiration for this site-specific piece,” shares Monreal. “The decadence of this town gleaming in the middle of the desert has a seductive and lyrical quality about it.”
Shoppers will also be seduced by the vast retail offerings, including men’s and women’s ready-to-wear apparel, shoes, handbags, luggage, small leather goods, fashion and fine jewelry, watches, eyewear, fragrances and Gucci Beauty products. Let the revelry begin.
Photography by: Courtesy of Gucci
