Club Vegas

There is an article in this week's Amsterdam Weekly talking about the end of Club Vegas on Sunday nights at the Winston. It's written by the woman who's hosted it over the past few years and she recounts some of her favourite memories of the dance night. The night's main aim was to host some unique DJs and acts along with some freaky videos, while encouraging the partygoers to dress in a Vegas style. That was to be interpreted how you pleased: you could go classy 40s style, psychedelic 70s style, pimped out, skanky, flashy.... whatever. They were happy if you made some sort of effort. Though according to the article, one guy asked if his birthday suit fit their dress code and they decided it did, and that doesn't really take much work.

Anyway, so a few years ago I decided to surprise O for no real reason except I had the idea and couldn't wait 3 months til it was his birthday to execute it. I booked us for a Sunday night at the Winston Hotel and also planned to go to the Club Vegas night dressed up. He wouldn't know about any of it beforehand though, so I had buy his stuff for the club in a couple of shopping trips on my own. This was easier then cuz he still worked shifts, so there were more opportunities for me to sneak into town on the weekend and he wouldn't know.

I decided to get some 70s, slightly pimpy stuff for O. I found a pretty cool old polyester shirt at Zipper, and added to that a gold chain and 70s sunglasses. I couldn't do much more than that since buying pants and shoes without him trying them on would have been near impossible, plus for one night I think what I got was enough.

I wore a dress I'd already had for awhile that's knee length, with buttons all down the front, sort of wide lapels, and a slightly Oriental print of big red flowers on a black background in a silky kind of material. I bought some fishnet stockings and borrowed a feather boa.

So I hijacked O into a cab on a Sunday afternoon and we checked into the hotel and I told him about the plans to go to the club night as well. It gave him the evening to adjust to the whole idea. Then that night we dressed up and headed downstairs to the club where our outfits got the woman at the door's stamp of approval. Yay! We had some cocktails and watched the whole scene for awhile. After an hour or so, the hostess announced that they'd be having a contest for the best outfit that night. She started calling people onto the stage and to my amazement, I was one that she was calling for. Unfortunately at that moment I was back at the bar getting another round of cocktails. After some nervous moments cursing the bartender under my breath to go faster, I got our drinks, threw them on the table in front of O, and headed onto the stage. The hostess then did the thing of pointing out each person on stage and having the audience vote with applause and cheers. I was first, and I don't remember the room being particularly loud for me, but it was all a blur anyway. After going through the line of us, she said basically, "well, I don't care what you all think, I'm going for the classic fishnets and boa." And I won! I absolutely could not believe it. I almost still can't, like I must just be thinking how I wished it turned out. But no, she like personally picked me, heh. It fucking rocked. My prize was a bottle of champagne. I can't even remember what the other people up there were wearing, except there was a woman in a 70s style, bell-bottomed body suit. So the music started back up, O and I had our drinks, then we hit the floor and had a great time dancing. It was an awesome night, centainly not something we do often, or really have done since. I'm sad Club Vegas is ending, but I'm glad it gave shy little old me the memory of a brief moment in the spotlight.