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[MUSIC]
MARK VAN ITERSON: If you walk into a space, you can, in
fact, often not tell it's that element or it's that detail or
it's that thing that is making it.
ANDRE BALAZS: It almost doesn't matter what a room
looks like.
The design is actually imagining who would come, and
then engineering an experience that addresses the fantasy
life of that group of people.
-Hello, and welcome to USA, your pleasure destination.
ERIC GOODE: The club was in Times Square.
And so we did this sort of Tokyo meets Times Square.
Very Blade Runner.
You would walk in, and you'd have sort of like the perfect
person, [INAUDIBLE], telling you, come in.
Welcome to Club--
it was always a spoof of the '80s.
ERIC GOODE: The main bar was like a kiosk of just ***.
And it was just sort of playing off of what Times
Square was.
And what it still should be.
ANDRE SARAIVA: We said, oh, we're gonna be in Chinatown.
So let's do something a bit Chinese.
Oh, let's think we are in Shanghai in the 1920s.
And this is a really a dirty hole, little club where the
ex-pats go or something like this.
ERIC GOODE: The idea of Area was to have a place that had
movable walls.
And the entire environment would be different every time
you went there.
And to be really obsessive about creating
these monthly themes.
MICHAEL MUSTO: They would have themes like confinement.
And the house drag queen, named [INAUDIBLE], would
portray, let's say, Anne Frank confined in the attic.
And all the wall hangings and all the displays were related
to the confinement theme.
-When I create a design for a party,
I do create a narrative.
Like one of my favorite parties I've ever done was
because I was up late one night drinking espresso,
watching Falco music videos.
And I designed the entire thing to mimic "Rock Me,
Amadeus."
Instead of Marie Antoinette's boudoir, let's do like a
filthy, dirty mess, hot pink mess.
Marie Antoinette's been on a bender for
the past three days.
MARK VAN ITERSON: Adam is, indeed, a real storyteller.
He thinks of the whole story line, how people should be
dressed, the waiters and the staff.
What do they do?
Which roles do they play?
-The characters are-- they're like that fun girl at a party
that goes up to the wallflower and gets them on to the dance
floor dancing.
For the roles for the night club, I'd like to have each
person be a character.
So starting with the bartender.
He's the type of guy with like some nice muscles.
Tattoos all over.
Maybe a piercing.
Got short black hair.
Tight jeans.
Shaking two cocktail shakers, popping things open, making
things explode, fizzing, flying.
And then in the lounge, you've got these really sexy
waitresses who are going to be glowing
like a light up sculpture.
Kind of whispering rhythms and poems and rhymes into people's
ears, tipping them off to the different weird
things in the club.
Like an ancient, Greek mythological woman.
Like a nyad.
I think the doorman--
really, what I'm picturing is something from "The Matrix."
Where you have the big guy in the trench
coat with the glasses.
He's actually nice.
But he kind of looks like a hard ***.
MARK VAN ITERSON: I think that's the beauty of him as a
character, that there is a bit of a crazy, weird way of
looking at things.
But that makes it so unexpected.
And I think for the people visiting, it
will make them smile.
And it will give them, really, another experience than they
were used to.
-If you think about our demographic of who's going to
be coming, you've got like 30s to 50s design professionals.
And we have to get them to roll up their sleeves, take
off their shirts, and start dancing with reckless abandon.
If we can do that, then I think it would
be kind of a success.
ERIC GOODE: Again, everything we did in a club was really
just to lure the people.
And then the people were the key.
And you needed to have a mixture of people that made
the place happen.
VA$HTIE: Fun things happen when you put a bunch of random
people together.
AMY SACCO: I want drag queens and supermodels and moguls.
Movie stars, starving artists, skateboarders, surfers.
MADISON MOORE: Straight people and gay people and drag queens
and different backgrounds and classes all together.
And that's what makes it interesting.
CARLOS QUIRARTE: I don't want to hang out
with a bunch of anything.
Some guys might think different than me.
But who wants to hang out with a bunch of models?
That felt weird to say.
SIMONEZ WOLF: As a doorperson, you're a creator of the space.
So basically you have to have a bit of everything.
-90% of the bodies in a place are being
selected at the door.
-No, you're not shaved.
There's no way.
-I come every--
-It doesn't matter.
If you're not shaved-- listen.
Just go home.
MADISON MOORE: Designing yourself before you go.
What kind of look can you wear to get past the door?
What can you do to get in?
MARIPOL: What are you doing during the day?
It's not, oh, I'm thinking about what I'm
going to wear tonight.
SIMONEZ WOLF: Yeah.
You have to dress funky.
You have to have a personality, individuality.
And you come to the door.
You're like, my God.
He has feathers in his hair and wearing white shoes.
And then you get in.
ERIC GOODE: It was about really encouraging people that
came to really make an effort.
To really participate.
To be flamboyant.
Or to be imaginative.
MADISON MOORE: If you know you want to go out, don't look
like a slob.
Don't wear your Ugg boots and sweatshorts.
Don't wear that.
MARK VAN ITERSON: Of course, the crowd that will be in the
club, fashion will be important.
But that means that also for the bar staff and the waiters
and the hostesses.
It is this lady serving the beer.
And what is she wearing?
It adds up to the entire experience.
MICHELLE WU: I'm working right now with Adam.
And Adam is designing the roles.
I'm working on costumes for the Blue Zone, which is the
cool down zone.
It's for our dreamy waitress.
I did not make that up.
In my mind, it's kind of an ethereal, graceful woman.
I think it would be a mixture of Liv Tyler in "Lord of the
Rings."
The overall theme for the club is changing perspectives.
And one of the big design elements is origami.
So what I'm doing is just basically translating that and
kind of channeling what that means to
me into these garments.
It's been a lot of trial and error with the origami.
Experimenting with how the origami will work with the
anatomy of the body.
MARK VAN ITERSON: Michelle is really experimenting in what
can you do with a textile?
How can you create new shapes?
New silhouettes?
And surprise you in that way.
Give a total new look at fashion.
MICHELLE WU: After kind of defining the shapes that I
wanted in the paper, I translated
that into the garments.
After a series of draping and seeing what would really
accentuate the female form, I created some muslins.
Because beauty is like an arbitrary thing.
All the points that I wanted to hit, I have hit.
I think it looks good on the female form.
It has lots of texture.
And, most importantly, it's nice in different viewpoints.
And that, to me, was the main thing.
Because it's about changing perspective.
I like it, despite having spent two
straight weeks with them.
So that says something.
-It is really hard to design the perfect club or the party.
Because it doesn't depend only on the space or on the flier.
On the staff.
The music.
At this point, it's the people that will make the club.
MARK VAN ITERSON: By designing for that, you can try to
enhance that environment and to enhance that experience a
bit and surprise people again and excite people again.
A beautiful environment does good for people.
KENNY SCHARF: All different kinds of people.
All different ages.
And everyone's all mixed up together.
Really just having fun.
MATT KLIEGMAN: I want to have the person that has so much
*** fun.
And then they go back, and they tell their girlfriend and
their friends and then their mom.
And their *** grandmother.
That, like, oh, I had the greatest time
at this night club.
ANDRE SARAIVA: Night is a place that
everybody is the same.
So why do reproduce those role who you have during the day?
No.
Forget about that.
It's a moment of freedom.
And it has to stay like that.
STEVE LEWIS: The fundamental things in
nightlife have not changed.
We need each other.
And going out at night is as natural to humans as going
back to caveman days.
That's the way I figure it.
The sociology around fire.
Clubs and restaurants have become that fire.
That hearth.
That part of us.
And we can't escape it.
[MUSIC]