Fashion & Entertainment History in
Las Vegas

After months of inventoring, cataloging, and researching the costumes of these Vegas legends, we celebrated our efforts with a pop-up exhibition curated and installed by graduate students. The show included costumes, accessories, original sketches of designs, makeup, and touring luggage.

“Celebrating Costume: A Collaborative Art” project and event: Working with UNLV’s film department, graduate students collected, cataloged, and made accessible dozens of costumes to be used by film students for their work. Building upon the work of professor Diane Eden, the project aims to provide students with a range of costuming options from military officers to femme fatales. Public history students assembled this large, working wardrobe from donations and thrift store finds. The costumes are available for “check out” by enrolled students.

From showgirls to senators and construction tycoons to casino workers, all types inhabit our valley.  We live in a wildly diverse city, and this exhibition considers our history and culture  through one thing that unites us all: fashion.

“Vintage Vegas” project. Inspired by television shows such as “Project Runway” and “Cupcake Wars,” this pop-up exhibition/competition at the National Council for Public History National Conference brought together historians from across the country to research, write, and install a costume exhibition on a Vegas-related topic of their choice. We took twenty-five people, two dozen mannequins, racks of vintage clothing and 95 minutes, to produce five, mini-exhibitions that highlighted the history of fashion in Sin City.

opened at The Mob Museum and featured 25 dresses and several cases of accessories from cigarette cases to headbands. Students took theory into practice as they conserved century-old velvet, built mounts, dressed mannequins, and learned there is “real” history underneath the embellishments.

2015-current: “The CES Project” is a student-led, multi-year cataloging and research project using the costume collection of famed film director George and his wife, Corinne Entratter Sidney. The project includes university lectures, public exhibitions, and the stewardship of these objects into museums across the world. This collection includes objects owned and purchased by Jack Entratter, famed impresario and president of the Sands Hotel.

2012: “Vegas Style: Spectator and Spectacle” was first collaboration between the Nevada State Museum of Las Vegas and UNLV. It featured 15 costumes from industry greats such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Shecky Greene, and Penn & Teller. Other costumes included rhinestone-studded evening gowns, psychedelic maxi dresses, and elaborately embroidered Western wear worn by some of the city’s most notable names.