CHARLET: Welcome to Fashion Week Internationale, a new
show that reports on the most fabulous fashion weeks in the
world, and the culture and politics behind them.
Next up, we head to Sin City in search of some of that old
Vegas magic.
This is me in the back of a pickup truck in the middle of
the Nevada desert.
We were on our way to Las Vegas for something called the
International Lingerie Show, an event billed as a three-day
spectacular showcasing the latest in cutting edge
lingerie design.
Before we left, a friend of mine, the celebrated fashion
photographer Alice Hawkins, said I must make a stop at her
friend Mark Hayward's house in Tecopa, Death Valley.
Mark had spent a lot of time in the city but found it
overwhelming, and so disappeared into the desert to
live a life of solitude.
Alice told me he'd have some sagely advice about Vegas
which would be invaluable to our trip.
How would you feel if you had to go to Vegas tomorrow and
walk around the strip?
MARK: I'd feel like I was in hell.
It's like walking through hell.
You go into the city, and in a few hours' time, all your
finest sensitivities are blunted.
You begin to feel more and more inhuman.
More like a robot.
Sex is very powerful.
We should always beware and feel a deep reverence for the
power of sex.
It's the source of all our creativity.
Either way, it can bring it to a downfall.
CHARLET: The Vegas economy is currently ranked
worst in the nation.
Local industry has gone to great pains to keep the money
coming in, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the
field of adult entertainment.
The extravagant glamour of years gone by has been
replaced by a stripped-down version, where less has
definitely become more.
So I have a bit of a personal love affair with lingerie
because when I was at uni, I worked part time for three
years in Agent Provocateur.
I know everything about lingerie.
There's nothing you can teach me.
I've got enough knickers to last me a lifetime.
But maybe where lingerie is at now has changed, so let's see.
The moment I stepped into the badly lit exhibition center, I
realized this was about as far away from
sexy as could be imagined.
So this is Dennis.
He's lived in Vegas for 11 years.
DENNIS: I've been coming to the International Lingerie
Show for three years now.
I've attended a lot of the other adult-oriented shows.
These are some of the samples that this booth is nice enough
to give out.
And they make excellent quality garments.
CHARLET: Which pink?
DENNIS: Oh, this pink right here.
CHARLET: Why?
MARK: Something dynamic that stands out.
This is Las Vegas, and you want to be colorful and bright
and make the right impression in Las Vegas.
CHARLET: Do you like thongs?
DENNIS: I love thongs, absolutely.
Now for me, a thong covers a bit too
much, but they're nice.
They're quite fond of offering you a piece of ass here.
Am I right?
CHARLET: I'm eating ass.
DENNIS: Right here is one of the newer ones.
They have some of the state of the art stuff.
They also have devices for the gentleman.
The pleasure flesh is very close to the real thing.
CHARLET: Have you ever tried anything like that?
Do you speak from experience?
DENNIS: Oh, I speak from a great experience.
CHARLET: This stall seems to be bona fide lingerie.
This is unusual lingerie.
Is this a bra or underwear?
FEMALE SPEAKER: That would be crotchless.
CHARLET: Oh, yes.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Yes.
CHARLET: Can we talk about this?
FEMALE SPEAKER: Oh, yeah.
CHARLET: Is this for women?
FEMALE SPEAKER: No, this is for the boys.
They have quite a few of these.
They've got an elephant, they have a candy cane.
CHARLET: Is this to make it--
your bits look less intimidating?
FEMALE SPEAKER: I just hope they can fill it up.
CHARLET: This is Andrew, Mr. Gorgeous.
ANDREW: Yes.
I just got in from a fun night of partying.
I feel amazing.
I'm here to model my friend's skin line called Skin Couture,
which is what I have right here.
CHARLET: It says "Every saint has a past, every sinner has a
future." What's going on on your butt?
It says Don't.
Is that a tease, like oh don't?
Or is it actually don't?
ANDREW: It's don't, like I'm not easy like that.
Don't.
Get away, I'm not available like that.
But I like the bathing suit.
CHARLET: Ah.
What is this company that you're modeling for?
FEMALE SPEAKER: Well, the company is called Shibue
Couture, and it's the first strapless panty.
It's a silicone-based adhesive miracle.
CHARLET: Ah!
FEMALE SPEAKER: Stays on.
Sometimes you like a little bit of modesty,
just a little bit.
MALE SPEAKER: [YELLING]
$5 samples!
Come and get them!
CHARLET: I thought you said blow jobs.
So, no blow jobs?
MALE SPEAKER: Well, now that you're here, we could probably
arrange something.
Can I take a bathroom break, boss?
CHARLET: Bye!
MALE SPEAKER: All talk and no action.
CHARLET: I wasn't exactly impressed by what I'd seen.
If this was how far lingerie had come, I was depressed.
When three giant plasters actually constitute lingerie,
I think you've hit rock bottom.
During the expo, one thing did catch my eye.
Nestled in between all the sex toys and crotchless panties
was a poster for something called the LFL, or Lingerie
Football League.
After making a few phone calls, we were invited to go
and crash the training session for local team
the Las Vegas Sin.
ANNOUNCER: Here she is, first down and more.
Inside the 10, 5, Las Vegas has
scored their first touchdown.
ANTHONY: Over the years, since I've coached women's football,
I've learned every woman's different.
We're probably one of few coaches who really just
understands life.
And we let the women live their lives.
HEATHER: I really trust what Coach Hac does with
everything with me.
So if I'm a quarterback slot receiver, I trust what he does
and I know that it's for the best for the team.
ANTHONY: As a coach, I have to look beyond the whole lingerie
aspect of it, and just look at the athlete.
ANNOUNCER: Look at her go!
She's everything!
She has it all!
She's got the moves, she's got the speed,
she's got the power!
CHARLET: Is it not ever a bit impractical?
MADDIE: I've never had anything been pulled out or
showed out, but I've seen it.
CHARLET: Are your fans mainly men?
MADDIE: Yes.
They go there for bachelor parties, big groups of guys.
CHARLET: So it's not as violent, maybe, as the male--
MADDIE: No, it is.
CHARLET: --equivalent?
It is?
MADDIE: Yeah.
We hit like men, but we have less padding on.
So it actually hurts a lot worse.
It sucks.
TAMICA: And I just love the fact that it allows women to
still compete at a high level of sports, and
it's extremely sexy.
Because it's still a new league, there's still a lot of
people who have their doubts.
They'll consider it a powderpuff league, but it
really isn't.
The ladies out here are really hard, rough, and just
beautiful and competitive and it's amazing.
CHARLET: It's very hot.
DION: Yes.
It's Las Vegas.
CHARLET: These are a bit sexy, aren't they?
DION: Put the right foot up, right foot up, right foot up.
There you go, looking at her.
And getting ready to run.
Ready?
There you go.
Three steps-- one, two, three.
Go out.
Now go deep.
Go deep.
Keep running, keep running.
Keep running.
Go get it.
Ahh!
What is that?
CHARLET: Didn't you just think oh, this sounds
like a bit of a gimmick?
These girls are just going to be flapping around, they're
not into that--
DION: The first group of girls was a gimmick.
They were really models.
So now you have real athletes that have ran track, who have
done softball, volleyball, and now they're learning the game
of football.
CHARLET: How important is the lingerie to this whole thing?
DION: You bring football and women together?
Sexy women and football together?
That's every man's fantasy, right?
ANNOUNCER: Touchdown, Vegas.
CHARLET: I caught it!
Didn't you see?
ANNOUNCER: One more time, Vegas just puts on the
exclamation point.
CHARLET: Team on me!
MALE SPEAKER: Team on three.
CHARLET: Team on three!
FEMALE SPEAKER: Say one, two, three.
CHARLET: One, two, three--
FOOTBALL PLAYERS: Team!
CHARLET: So this is Strings.
Ever heard of it?
Me neither.
But it's actually the number one manufacturer and supplier
of g-strings to the Nevada state area.
Apparently, times were tough in the g-string business, and
ownership had changed hands several times over the years.
Do you live here?
LEO: Yes, I've been living in Vegas for
about four years now.
I had to reinvent myself, so I came out to Vegas, and I
reinvented myself.
CHARLET: How's it doing, the reinvention?
LEO: It's working well.
I'm still here!
CHARLET: Do you think it's a better quality of life here?
LEO: It all depends what you're looking for.
I'm single, footloose, fancy-free, with no luggage.
There's entertainment here.
Of course, there's family entertainment, but I'm not
here for family entertainment.
I like a 24-hour city where I could choose the level of
entertainment that I'm looking for and [INAUDIBLE] the danger
I'd like to get involved with, if you know what I mean.
FEMALE SPEAKER: And you can play with Little Bo Peep!
LEO: Oh, my, yes!
Let's see.
Come on out here.
Let's see.
FEMALE SPEAKER: How does it feel?
LEO: That's beautiful.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Oh, it's super cute.
LEO: Oh, that's outstanding.
FEMALE SPEAKER: I just need my little sheep.
MIKE: We invented the sexy bikini.
We invented the scrunch.
We changed the way everyone wears their stuff, and copies
us from Vegas.
The trend in Vegas is less and less and less and smaller,
because they're all trying to get the money, which is hard
to get right now because of the economy.
If they make a lot of money one night wearing something,
that will become their lucky set of clothes, and they'll
just wear that every day because they think it's lucky.
I don't think the guys in the club really
care what you're wearing.
This is a tiny bikini.
CHARLET: Oh my god, even that makes me feel busty.
MIKE: That's the new smallest version we've made.
This was the tiny before.
But this is the new tiny.
CHARLET: Are there are things that when you started working
here, that you were selling, that now
people just won't touch?
MIKE: Anything that covers up too much doesn't sell anymore.
CHARLET: You're the best g-string maker in America?
CHARLET: 20 g-strings an hour?
CHARLET: So what's her secret?
CHARLET: Congratulations!
That is a g-string.
As fascinating as that was, it was nearly
time for us to leave.
But before we did, Mike said I could choose an
outfit from the shop.
MIKE: This one would look good on you.
CHARLET: OK.
MIKE: You can pick any color underwear you want, but you
might want to just go with hot pink.
It all depends on your bum, too, right?
That dress was made for you.
That's a perfect Vegas night out dress for you.
CHARLET: After a whole afternoon learning about the
finer points of g-string construction, we made our way
back across town for what we thought was the opening show
of the Las Vegas International Lingerie event.
After a disappointing trade show, we were more than ready
to have our minds blown.
ANNOUNCER: Two, two, one, two, check, two,
two, one, two, two.
CHARLET: So these are the dancers who are rehearsing for
the show tonight.
They're being choreographed.
And they're all in track suits, but when we see them
later, they're all going to be half-naked.
I thought it was going to be more of a catwalk thing, but
it seems that it's more of a dance performance.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Look, look, two head rolls this time.
TAMICA: My name is Jessie, hi.
I'm a model.
This is my first number.
On the inside of this one, you can hold all of your money!
This one is kind of like an old time gangster, kind of
Halloween costume.
CHARLET: Where do the boobs go, Jessie?
JESSIE: I'm not quite sure where the boobs
are supposed to go.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Not everybody can do it.
And that sounds kind of mean to say, but showgirls are
showgirls because they actually are trained dancers,
and they are beautiful women, and they are talented.
You're not going to go be an astronaut unless you're
trained to do it.
You won't come be a showgirl either
CHARLET: Is there anything you won't wear?
FEMALE SPEAKER: I mean, there's nothing I won't wear,
because ultimately somebody's paying me to wear what they've
asked me to, and I've agreed to it.
As soon as this is over, we'll get our check, and we'll race
over to the Luxor and do our fittings for new costumes that
are going into the show tonight.
I don't even know what day it is.
I'm being called.
Sorry, got to go.
CHARLET: Thank you.
The doors have opened to the punters.
They're flooding in.
It's funny, this is not like-- it doesn't have the same vibe
as a fashion week somewhere else in the world.
These girls are just fucking hard workers.
This is just another job for them.
They're going to go off and do their next
show somewhere else.
They're all a bit kind of dead behind the eyes, almost.
But this is Vegas.
I suppose this is what you get.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you so much for all the buyers coming out.
You guys look good out there.
I want to thank a lot of support people that help us
put on this show.
And it's time to party!
[DANCE MUSIC]
CHARLET: And that was it.
This hour-long parade had been the International Lingerie
Show, what we've come all this way for.
But at least we'd made some new friends.
DENNIS: Oh-oh, my friend [INAUDIBLE] here.
CHARLET: This is an international lingerie show.
Do you have a favorite thing?
DENNIS: I'll be honest.
Personally, I just like to see a lot of skin, and I like the
kind of slutty look.
And I also like the very romantic, beautiful costumes.
And I just thoroughly enjoy it here.
FEMALE SPEAKER: I liked the old days when they had fur
coats and jewelry, and it was classy.
I like that a lot.
It was elegant, it was nice.
It was evening gowns to go to shows, you dressed up.
And now you can go, and they wear cut-off shorts.
These two ladies were sitting at the bar and they're talking
about shopping, and they're talking about sex and
everything.
And the one lady said, did you know a guy can tell the size
of your vagina by the size of your mouth?
And her friend goes, oooh, really?
FEMALE SPEAKERS: Viva Las Vegas!
CHARLET: We've just been kicked out from backstage
because some of the models are feeling uncomfortable.
So now we're stuck out here in this really fun corridor.
The whole thing had descended into a gaggle of middle-aged
women grasping frantically for free dildos and lube.
Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer just a little more left
to the imagination.
After only three days in the city, I felt used and dirty.
My dreams of finding that old Vegas magic had
fallen wildly short.
We drove back to Death Valley to our friend Mark's house,
where he and his buddy David led us through the nighttime
desert to take a cleansing dip in a natural hot spring
powered by volcanic energy.
I jumped at the chance to wash away the feeling of having
been at a seedy funeral for the death of the showgirl
MARK: There's bubbles, that's gases that are depressurizing
as they come to the surface.
And they set off a frequency in the water.
CHARLET: Get in.
MARK: It's like DH Lawrence said.
"tHE dead alive man has become an enigma of our time, which
it never was before.
He has gone down the slope of mechanized death, depending on
artificial stimulations that the city offers until he
himself becomes artificial." That certainly happened to me.
That seemed to happen to other people.
They're so dependent on artificial stimulations to
keep themselves propped up, they can't bear it.
They just fall apart.
The men are missing out on the best that life has to offer.
The best that love has to offer.
It wasn't until I took some LSD that I realized just how
far away from reality I really was.
[MUSIC PLAYING]