Forget the $1.99 buffet and try a $47,000 fountain pen

Watch out, Rodeo Drive. Before the stores had even opened on Friday morning, shoppers were snapping photos of bling-bling in the windows along the Esplanade, the luxury retail row at the new $2.7-billion Wynn Las Vegas resort. In a city that already boasts lots of high fashion for high rollers, the Wynn adds the third Chanel and Dior stores here, along with Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Graff, Judith Leiber, Brioni and Jean Paul Gaultier.

It wasn’t Beverly Hills that Oscar de la Renta chose to locate his third store in the world, it was here, alongside Manolo Blahnik and Dior Homme, the second outposts of each to open in the U.S. after New York. Not to mention W.ink, where on the first day of business a $47,000 fountain pen was sold, and a Ferrari dealership, where by Friday three $9,000 children’s versions of the sports car had been rung up.

Forget gambling, people were here to shop.

Built by Vegas impresario Steve Wynn (also responsible for the Golden Nugget, Treasure Island and the Bellagio), the new resort opened Thursday on the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sands Avenue, on the site of the old Desert Inn. This time Wynn isn’t selling a theme; he’s selling the concept of luxury. The resort has more than 2,700 rooms in a curved golden tower, floors inlaid with colorful mosaics, and a garden path of trees and topiaries running through the lobby, bathed in natural light. Outside is a landscape that looks less faux than many here, with a 140-foot man-made mountain, dramatic waterfalls, pine trees and an 18-hole golf course for those willing to shell out $500 to play.

Even the staff is fashionable, the women at the concierge desk dressed in tweedy, coral-colored Chanel-like jackets and the table dealers in blazers designed by John Varvatos. And the souvenir T-shirts, some with “Viva Las Divas” spelled out in rhinestones, are by Bogner.

The shops are arranged in an arc that extends from the lobby, with a sky bridge connecting to the Fashion Show Mall across the street. And while there were a fair number of beer-breathed gawkers about on Friday, there were also some serious shoppers.

Visiting from Temecula, Annette Warburton and her friend, Amme Weilert, were carrying matching cherry-print Louis Vuitton bags and looking at buying a third in the same design at the newest Vuitton shop. “You don’t feel like it’s real when you’re shopping here,” said Weilert, who first visited the Wynn shops at midnight on Thursday, the moment they opened. “I just tried on a pair of $1.5-million earrings at Graff,” Warburton said. “And last time I was in town, I bought a $10,000 sheared mink coat at Caesars.” (The Wynn opening follows the expansion earlier this year of the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, which include stores such as Juicy Couture, Chrome Hearts, Celine, Pucci, Kate Spade, Dior and Vuitton.)

At the Manolo Blahnik store, among the crocodile sling backs, leopard-print stilettos and lace-covered kitten heels, sales associate Tom Miklas said he was used to having to push to make a sale. “But here, people just buy.” On Thursday, the store sold 16 pairs to a single customer.

“I had never heard of these shoes until ‘Sex and the City,’ ” said Antoinette Thompson, visiting from Miami. Then, picking up a mule and glancing at the $580 price tag, she added, “Now I know why.”

Limited-edition T-shirts were created for the opening of the Gaultier store where Lisa Tenner, a Las Vegas native, was buying a necklace to match the bracelet she had bought the day before. “The arrangement is good,” she said of the Esplanade. “But the stores are not that unique. You can find them in New York or Beverly Hills.” Rather than the big-label stores, her favorites are the boutiques, including Wynn LVNV, a home store where she spent $5,000 on a solar-powered, rotating globe, and the Drugstore, which sells cigarettes and beer alongside men’s luxury shaving products from Truefitt & Hill and cosmetics by Fresh. The multi-brand Outfit store features clothes by such hard-to-find designers as Boudicca and Proenza Schouler.

“Las Vegas is a different planet,” said Umberto Angeloni, the CEO of Brioni, in town for the opening. “There are no rules, no clear identities when it comes to culture, race or nationality. Even night and day don’t have meaning here. The only purpose is to eat and luxuriate.” The store features a selection of “indulgent leisurewear” more flashy than at other locations, he said, noting a $29,000 Persian lamb tux jacket. “It’s the only store we have that is open 10 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”

The opening festivities at the Wynn on Friday attracted an odd mix of celebrities (Harry Connick Jr. and Michael Milken) and fashion folks, including perfumer Jo Malone and De la Renta, who made appearances at their stores. Blahnik, strolling around in a vanilla linen suit on his first trip to Las Vegas, said of the hotel, “It’s absolutely exquisite. Reminds me of Old Hollywood.”

For the retail project, Wynn turned to Terri Monsour, a 23-year veteran of Neiman Marcus, where she was most recently the general manager of the Las Vegas store. With the Esplanade barely open and attracting 30,000 people a day, Monsour is already working on an expansion, and plans for a Wynn catalog and e-commerce site. In Las Vegas, there can never be too much shopping, she said. “This is the city of instant gratification.”