Club Lux: Into a Martian Hangout

’ I wanted it to look like a men’s club on Mars,” said interior design Ron Meyers of his latest creation, Club Lux.

It looks like he got his wish. The latest West Side venture into magazine layout-worthy nightclubs with the feel of living rooms--minus the cat hair--could pass for a Martian hangout.

It received its unveiling Saturday night, with even the most die-hard clubbies praising the decor: red and green swirled metallic wallpaper, spinning mirrored balls circled by rings like atom orbits, lamps resembling giant tulips, rounded oversized chairs and lighting dim enough to hide skin imperfections. The dance floor, sort of a futuristic boxing ring, is on a platform in the front of the room, an exhibitionist’s dream.

If the surroundings felt familiar to some, it’s because Club Lux is attached to DC3, that chichi restaurant/bar for night lifers who spurn the cowboy wanna-bes at Denim & Diamonds down the street.

What used to be DC3’s cavernous back room overlooking Santa Monica Airport’s runways has been walled up, given its own entrance and Ron Meyers-ized. (He takes credit for Atlas Bar and Grill.)

The crowd this night was the usual collection of L. A. scenesters--writers, photographers, artists, designers, agents, publicists and people who just look really good--who hadn’t bolted for the holiday weekend; the sort of people who routinely run into each other at such events, proving it’s a too-small world after all.

Club creator Smoot Hull (late of Stock Exchange and Atlas Bar and Grill) nervously paced the party early and greeted guests that included Britt Ekland and Slim Jim Phantom, transplanted New Yorker and former Details magazine editor Annie Flanders, restaurateur Michael Roberts, artist Andre Miripolsky, L. A. Style’s Anne Crawford and designer Ken Girouard.

Girouard gets the media preparedness award of the year. He who created the plastic fruit-embellished Fruit Flops sandals and Fruit Cups bustiers, is being sued by Fruit of the Loom for trademark infringement. When asked for a business card, he not only produced a full-color product card but also two photocopied stories about the lawsuit.

Girouard sported a cluster of faux grapes at his neck, while others revealed their fashion elan via cowboy boots, a vinyl Minnie Mouse handbag, skin-tight pants with zippers down the fronts of the legs, beaded bustiers, thigh-high fringed snakeskin boots and chain mail bras.

The crowd and the music volume grew proportionately through the evening, forcing conversations to be kept light. But no one seemed to mind. After all, it is summer.