THE INSPIRATION SERIES / DITA VON TEESE
The imagination
inside the glamour.
Costumes, collaborators, and the care
behind a moment of wonder.
By Rob Urban
A costume can be beautiful on a hanger. A stage costume has a more interesting assignment: it has to become beautiful through time.
It must belong to a gesture, catch light at the right moment, and help a performer decide what the audience sees next. Its construction is part of the choreography.
That is one reason I find Dita Von Teese’s work so compelling. Her glamour contains decisions worth looking at closely. The feathers, crystals and extravagant settings invite pleasure, then reward curiosity about how the pleasure was made.
Following that curiosity leads to an especially appealing world of collaborators, technical problems, historic garments and shared laughter. The finished illusion is polished. The people behind it are wonderfully specific.
I / THE PARTNERSHIP
Two imaginations.
A shared sense of humor.
In Holli Mae Johnson’s joint interview with Von Teese and Catherine D’Lish, the two artists remember finding a common sense of humor as well as an appetite for ambitious shows.
D’Lish describes the freedom Von Teese gave her to develop costumes. Von Teese praises her partner’s understanding of how a costume must function during a performance. Their recollections include late nights adding rhinestones to carousel horses and rehearsals spent working out movements around unusual props.
I love the practical intimacy of that account. Trust means allowing another person’s imagination to change the work. Familiarity means being able to laugh while solving its difficulties.
Their partnership gives the spectacle an additional dimension. A glittering object can hold years of shared taste, accumulated knowledge and the confidence to attempt something more elaborate together.
Remembering D’Lish by name makes the appreciation richer. She is an artist inside the art we recognize.
II / THE WARDROBE
A conversation
in materials.
The promoter’s 2019 announcement for Glamonatrix credits costumes by Mister Pearl, Jenny Packham, Alexis Mabille, Catherine D’Lish and Brooke Brothers, alongside bespoke footwear by Christian Louboutin.
That is a particularly interesting set of credits to read as a creative invitation. Different makers bring different ways of thinking about the body, silhouette, ornament and movement.
A revue provides room for those sensibilities to meet. Its variety can extend from the acts themselves into the materials and shapes that introduce them.
I admire the willingness to give clothing this much expressive responsibility. A shoe or a sleeve can help establish a whole atmosphere before anyone says a word.
Knowing who made those choices makes the visual abundance more legible. The wardrobe becomes a conversation among people with distinct kinds of expertise.
III / THE MECHANISM
Even the curtain
has a story.
One of the most revealing production details comes from an unexpected source: Wahlberg Motion Design’s case study of a curtain for the 2022 Glamonatrix tour.
The company describes receiving the Venetian curtain at its facility in Denmark, choosing its Winch 10 equipment to lift the thin material, and testing the arrangement at full scale in its showroom.
A curtain has an expressive job. It changes how much of the stage is available to the eye. It can turn an entrance into an event.
The full-scale test is a lovely detail because it makes that possibility tangible. Fabric must behave. Movement must be worked out. A visual idea passes through the hands of people who understand equipment.
I find the glamour more enjoyable with that knowledge. There is care inside the moment when a room is invited to look.
IV / THE INHERITANCE
History,
back under the lights.
The 2023 announcement of Dita Las Vegas: A Jubilant Revue described a production incorporating costumes and sets from Jubilee!, which ran from 1981 to 2016.
It named costume designers Bob Mackie and Pete Menefee and credited Michael Schwandt as director and executive producer of the new show.
That connection to earlier makers matters. A garment carries a history of design decisions, fabrication and performance. Putting it into a new production gives that history another encounter with an audience.
The theater’s hydraulic lifts and floating platforms were part of the announced production, too. Here the inheritance included the possibilities of the room itself.
I admire the breadth of that attention. A performer can recognize creative potential in an existing costume, a stage mechanism, or a tradition she has loved watching. Appreciation becomes an active ingredient in making something new.
V / THE INVITATION
More people
inside the picture.
In an interview with Noir, Von Teese speaks warmly about the historic costumes and the people who had cared for them. She also discusses casting with representation in mind, so people in the audience might find some reflection of themselves onstage.
She names Dirty Martini among the performers she loves watching.
That combination is appealing to me: affection for a visual tradition alongside curiosity about who can inhabit it. The pleasures of feathers, theatricality and an elaborate entrance can belong to many kinds of people.
It also changes what glamour can offer an audience. Someone may arrive to admire a distant image and leave with a more personal sense of possibility.
I appreciate the generosity in that ambition. A distinctive aesthetic can give other people room to recognize and enjoy their own presence.
Pleasure deserves care.
What I admire in Von Teese’s work is the seriousness with which pleasure is made.
An extravagant detail can be an act of attention to the audience. Someone considered what might delight a room, then stayed with the idea through drawings, materials, rehearsals and revisions.
There is something heartening about following that effort far enough to see the people within it. The costume designer, the collaborator, the technician and the performer each contribute to the moment that finally feels effortless.
Glamour leaves space for wonder. Understanding some of its construction gives me more to wonder at.
Sources: joint interview with Catherine D’Lish in 21st Century Burlesque; TEG’s 2019 tour announcement; Wahlberg Motion Design’s production case study; Caesars Entertainment’s 2023 production announcement; and Von Teese’s interview with Noir. Linked throughout. Historical productions are discussed as such. Interpretation by Rob Urban.