Yahoo Lifestyle Dita Von Teese On Modern Day Beauty
Dita Von Teese poses in the sheer witchery corset from her Von Follies range.
Glamour Girl, Femme Fatale, whatever you call her, it’s Teese’s flair for reinvention and a self-proclaimed obsession with Golden Age Hollywood that led to a change of identity and career filled with glitz, glamour and femininity.
We sat down with Dita to talk about her new lingerie collection, her love of Technicolour beauty and everything in between...
Congratulations on your new line for Myer, it looks beautiful. What's the inspiration behind it?
I wanted to do something that has all the little details of retro glamour, but with modernized shapes and styles. I took a lot of influence from my archive of vintage lingerie, but also I have a big library of catalogues and pin up magazines and things like that from the 30s, 40s, 50s and even 60s. So I drew a lot of inspiration from that, and then I thought, how I take retro style and make it more accessible, wearable and functional in everyday life?
Is there a particular reason you chose to partner with Myer?
I found that Myer was supportive of taking the lingerie collection to the next level, and of course, it’s important when you’re designing a collection that you get the support of a department store, or any big store, that believes in it. It’s great they’re willing to take some of the more risqué pieces and encourage the direction I wanted to take the line.
What two words sum up your line?
Accessible glamour. I’m very conscious of bringing to life great quality, luxurious and wearable lingerie - the kind of lingerie I’ve always dreamt of having - and finding ways to make it accessible so any woman can buy it, not just women who regularly spend on luxury. I want everyone to be wearing these pieces.
You attended the Melbourne Cup Carnival this week as a guest and judge at Myer’s Fashions on the Field. How did you find it?
Yes! It was amusing; it was fun. I got to judge the final ten... It went really quickly.
Any hits or misses you can tell us about?
It was a lot of fun. I really felt the looks were whimsical and fun and interesting translations of the spirit of going to the races and the fashion that is the protocol.
You’ve said in the past that you find it hard to relate to the modern idea of beauty – for example, what you might see on the cover of Sports Illustrated – how do you maintain a sense of authenticity in a world that rewards a different beauty ideal?
I think it’s important for us to remember that there is no true standard of beauty, apart from the little things that make us healthy. There are certain hallmarks of beauty that we know to be true, but I’m really interested in the kinds that make us different from each other – I really like to embrace and encourage that.
My beauty and glamour idols are usually of the created kin. That’s one of the reasons I love old Hollywood and I love that whole era, because it wasn’t about natural beauty, it was about the creation of beauty and the art of creating glamour. That’s what I preach because I can relate to it and understand it. It’s always given me hope that I could do it too.
When I see someone who’s naturally perfect in every single way, with no makeup and no styling or anything - like the images I see on a Sports Illustrated swim suit cover or when I look at a supermodel – I know I can’t create that. That’s one of the reason I wear red lipstick. I love glamour, I love creating mystique: it’s something really exciting I think any woman achieve.
At your burlesque shows, 80% of your audience is made up of women. Why do you think that is?
I think its because they get the same feelings as I do about creating glamour. When I look out into the audience and I see a sea of girls with curls in their hair, red lipstick on, their nails done and sexy lingerie peeking out of their little black dresses, I’m really inspired - I feel like the pied piper of glamour! They’re all shapes, sizes, ages, ethnicities... its really inspiring to me to see them getting the same benefits that I got out of creating that look. It’s not easy to find role models you can relate to, and like I said, the role models I found were the women I saw in old movies because I could see that I had a chance of looking like they did through my own creation.
Is there anyone in particular you looked up to in particular?
The era of Technicolour musicals was my favorite because it was a glamorous time about pure beauty, fantasy and romance. I love Betty Grable and the films she made in that era. Of course women like Marlene Dietrich who had a very strong sense of style and individuality inspire me. She was wearing trousers in a time when people were not wearing trousers, and she was not allowed into certain hotels in Paris because of those trousers. That the kind of amazing approach to fashion – her wearing a menswear tuxedo – was really exciting. I like people that are eccentric, who push the envelope and have a sense of theatre and whimsy when it comes to fashion.
Talking about fashion, you’re privy to top fashion shows all over the world. Have you had a favourite show this year?
I haven’t been to too may shows this year, but I always enjoy them. It’s really interesting, especially with the Parisian fashion shows where everything is shifting and changing; for example, the haute couture has become more subdued since the departure of John Galliano at Dior. Gone are the days of a horse and carriage pulling up with models coming out of it, and gone are the days of having women walk on water. There used to be such theatrics! So I don’t get as excited about going to fashion shows as I used to because I really used to love going to see all the theatrics and beautiful makeup and the extreme, highly artistic and untouchable fashion – you know, fashion is art.
I haven’t seen anything like that in a really long time, but I’ve seen some beautiful clothes. I suppose the last show I went to was a Carolina Herrera show, which was quite beautiful. I’m a big fan of hers and I wear a lot of her clothes on the red carpet and in my everyday life.
Your lingerie set names are so brilliantly seductive: Her Sexcellency, Madame X... How did you come to these?
I name everything myself, I’m very hands on with everything. I have a lot of fun with naming things because I look in my old books and in my library and look for little catch phrases that I find in men’s magazines from the ‘30s and ‘40s. I have a lot of fun.
Where did your love of lingerie and burlesque start?
Well, I started working in a lingerie store when I was 15, and I was a sales girl up until I was maybe 21 or 22. My interest in lingerie really started then, and sparked my pin up career, my burlesque career, everything! It’s really fun now that I’m here. I worked so hard and I used to dream about owning my own little lingerie shop one day, and I’ve exceeded any dream I ever had of that. I’d still love to have my own shop, of course... one day.
What, to you, epitomizes femininity?
I love a womanly femininity, a grown up glamour and women that are proud to be women and not trying to recapture their youth. They’re living in the moment, being confident and just enjoying being a female. Young women who are embracing grown up glamour excite me. I think it can be difficult when you’re living in an ageist society being told ‘you should look younger, you should look younger’, that youth is everything. It’s amazing to see young women [in that context] reveling in wanting to be grown women: no pigtails, no bobby socks. Let's be women, wear womanly things and be proud of our shapes.
Finish these sentences:
My style can be described as... Mythic. Whimsical. Nostalgic.
My favourite red lipstick is... Oh god, that’s hard to name one. Dioriffic in Dolce Vita Red.
The number one album on my playlist at the moment is... A band called Purity Ring.
The most stupid thing I’ve ever read about myself is... Hmm, how to choose! I guess the most stupid is reading that I’ve had plastic surgery all over my face. I haven’t, yet!
Dita’s range of retro-glam lingerie is in stores now.
