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As burlesque queen Dita Von Teese prepares for her spectacular starring role in the Gentry de Paris Revue in the French capital, she offers LuxuryCulture an exclusive peak behind the fantasy.
The rise of glamour queen Dita Von Teese is an interesting trajectory. From sales assistant and fetish model to Hollywood star and world famous showgirl, the picture perfect pinup has championed a burlesque revival, not seen since the days of Sally Rand.
Von Teese secured her place in the heart of Paris when she became the first star to perform on the stage of the city’s celebrated cabaret club, Le Crazy Horse, in 2006, where she continues to make regular guest appearances and has become a front row face at the Paris Haute Couture shows each season. As the face of the French liqueur brand Cointreau the “Cointreauversial” wordplay of her star role is a fitting epithet to the provocative striptease star who has brought both sexuality and femininity back to the fore.
This month the burlesque beauty will step onto the Paris stage once again as the star of the Gentry de Paris Revue, a dizzying music-hall extravaganza inspired by the heady glamour of Ziegfeld Follies and the opulence of the Metro Goldwyn Mayer musicals. The star shares her thoughts and secrets on success and her unique style.
Dita Von Tees’s Definition of luxury:
I like the luxury of having necessary and functional objects that are also beautiful.... but I also consider my right to choose and decide things for myself a luxury too.
If luxury were…
An object
For me, the ultimate luxurious object would be 1937 Deusenberg with a uniformed driver.
A person
My personal assistant is my favorite human luxury!
A moment
I consider making love with someone I'm madly in love with the most luxurious thing I can think of!
A place
Being in an opulent and beautiful cozy bed, in front of a fireplace.
Your style is very paradoxical – your dyed black and porcelain complexion is a dramatic departure from your natural blonde hair and the American golden glow, what prompted this transformation, and how was this accepted?
I started dressing in vintage and wearing retro-styled makeup when I was about 16, in the 80’s and, as time went by, and when I was out of school and had more freedom, I slowly transformed more and more, and became more dramatic in my style. I liked vintage style for a few reasons, one being that I couldn’t afford the clothes I like, so buying cheap vintage back then was easy, and I could get the look I wanted for very little money. I was also quite shy, and so it sort of helped me in a way to give the appearance of the femme fatale…people would look at me, but very few would actually approach me and, in a way, I liked that. Of course being eccentric and dressing differently provoked ridicule from many –
I’m no stranger to having insults hurled at me from cars – but I didn’t really care! It takes bravery and risk to arrive at something special, for instance, what if Marlene Dietrich had paid mind to the critics that thought her trousers were scandalous way back when?!
I remember in the early 90’s before Bettie Page was known outside of fetish circles, people would call me Cleopatra because of my black hair and bangs, which were distinctly styled after Bettie. I’ve seen firsthand the way the masses get exposed to something and need to make the association. I know that lots of girls probably get super annoyed being compared to me just because they like red lipstick and dye their hair black! I have actually been walking down the street and heard someone call me a “Dita Wanabee”.
You have brought burlesque and striptease as an artform back to the fore. How did you achieve this?
Well, I started performing and creating 1940’s style pinup pictures in 1991. It’s hard to say what to attribute my success to…. It could be my longevity, it could be that I worked the hardest, wanted it the most. And it could be that it’s something in my heart and my drive comes from a place that isn’t about seeking fame or money, I did it because I love it, before it was chic, before it was popular, and when my audience was made up of fetishists and strip club patrons only…and I didn’t mind it. I didn’t complain. I liked doing what I do, no matter whom it was for or who thought it was cool. But on the other hand, I might just be lucky! It’s all a matter of opinion, I suppose, but I did learn that with hard work and integrity, all those years of “paying dues” paid off, and I am grateful for that.
Early on in your career you were a fetish model, you have made x-rated films and you were married to Marilyn Manson. Do you feel that part of the thrill of what you do is the shock, and do you still feel that this is the case?
I did not marry for shock value and, frankly, I am offended by the mention of something so personal being insensitively compared to a career move, and I didn’t do any of those things you mention as a thrill seeker. I was a fetish model in the early 90’s because I liked the elegance of 1940s fetish imagery, like the art of John Willie from the original Bizarre magazines. I didn’t find anything shocking about it; perhaps because I don’t have hang ups about sex, and I am aware of the fact that erotic imagery is not modern, it’s been around forever. I made the Andrew Blake film because I was a fan of his work, and I wanted the experience, and I got paid a lot of money. No choice I ever made was meant to be shocking, frankly I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks and I am proud to have always made my own choices, whether people consider them mistakes or triumphs…. At least they are my own, and no one gets credit for either!
As one of the most seductive women in the world, what do you think turns men on?
I don’t think one can generalize what turns men on anymore than one can generalize what turns women on, and I don’t think that I have all the answers or the ability to seduce any man I want! Some men are turned on by someone like me, and others are turned on by the natural girl next door with no makeup that wears white cotton panties. I’m not the end-all-be-all sexy. But I will say that confidence and being happy with oneself is always attractive, and so that’s the key — be yourself, whoever that is, and you will attract someone who appreciates and adores you. The men that I have been truly close to have been seduced not just by the obvious, but by getting to know who I really am beneath the exterior and understanding and liking the real me, while appreciating the things I like that we come to think of as “tools of seduction”, like the lingerie and the striptease and sensuality.
You have become a fantasy figure, a modern-day icon. How long does it take you to get ready each day, and what are your “shortcuts”?
It depends on where I am going and what I am doing. For instance, I can be out the door with a quick chignon, a sweep of face powder and lipstick and sunglasses in 15 minutes. My usual rule for getting head to toe “pinup drag” camera ready is one hour. But I’ve been known to be even faster. I promise you, I can pull myself together just as fast as any of my friends who go for a “natural” look… all that blow-drying their hair straight and putting on “natural” (ha, ha!) makeup takes just as long! Now, when I am getting red carpet ready, I like to block out two hours. I don’t use a glam squad, I do it all myself, so I like to take my time in that case. I don’t use a fashion stylist either, so I have to take care of the clothes, like steaming, ironing, and pinning them to fit too!
What beauty tips did your mother teach you and was she a big inspiration?
Well, my Mother isn’t as into the kind of hair, makeup and clothes that I am, but I’m grateful to have inherited her figure, youthful skin and calm demeanor.
You are currently writing a beauty book. Could you share reveal some of your favorite beauty tips?
My best tip is to break the rules. My book is for women who are tired of reading do’s and don’ts in magazines… I hate it when one page says “never wear heavily made up eyes with a heavily made up lip” and you turn the page and see a stunning photo of someone wearing what you were just told NOT to do! My book is about embracing our differences, and celebrating eccentric glamour. My book will not discuss how to do a perfect neutral brown eye shadow, it’s about excitement! I reference strong, iconic women that weren’t afraid to stand out from a crowd, and I will also go through step by step and show my process of making myself up. I don’t use a glam squad to get ready for my shows or for red carpet events, I do it all myself, and I want women to know that they can do it too!
What would you say is people’s most common misconception of you?
I have heard that people don’t know that I have a ridiculous sense of humor, and people also think I only watch old movies and listen to old music. I’m not as serious as I look!
You recently presented your own revue in Hollywood, is this something that you would like to do more of in the future?
Oh yes, of course. I would like to create my own full-scale revue and tour with it. The show I did in Hollywood was really just a collection of acts I found around town, and I would like to create and direct a show to take on tour.
What are your future goals and ambitions?
I’m just trying to live life to it’s fullest and do the best I can, and to appreciate the moments as they occur. Aside from that, I’m excited for my new Wonderbra lingerie to come out all over Europe this Fall, and to be continuing my brand ambassadorship with Cointreau by performing the “Be Cointreauversial” act as part of the Gentry de Paris Revue and also this Fall in Brazil and other cities too. I am also releasing a DVD of the shows I did at The Crazy Horse Paris, and so I’m quite excited about that too. I have lots of other projects in the works too, but I don’t like to discuss them until they are finished!
Could you tell us about your role in the Gentry de Paris Revue?
Well, I’m doing my own two-acts that I created myself and normally do, one is my new Opium Den show, which is the most opulent of all my shows, and also the “Be Cointreauversial” act I created for my brand ambassadorship with Cointreau, and neither of these acts of mine has ever been seen in Paris before. I haven’t yet seen the show Gentry has created, but I think it’s fabulous to have a grand revue at the historic Casino de Paris, as it once was, so I’m excited for that, and I can’t wait to see the surrounding show; Gentry has a great love of burlesque and nostalgia, so I am sure it’s going to be fabulous! It’s also really wonderful for me to do the large-scale shows I typically do, the ones that don’t fit on The Crazy Horse Stage, so I am excited for fans to see another side of what I do besides the intimate acts that I made for the Crazy Horse.
You have become a regular here in Paris, at the Crazy Horse, not to mention an ardent supporter of haute couture, what is the allure of the city and would you ever consider moving to Paris?
I’ve actually been looking for an apartment at the moment so I can live between Paris and Los Angeles. I love Paris because I like the beauty of the city. I’ve been all over the world, and I’ve seen a lot of places, and I can appreciate things about every city for the most part, but there’s something about the man-made beauty that appeals to me. I love artifice… I love beauty that is created even more than I love natural beauty… I can’t explain exactly why. And I have a lot of friends in Paris, and I have been lucky enough to have a lot of fabulous opportunities to perform my shows here in Paris, so to be embraced here is also probably part of the appeal too. And I think it's an amazing thing to have a chance to live in another country, so I would like to step out of my comfort zone and try something new.
Gentry Lane, artistic director of the Gentry de Paris Revue, takes us behind the scenes, as she discusses her ambitious project, a two-act, 18 tableaux spectacular, celebrating the golden era of the music hall.
Paris-based American Gentry Lane began her burlesque career in the early 1990s. As she recalls, “I started back in 1993 when some friends of mine started up a cabaret in an old speakeasy in San Francisco. I was the only one without a real talent, so I did a striptease to ‘Put The Blame on Mame’”. As part of California’s retro/burlesque community, Lane’s and Von Teese’s paths crossed and, through her Gentry de Paris lingerie line, the performers became friends.
When Gentry Lane proposed the show to Director Philippe Calvario, her vision was clear, the show would revisit the opulence and fantasy of Hollywood’s heyday - this would be an MGM musical brought back to life. However, as the Artistic Director stresses, this is no mere pastiche of bygone times, but an innovative, modern interpretation of the old musical halls. “We’ve spared no expense on the sets and costumes to create a really opulent Ziegfeld Follies-style show. And just like the Grande Revue’s from the turn of the century, there is a little bit of everything: singing, dancing, high kicking chorus girls…and the most beautiful burlesque dancers in the world. Burlesque acts weren’t traditionally part of the Grande Revues, so we’re deviating from the traditional format somewhat in order to stay current and modern. Also, our show is a lot more cinematic and fast-paced than the originals. It wouldn’t be interesting if we just did a revival or reconstruction of one of the old reviews. We have a new modern version of the great Parisian music hall tradition that respects the timeless glamour and fascinating opulence from the old Revues, but it’s been updated for modern tastes.”
As preparations get underway Lane recalls, “It’s funny, but the hardest thing about the revue has been getting the chorus girls to understand the different nuances in choreographic styles. When you tell a 21-year-old professional dancer – ‘think of Ruby Keeler in that big number from 42nd Street’ – they have no idea what you’re talking about. They didn’t know who Florenz Ziegfeld was. But it was fun forcing them to watch old movies and then talk about what made the chorus lines from the Follies Berger different from the chorus lines from MGM musicals.”
Who better to headline such a grand production than the queen of striptease? “It just didn’t make sense to re-launch the Grande Revue without Dita, the most famous showgirl in the world and modern-day equivalent to Josephine Baker or Mistinguett,” Lane declares. With plans to take the show to Austria, Germany Lebanon and the US, Gentry Lane does glamour on a grande scale.
The Gentry de Paris Revue, with Dita Von Teese at the Casino de Paris will run from September 7-17, 2009