Just another beautiful outfit from Dita Von Teese

08.26.10

Tags: 1950s, dita von teese, leather, opera length gloves, retro

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An Interview with Dita Von Teese

01.08.10

A Suicide Girls interview with Dita Von Teese

On going through a divorce or bad breakup:
I guess the best advice I have is to accept the pain and to know that it’s part of the risk we take in loving. Inevitably we learn from heartbreak and we recover, and hopefully emerge ready to become a better partner for someone new.
In the midst of a hellacious heartbreak, I work my ass off to stay occupied, and I try to imagine myself further down the line when I’m right again, and in love again. I’ve been through enough heartache to know that we don’t ever die from it, and we always find someone better suited to us. And I personally force myself to think hard about what I did wrong and try to get my revenge by being a better person for someone new. My revenge is always based in living well and trying to be better.

On her recent move to Paris:
I love it. It’s beautiful. I’ve traveled the world and I still can’t find anything nearly as beautiful.
I’m really happy that I finally did it. I realized one day when I was talking to an old friend from 15 years ago; I mentioned I wanted to live in Paris and he reminded me I said that way back when. So I was like, “What am I waiting for? Why am I afraid?” I just did it.

On her upcoming film project Mata Hari:
It’s an amazing script, and I would love to play Mata Hari… I don’t really have any interest in acting unless it’s in films I would actually like to see, so I pass on most of the acting projects that come my way. I really like being true to myself and doing what I do. I have no problem being content to be a burlesque dancer. I didn’t do it as a stepping stone to “bigger” things, I did it because I love it.

On scandal:
A stranger recently tried to blackmail me to buy back some love letters I wrote to a boyfriend 15 years ago, and I said, “Feel free to sell them on eBay if you want. What do I care if people find out that I’m romantic!”
That’s one downfall of fame, I get lots of people that want to extort money from me to buy things that they think — hope — will be scandalous for me. Really, what could be scandalous for me? I’m a burlesque dancer!

Read the full interview here.

Tags: dita von teese

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3 Style Icons

08.29.09

I guess they’re kind of a holy trinity for me.

What I admire about them is their ability to create an image for themselves, to forge and strike a visual identity from the inert mass that flares for a pretty near eternal instant.

Descriptor: Vintage Vixen

Mmm, Dita. What I love about the burlesque queen is that she’s always impeccably dressed, and preserves the glamor of the Golden Age of Hollywood while putting her own twist on it. She has a very distinctive, consistent style, which is complete and cohesive. She goes for the elegant and glamorous side of retro rather than the kitschy. And she does it through and through. She doesn’t dress casually even to go to the supermarket. With her signature black curls, vividly red lips, and lily-white face, she can be dark, bold, vampish, yet she’s feminine, delicate, and always elegant. She infuses the more mundane, casual present with some of the fascinating and voluptuous glamor and the tightly-controlled, put-together beauty of the ’40s and ’50s. I think Dita is a perfect example of self-transformation and creating beauty through styling. Her retro look of wickedly defined, bright red lips, jet-black sculpted hair, and clear white skin, is an immortal classic. Dita’s book, Burlesque and the Art of the Teese/Fetish and the Art of the Teese, is gorgeous and a lovely read.

Descriptor: Experimental Epidemic

The multitalented Destroyx AKA Amelia Arsenic, vocalist for industrial/alternative band Angelspit, is another one of my style heroines. Her blog, www.destroyx.com, is all kinds of goodness. Her ability to style and adorn herself absolutely blows my mind. She combines cyber, fetish, gothic, and retro looks with daring, elegance, and innovation, to create an edgy, sophisticated, and utterly unforgettable image. Even though she takes elements from so many different styles, I think that above all, her style is really only her own and one of a kind. I love the complexity, eclecticism, elaborate accessorizing, and layering that go into her outfits. She is a makeup guru. Her looks are bold, gorgeous, and original. She represents the pinnacle of achieving interesting effects through makeup and styling – becoming something more than just yourself visually. Angelspit’s got amazing visual design and aesthetics with her influence, and Destroyx and ZooG (the other member of Angelspit) make a powerful creative duo.

Descriptor: Wayward Victorian Girl/Insane Asylum Inmate

Emilie Autumn is a quirky solo musician who makes self-styled “Victoriandustrial” music. She has a lovely style all her own, which is a kind of bastardized-period, feminine, torn, tattered, wispy, layered, ribbony, very pink-themed goth look. Her hair is divine, a very beautiful shade of pink and/or red. Aside from the Victorian influences, there are fey influences and influences from the Elizabethan period, which show in her music as well. Her style is light, ethereal, and fairy-like, as well as grungier girl-punk with the requisite studded cuffs and tattered fishnets. Bloodstains, hearts, and teatime are recurring elements. Emilie has an incredible ability to create an image, and this can be seen in all the artwork, design, extra features, and images on her Opheliac album – a testament to her creativity and styling genius. She is charming, alluring, and promises to take you beyond the mundane, into a secret world of melodramatic madnesses, anachronisms, oppression, and trauma. Her whole aesthetic concept revolves around the “Asylum.” Her style is very coherent, but has lots of variety and potential. Her very basic and most replicable look is something like a tattered white tank top with a heart patch, or a tea-stained corset, with bloomers, red-and-white stripey stockings/asymmetrical legwear, and of course, her heart makeup.

Tags: 1940s, 1950s, avant-garde, destroyx, dita von teese, emilie autumn, insane asylum aesthetic, latex, retro, victorian, vintage

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