Going into this Halloween I had a million and six ideas, per usual. I knew I had to top Vampira and it had to be good. Then It hit me... what is bigger than a burlesque Dita Von Teese? I knew what I had to do and it would not be an easy or quick one.At first I was going to re-create an exact costume but I did not know if her costumes had any type of trademark and lets be real that would be a fortune! So I pulled inspiration from a few of her performances and looks to create mine. I knew I wanted to wear as much Dita Von Teese lingerie and I had to wear a corset and I knew I wanted to have feather fans, and of course I had to have the right hair. So Ill try and make this as close to how I did this as possible.
First off I decided I wanted to do an all black costume inspired by her Lip Teese act, a few photos I had found, her Lazy act she debuted at the Crazy Horse in Paris and lastly Dita had posted her New Years Eve poster. That was when I knew I had my idea down! First off I found the bra I wanted (well I had one already but I wanted to showgirl it up so I bought a second Dita Von Teese over wire bra from her 2013/2014 lingerie line called the Her Sexcellency bra. That was on its way so I ordered black rhinestones and I have never done this type of thing before so I thought 1,440 would be enough.... I was very wrong. Thank goodness for Amazon Prime! I used the best glue for the project which I found was the E6000 bead glue in clear. I just kind of did what I felt would look good. I would pour out a bunch of rhinestones, put a line of glue where I wanted the stones and pick them up with either my finger pad or a semi sticky toothpick. Luckily the glue I bought came with "adapters" that made it super easy to get the glue to come out in a thin line. But my two problems I had with the glue was the glue seeping out of the nozzle and I constantly had to keep cleaning it up and that was a waste. The second problem was the pouch like packaging that the glue was in kept ripping and the glue would seep out of there and I would have to patch it with a napkin etc. I got this glue at Walmart for about $3. It takes about a good 24 hours for the glue to completely dry.
Next thing was the corset, for this I wanted a waspie style and knew just the place! Orchard Corset is my favorite place for quality steel boned corsets that will not break the bank. I had one before this one and I pretty much wear it everyday! Now for the costume I wanted a solid black preferably cotton one, I found the CS-411 that would be perfect because it wouldn't cover too much or take too much away from the rest of my costume. Now for sizing I got the smallest they offer which is an 18 inch. My natural measurements are 30.5-23-32 so knowing this (they also have a ton of information on their site since I am not an expert.) But you want to take you natural waist measurements and subtract 4 inches from that and there is your size. Now you cannot just start tightening the laces as hard as you can, you have to season it a bit. Wear it a little bit each day and gradually make it tighter. This process should be about two weeks long. If you decide to skip this process your steel could break and it will not form to your body correctly.I did not wear this laced all the way since I would be moving around so I was at 19.5 inches comfortably and I wanted it to look exaggerated. I also took the modesty panel off the back (flap of fabric on the back to cover the skin from the laces.) After that was finished I began to rhinestone it.I had already gone through 2,000 rhinestones but I still needed more! I rhinestoned my What Katie Did black seamed stockings along the top of the thigh and up the seam for that added showgirl pizzazz! I also had the What Katie Did black opera length gloves that are satin. The garter belt I wore was a Dita Von Teese piece, its the Madame X in black. The bottoms I wore are vintage shape wear that went up to my lower rib cage. I rhinestoned it along the front of the design.
This may be the trickiest part but one of the most important... THE FEATHER FANS! These were a lot of work and ended up being really heavy. These, you would not be able to dance with, they are just props. The first thing I did was buy 2 hand fans (the small kind you would get at a faire or something) but I needed to make the bigger. So I went to Walmart and bought the jumbo popsicle sticks (the regular size were too small and did not give enough support.) I also bought a mini hot glue gun just because I did not want the bigger ones, too bulky. I just hot glued the popsicle sticks to the base of the fan and then glued them to the end of the other popsicle sticks. I repeated this about 4 times until I got the desired length. Next I spray painted them black (even the plastic base) which I used regular spray paint and it seeped right through! I actually did not even get to spray both before I ran out. The next time I got the paint with the primer and a gloss finish. I would spray about 3 "arms" at a time so I could pour the black craft glitter on them. These need about 24-48 hours to dry. At first I was just going to feather one side of the fans and the other side would just have glitter on them, but that only happened with one fan. The other fan was not as well made as the first and I did a lot of doctoring it before I could even feather it. Now to feather it I found these not too bulky 48 inch black and gold feather boas at the dollar store. When cut in half they were the perfect length to fit over the popsicle sticks. To adhere them I just used hot glue.
The wig I got from Anabelle's Wigs which is actually called "Dita" which I added some teasing to and rolled the bottom to create more of a pageboy style. ( I did not get any photos of it besides it setting (pictured) .)Once I rolled the bottom of the wig under I used black bobby pins to pin it in place. I then used duckbill clips and hairspray to hold the style in place and create the shape. The nails were pretty hard just in the fact I had to freehand paint them. I always do my own nails so once I did the acrylic I painted them all white. I then took a pen and made a moon shape at the base of the nail. After I took the red polish and painted around the moon shape first then painted the rest of the nail, and did a nice shiny top coat.Over 7,000 rhinestones, 105 hot glue gun burns, a driveway destroyed by hairspray paint and a million and a half hours later and you have finished your glamour mission! Now just make sure you rhinestone everything! Your bottoms, your stockings, your shoes, and accessories! Add some vintage jewelry and there you are Dita Von Teese! Its pretty amazing that she liked the makeup post I made on Instagram and I hope she sees the whole costume and that I did her well! Feel free to tag her on my Instagram post!
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