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Modern Burlesque & Pin up Fashion
The burlesque show originated in Europe as the middle and lower class citizens sought different ways to mock their upper class counterparts. While the upper class attended the opera and fancy balls dressed to the nines, the lower classes put on their own shows. These shows typically involved beautiful ladies clad in dresses that allowed more than just a little leg and stockings to show in an era where showing even a hint of stockings was considered extremely shocking.
When these shows immigrated to the US a new burlesque style arrived with it that was very similar to many of the fetish costumes in use today. The most popular of these is the corset and stockings costume that is preferred by many dominatrixes today. In the 1800s, many different burlesque troops sprang up across the US emulating the original English troop that was performing in New York City. Many of the original shows were a combination act that started out with the ladies.
The middle of the show was a mixture of minstrels and other acts followed by the grand finale in which the women may have started out in a saloon girl costume consisting of a long glamorous, low cut dress, but before long it became a race to see who could get away with showing as much skin as possible. As these shows became more of a strip tease than a true artistic show they started to lose favour and went out of style for a period.
It stayed out of style until the 1990s when burlesque style shows began to reappear.
On both sides of the Atlantic, burlesque shows are now very popular and are every
bit as glamorous, humorous and sexy as they were in their heyday. Neo-
Modern burlesque has found a new popularity as ladies of all shapes and sizes find that putting on pin up dresses and putting on a show can be very exciting. The idea of "teesing" a crowd can be very exciting and each artist creates their own look and persona. While dressing up is a very important part of the style, it is still more about showing as much as possible while still leaving plenty to the imagination.
One of the most popular burlesque artists currently appearing has to be Dita Von Teese. She is truly the modern embodiment of vintage burlesque. Her act is one of style and grace, unlike many others who chose to emulate the bump and grind acts that graced so many stages in the late 19th century. She is also responsible for much of the current growth in the popularity of this genre of entertainment. While she may have gotten her start modelling fetish costumes, she now has her own line of lingerie. Dita Von Teese is currently one of the most in demand burlesque acts on stage.