The art of the costume
If there’s one thing you need to know about burlesque, know the number one unwritten rule, if it is off the rack it doesn’t belong onstage.
Experts carefully choose the glamorous and mostly over-the-top outfits that go hand in hand with burlesque. It takes many weeks to plan the perfect show; the costume has to represent this level of time and dedication. You can’t just pull something off of a rack.
That’s where former burles
que performer, Veronika Star, and her husband, Xander Star come into play. They are the designers and creators of two-fashion businesses. During Veronika’s performing days in the early 2000s she was constantly asked about her costumes due to the unique use of fabrics and metals and thus their business, Xander Star Design, was launched in 2009. The collection includes handcrafted pieces like fascinators, pasties, top hats, leather pouches and harnesses. They later went on to create Xtreme Paraphilia in 2012, which consists of cosplay, fetish wear and alternative fashion. Which was more the direction they wanted to take, rebranding themselves as designers.
Some of their most sought out design pieces are fascinators, top hats, bras, chain necklaces, pasties and of course anything that has to do with feathers. They also do custom orders for shows and different types of accessories. It can take Veronika and Xander, depending on the piece half an hour to four hours to make. Pasties can take up to half an hour. “Those are a relatively easy ones. We just do the base so once our base is done it’s just about putting them gems on it and making it pretty…our longest pieces would be the fascinators because I have to cover them with material and then hand place all of the gems and sometimes there’s a lot of sewing involved so then it becomes a little bit more time consuming,” Veronika said.
Since the 1940’s burlesque shows have always included costumes. One of the greatest distinctions of burlesque shows compared to strip clubs, which opened in Toronto in 1975, was that costumes were used. Costumes within burlesque performances have become a marriage, as Star points out “[Costumes] are part of the fun. To come out and get dressed, and get comments of what you’re wearing. Like the girls here tonight, with the feather hats and the bling pasties. If they were wearing a normal dress they wouldn’t get the same attention. The fact that they’re wearing a super cool outfit that stands out…that’s where they’re getting the attention from…costumes are super important in the scene, I don’t think they’ll ever fade out. If anything they’ll get more extravagant and more fun,” explained Veronika.
The time put into creating these exquisite pieces might seem exhausting, but remember, an outfit can send a message to the audience before a performer even makes her first move on stage. Vivian Guido, a design student of Ryerson University in Toronto, believes that fashion is what makes burlesque. “You’re telling a story through performance, so of course the costumes are important because they help to tell that story,” she says.
Costume design can also convey the theme or era that inspires a performance. When the costume is done right, an audience should be able tell what you’re trying to say or what era you’re trying represent without being told. The golden age era brought women A-line skirts, furs and form fitting shirts with synched waists, a common theme in many burlesque performances. “When you’re creating a design whether it’s lingerie or a dress, you want to incorporate elements that let people know where it’s from, Guido explains. “That ties into the design process, the drawing, the sewing and, the pattern-making. Since the 60s, the way women dress on stage has changed significantly from opaque flesh toned stockings and nude understated undergarments, to the 80s where it was all about the corsets and cabaret, to now where sparkle and the grandness of your costume speaks volumes.
Without fashion and costume in burlesque it wouldn’t be the same. Julie Vieira, an intern at Burlesque Education Performance in Montreal, explains. “It’s how you feel about your image and how you show that to other people.”
