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Burlesque costumes - a brief history

Suddenly burlesque and pinup fashions
are all over the Internet. The original
burlesque designs with their risqu?
overtones have become the fun fashion,
being adapted and adopted by rockabilly.
Almost every city now hosts regular
burlesque events where not just the
performers, but the audience gets to
dress the part as well.

Origins of burlesque - lingerie on show!

The word burlesque probably derives from
the French, which describes a piece of
slightly outrageous, humorous art. The
term burlesque originally applied to
shows intended for middle or lower
classes. Such shows lampooned upper
class niceties and parodying upper class
entertainments like opera & dance. Such
music and comedy shows and plays grew in
popularity on both sides of the Atlantic
during the nineteenth century. In
Victorian England, where even "a glimpse
of stocking was looked on as something
shocking", burlesque challenged its
audience by offering rather more than a
"glimpse of stocking" - the lure of
young ladies appearing in tights and
lingerie! Certainly demure by today's
standards these slightly suggestive
interludes certainly boosted the
popularity of burlesque. Lydia
Thompson took a burlesque troupe, called
the British Blondes to New York near the
end of the 1860s where they were an
immediate hit. At first they were feted
by the press, but before long strident
voices, from the pulpit and the papers
were complaining of loose morals and
indecency. The result of all this
adverse publicity was to spread the word
about burlesque far and wide in America
effectively having the reverse effect to
that desired by burlesque's critics -
female burlesque troupes with close
copies of the original British act
sprung up around the country.

These shows owed a great deal of their
structure to the minstrel shows of the
time and generally consisted of three
parts - the initial section featuring
the ladies, the middle section was a mix
of male comedians and specialty acts and
the final part the grand finale.
Copying Lydia Thompson's lead, most of
the troupes had female managers.
However towards the end of the
nineteenth century, as male managers
took over, they switched the emphasis
away from comedy to push boundaries,
determined to show as much uncovered
female flesh as the laws would allow.

This form of entertainment metamorphosed
in the early twentieth century into a
mix of music hall, satire and
striptease. During the twenties the
bias continued inexorably towards
striptease and away from the
accompanying elements. This shift
doubtlessly was burlesque's downfall; by
the thirties the popularity of burlesque
dropped away probably reacting against
what had become slightly tawdry
striptease shows. Local authorities
were no longer as tolerant of this
entertainment, which had lost much of
its music hall variety flavor.

New Burlesque

In the mid nineteen nineties the genre
was resurrected, with troupes in the
USA, and the trend has snowballed over
to the UK. Now, once more on both sides
of the channel, it is possible to see
shows equal in glamour, bawdiness and
variety to equal the art form in its
heyday in clubs and theatres in major
cities. Arguably the Internet has
played a major part to spread the
interest in the genre. There are
websites, such as Ministry of Burlesque
dedicated to promoting it, to teaching
dance, makeup and fashion.

Burlesque lingerie fashion

The mainstay of this style is lingerie
and modern burlesque generally
concentrates on the fifties and to a
lesser degree the forties look. This
extends not only to clothing, but hats,
footwear and makeup too. There have
always been fans of fifties silk and
nylon stockings. The majority stocking
mills closed up shop when pantyhose all
but killed the stocking market. Their
huge stocking machines were destroyed
and along with it the expertise to
manufacture fully-fashioned stockings.
Now the rare machines remaining are
being rebuilt and returned to service to
again produce faux fifties seamed
stockings. However a few companies
trading online still have limited
supplies of the original fifties
stockings so the purists can satisfy
their need to the 'real thing' rather
than the modern copies. Sadly, once
that depleting stock is exhausted, they
will only be viewable in museums and
private collections.

However, for burlesque stage performance
it is the fishnet tights or pantyhose
that are still really popular.

Companies are making exact copies both
of retro costumes and burlesque
accessories, from ostrich feather fans
to bullet bras. Lingerie companies,
sensing an opportunity not to be missed,
are enticing well-known burlesque
artists to lend their names and
expertise to burlesque-inspired lingerie
designs.

Burlesque is eagerly embraced by all
physiques, from plus size to
skinny-minny, proving how empowering it
can be to women - all physiques are
equally welcomed, but there is not set
'burlesque costume' either. It is very
common for burlesque artists to take
everyday lingerie, adapt it by sewing on
sequins to devise their own unique take
on burlesque. However the common
thread that runs through the new
outfits, going right back to the
earliest days of the art form is the
element of 'tease', the showing of
rather more lingerie and stocking tops
that would normally be seen in everyday
life.

Rockabilly fashion

Over the years a number of fashion
styles have grown towards each other,
oft times overlapping. The word
rockabilly was used around the mid
forties and was a blend of hillbilly and
rock and roll music styles. Todays pinup
photographers generally recreate the
stylish fifties imagery which overlaps
but is distinct from rockabilly. Many
rockabilly enthusiasts have tattoos and
piercings, and that certainly was never
a fad of the fifties, but a modern
phenomenon.

Pinup fashion

The term pinup also has blurred origins,
covering photos of movie stars from
around the thirties and forties, but
also the airbrushed fantasy women
gracing men's magazines by such
exponents as Petty and Elvgren. The
fashions often featured nylons and
lingerie, sometimes being exposed by a
sudden unexpected gust of wind or other
'mishap' that befell the model. The
intention was actually to reveal very
very little by today's standards. It is
a certainty that pinup art, with the
sexy lingerie has strongly influenced
the outfits adopted by many of today's
burlesque artists.

Explore the overlapping influences of burlesque, pinup and
rockabilly styles on fashion Suddenly burlesque and pinup
fashions are all over the Internet. The original burlesque
designs with their risqu? overtones have become the fun
fashion, being adapted and adopted by rockabilly. With the
current resurgence of burlesque clubs and events this timely
article explores the origins of burlesque and how it has
changed over the years.

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