From Rockabilly to Burlesque – a History of Lingerie
Burlesque & pinup fashions are everywhere on the Internet. The early burlesque designs with their risqué overtones have been reborne. Almost every city now hosts a regular burlesque event where performers, & audience too gets to dress the part.
Origins of burlesque – lingerie on show!
The word burlesque probably derives from the French, which describes a piece of slightly outrageous, humorous art. In the 1840s 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. When, in the late 1860’s Lydia Thompson took her burlesque troupe, called the British Blondes, to New York 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.
Of course, because burlesque is so empowering to women, not only is there no set figure – 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. It is not de rigueur to have tattoos and piercings for rockabilly, although many fans certainly do.
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 style was to tease and to reveal very little by today’s standards. There is no doubt that pinup art, with the sexy lingerie has strongly influenced the outfits adopted by many of today’s burlesque artists.
About the Author
Debbie Mendoza has studied fifties fashions over many years -she specializes in the history of vintage girdles & stockings. Ten years ago her love for the fifties led to her founding http://www.sleeknchic.com, firstly in the USA and for the past five years in the UK where she has relocated, having married a Brit! Her leisure interests include reading, theatre, cinema and keeping fit.
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