Dita Von Teese

In 1992 a former lingerie shop buyer from Michigan began performing burlesque as Dita Von Teese, and over the next three decades she became the best-known figure of the neo-burlesque revival and one of the few performers to turn vintage-style corsets and stockings into a lingerie business. Her own lingerie collection launched in 2010.

Behind the counter at fifteen

Von Teese was born Heather Renee Sweet on September 28, 1972, in Rochester, Michigan, and grew up in West Branch, Michigan, from the age of five. At fifteen she took a job as a salesgirl in a lingerie store and later became a buyer for the company. That is the most useful fact in her biography for a lingerie encyclopedia. She learned the trade from the stockroom side, from fit, stock and what customers asked for, before she ever wore it on stage.

Her taste for elaborate foundation garments dates from that period. She has worn corsets, basques and fully fashioned stockings, the kind knitted flat and seamed up the back, as everyday dress ever since.

Dita Von Teese and the neo-burlesque revival

She started performing burlesque in 1992 and is credited with helping popularize its revival. Her acts restage the striptease of the 1930s and 1940s with large props and period music. The best known is "The Martini Glass," in which she bathes in an oversized cocktail glass.

In October 2006 she became the first guest star at the Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris, a venue with its own long tradition of costumed nude revue. The booking put an American burlesque act on the stage of the most famous cabaret in the French capital.

The lingerie matters to the act. A burlesque number is built on taking off layers in order, so the costume has to include a corset or girdle, gloves, a bra and stockings with suspenders, each designed to be removed on stage. Her shows kept those garments in front of audiences at a time when mainstream lingerie had moved toward soft cups and minimal construction.

A lingerie label from 2010

Von Teese turned the stage wardrobe into products. She designed a lingerie range with Wonderbra and sells stockings under the name Secrets in Lace. Her eponymous lingerie collection launched in 2010; her own site says it set out to revive vintage silhouettes with a wide size range. In 2012 she added Von Follies, a lower-priced clothing and underwear line.

Books on the subject

She has written two books with HarperCollins: "Burlesque and the Art of the Teese / Fetish and the Art of the Teese" in 2006 and a guide to eccentric beauty in 2015. Both treat lingerie, grooming and costume as a single discipline, which is how she has run her career. Her name now covers gloves, ready-to-wear, scarves, jewelry, cosmetics and fragrance as well, but the corsets and stockings came first, and they are still what the act is built on.

Last updated October 7, 2026