Roxi Dlite is the reigning Princess Of Burlesque at The Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. She is also a fellow Canadian cutie, one of STOS`s favorite guest performers and the inspiration for the title of this blog! Here she is Miss Rhinestones and Whiskey herself, Roxi Dlite!
1. What is the importance of costuming to the burlesque performance.? Do you come up with the act or the costume first? Costuming is very important. A performer's costume is the first thing we see when we watch a performance. I truly feel it reflects a level of professionalism. When I come up with my acts I usually come up with the costume after I figure out what I'll be doing and what I will need the costume to do and how it will come off.
2. When did you realize that your costumes had to be custom made and not off the rack?Being a burlesque performer from Windsor, Ontario, I have zero costume resources. I have tried to find costume designers in Windsor, but the only ones I could find made little outfits out of stretchy material only for strippers - not quite what I was looking for. I was forced to buy off the rack for many years, and so I would try to mix and match with other pieces to make it my own. I even tried to learn how to sew, and I always have to order online. It's pretty frustrating trying to source out everything. I still do this sometimes, I'll buy a corset here, a skirt there and have Amber Ray make my pasties. However, I'm starting to get to know a couple new fantastic costume designers who are helping me out with making my costume ideas a reality. I'm so pleased with my new Sailor costume Christina Manuge made for me.
3.What inspirations do you draw from?I am absolutely in love with Betty Grable. Her costumes were amazing in every scene she was in. I like to look at photos from old burlesque performers costumes as well. The Ziegfeld Follies costumes were jaw dropping beautiful and, I think this should go without saying, Dita has the best wardrobe known to women. I have a folder on my desktop called 'inspiration' and whenever I see something on the internet that inspires me I drop it in.
4. Do you get inspired from vintage burlesque photography or performers?I love to look at old photos of burlesque performers. It's very inspiring to watch old videos of them performing as well, however, I think costuming has come a long way since then, there really are a lot of wonderful costumes nowadays. Some of the nicest vintage costumes can be seen on display at the Burlesque Hall of Fame.
5.What are your favourite costumes that you've made? What was the most challenging?Well, I don't really know how to sew all that well. So far I ha
ve made two aprons, a silk one with a heart on it, and a lemon apron for my shoot in Java's Bachelor Pad Magazine #7 (go pick yourself up a copy). I've also made two strip panel skirts. I think the hardest was the lemon apron because sewing circles is a challenge for me.
6. What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you while making something?I was ironing the lemon decal on my apron but I wasn't using an ironing board, just a towel on top of our hardwood floors. There's now an image of an iron burned into my floor. I hope we get our deposit back but I doubt it.
Other than that, I have rhinestoning parties. My pirate costume was insane and I couldn't do it alone so I had some friends come over to help me glue the stones on. I fed them and we drank wine, but I think we got a little too stoned. They accused me of running a sweatshop but I've never heard of a sweatshop that gets it's workers drunk and stoned. If there is such a place...well, I'm guilty. It was a lot of fun.
7. What materials do you get the most excited about working with?I'm really digging dupioni silk. I think corsets look amazing in that fabric. I just bought a black dupioni silk underbust corset and am having a bustle made to match. I can't wait to glue rhinestones on it.
8. Explain the importance of closures and fastenings on costumes for the burlesque artist?Oh my! It's EXTREMELY important that a burlesque performer doesn't struggle with zippers or corset ties. I have some tear away pants that use little plastic snaps and I love them, doing them back up is a bitch but they rip away nice and quick. Silky cord for corsets work best for me as well. Metal invisible zippers are the worst but look the best so it's a tricky call.
9..What was your most bizarre costume? Um... hmm... I really honestly don't know. I tend to like pretty costumes and less strange. For Halloween one year I dressed up as a zombie showgirl. It was basically a showgirl costume and the head piece was actually a vintage piece from an old retired Vegas show. I thought it was bizarre to mix ugly zombie makeup with a pretty showgirl costume.
10.What tips can you offer those who aren't crafty? What one Roxi DLite secret can you divulge?I'm obsessed with Amber Ray Accoutrement's. If you're not crafty, she certainly is. She's made me a couple pairs of pasties for my two big numbers and is going to be making me another pair for my new fan show. She can make anything over the top. I just purchased a little head band with a feather thing on it from her as well as a new hair flower to add to my rapid growing collection of Amber Ray crap that I don't need but really enjoy.
11. If you had an unlimited budget what would you make? The sky's the limit!I can't tell you, because one day I just might have the money and I want it to be a surprise. But it most likely would be a large prop with a kick ass costume to match.
12.There's a recent insider controversy about how many Swarovskis one can put on a costume.The amount of Swarovski's one can put on a costume has to do with how many they can glue on before their hand starts to cramp up. That's why I get friends to help. And, of course, money has a lot to do with it. I will glue on as many I can afford. The most rhinestones I glued on a costume was for my pirate number, the total rhinestones i ordered was 40,896 in various sizes, most being 12ss in size. That was way too much work. I was gluing stones for 3 weeks straight.
13.What batteries fuel an outfit?Imagination, stage presence, music selection and musicality.
14. Where can we learn to make our own costumes- what workshops do you offer? I don't offer costume making workshops but I do offer pin-up workshops. As you may or may not know, I'm a photographer. I offer 'Pin-Up For A Day' workshops where I teach the basics of posing and how to always look good in photos. I also take your photos and you receive two airbrushed edited images as well as a gift bag. Makeup and hair is included in this package. It's a fun thing to do with a bunch of your girlfriends, I've even done this for bachelorette parties. I book private sessions as well. If you would like to learn more about my workshop please send me an email roxi.does.burlesk@hotmail.com
Any other info I should include?
http://www.roxidlite.com/website: Photography website:
http://www.myspace.com/roxidlitephotographyTwitter:
http://twitter.com/Roxi_DliteFacebook: Roxi Dlite
Sauci's Top Ten Songs to Strip To (Guess which ones I'm doing for Raunch n' Roll New Year 2009?) See ya at the show tonite! http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=220716529178&ref=ts
11) is ROCK YOU by Helix!
