Today, I was in the Piccadilly branch of Virgin Megastore and lo and behold, Dita Von Teese was there doing a book signing for her new book ‘Burlesque and the Art of the Teese’. I’m not a massive fan of the Teese myself but I do appreciate her very strong sense of style. Since I’m not really all that into her, I decided not to push my way through the throng of people just to catch a glimpse. Instead, I was more amused by her HARDCORE fans queuing up to get their book signed. By hardcore, I mean corsets ahoy, black wigs aplenty, red lips everywhere, stockings and suspenders in every variety imaginable and super duper high heels. The girls there REALLY went all out. I had no idea that Von Teese had become such a ma-hussive style icon. With all due respect to her, to me, it didn’t seem quite right that there were all these faux burlesque Teese-obsessed fans walking around. Their intentions are in the right place but somehow, they looked too much like cheap imitations in my opinion. It’s not the look I object to but the way it has been executed in that fan-girl kind of style. I’m only sorry I didn’t have my camera at the time but here are the kind of looks I saw….
(Pics from pinupclothing.com, gothichaven.com, attitude.uk.com)
I really ♥ Dita von Teese having her own style worked out so perfectly, although you won’t catch me dead styled the way she looks most of the time. Btw. there’s a quite interessting editorial of her in may’s German Vogue.
I love how Dita von Teese has cultivated such a specific style and attitude (she seems fairly ‘down to earth’ in interviews as well)- but agree that it is weird when people attempt cheap imitations. Would like to have been there though!
Why do you think these people have been copying Dita? People have been dressing this way for years. It’s not a trend, I’ve seen girls dress this way long before Dita became mainstream. I went to the Harrods signing and it was refreshing to see people going to the effort. Better than wearing tacky clothes from topshop if you ask me.
I understand that people have been dressing this way prior to Dita Von Teese, but I also think that a lot of the people who were queuing up to get their books signed are DIRECTLY influenced by her and did come off looking like they tried too hard to copy her style. I just personally don’t think that becoming a carbon copy of your style icon does any good for cultivating your own personal style. I just feel there is a better approach to taking influences – that’s all! Kudos to them for taking style risks but it’s just a personal opinion that it looked like their outfit was executed like ‘Hmm…Dita wore something like this to that awards show so I’m gonna wear it exactly like that too!’.
This is just a personal opinion…..
….and that is different than all the sheep who need to be told how to dress “indie” from vintage sellers and bloggers, how exactly? BAaAaAaAaAaaaaa