Tropicana Jul-Aug 2018 #119 Hot Stuff

THE GAME CHANGER
In your current show "Dita Von
Teese and The Copper Coupe
Tour" you have another model
on stage with you, Gia Genevieve.
What inspired you to cast her in your show?
I had always wanted to have a blonde bombshell
in the show. I had a hard time finding this kind of
quintessential “ Playboy ” blonde. I met Gia a few times
over the years and she always had this effervescence, and
she was sexy and fun. I knew she wasn’t a dancer, but I
wondered if I could teach her how to do my bubble bath
act, simplify it and have her get her personality across
on stage. She’s a lot of fun to watch and she’s the perfect
example of you don’t have to be dancing all over the
place and doing backflips on stage to be
wildly entertaining.
Tell me about your collaboration with Absolut
Elyx for the "Dita Von Teese and The Copper
Coupe Tour".
Being famous for bathing in a giant cocktail glass, I was
open to a partnership with a cocktail company. I loved
the ideas that Elyx had. They were just about beautiful,
whimsical imagery that’s a tribute to what they do with
their copper distillery. I was very familiar with their
brand and loved the idea of making these tributes in the
show to their imagery. I took a giant shell and dipped
it in their signature copper. And I made a cocktail glass
that’s a tribute to their style. We had a lot of fun creating
the show and bringing it all together.
What other imagery onstage will reflect this tour's
name, The Copper Coupe?
With every tour, I’ve redone a version of my martini
glass act. I have a six-piece set of gigantic glasses at this
point. I could have a giant cocktail party! I’m always
thinking, “ How can I one up that number and make it
fresh and new?” For this tour, one of the most exciting
parts is the costume. I collaborated with my longtime
creative partner, Catherine D’Lish, we put our heads
together and came up with the most extravagant
costume we’ve ever done, to date. A big part of making
the show was this gown. I can’t tell because I’m wearing
it on stage, but from what people are telling me it lights
up the entire room.
“I always felt like I was going to
quit and have a child, because I
always thought I wanted them. More
recently I have given thought to the
unsustainable population growth
and global climate change.”
You're the Swarovski Queen. I'm assuming
everything is crystallised….
Everything is crystallised on this costume. We haven’t
weighed it yet, but I keep asking to. It’s completely
covered, and we’re using a new version of their aurora
borealis stone. They’re cut like diamonds, and the
effect is mind-boggling. People have been asking if my
costume is electrified or plugged in. It’s really something
to see under the lights.
You've been quoted as saying that burlesque is a
new kind of feminism. How so?
It’s become that for a lot of women. The feminist
movement must be respectful of other women’s ideals
of what it is, and what it means. More than ever, we as
women have to respect each other’s choices. Like I always
say, and this is the truth, my audience is mainly female.
My social media following is about 85 percent female.
When I started in the 1990s I had a lot of male fans, and
when I was a Playboy model I had a lot of male fans. It
shifted in the early 2000s when I came out with a book
and told my story about why I loved pinup, why I loved
burlesque, and what it meant to me to have that to
look to for my beauty icons. That resonated with
a lot of people and I could feel that was when it all
started to shift, when I exhibited my vulnerability about
why I love this. I like to say that it’s an alternative
feminist movement.
What do you say to women who cry out that
burlesque is an objectification?
Something that could have, in the past, been considered
degrading to women, I think that idea has been turned
upside down when my audience is mainly female.
They’re getting inspiration from this and feeling like
they can harness their own sensual power in a different
way and be in control of it. I would never say that
striptease and burlesque should be for everyone. I have
always loved things that walk that fine line, where one
person looking at it thinks it’s inspiring and magical,
and another person thinks it’s dirty and bad. It’s
interesting to me the way people see things. I find things
that are polarising to be interesting.
109 JULY/AUGUST 2018 | TM