'Bejeweled' Dita Von Teese makes whole place shimmer in Las Vegas residency

USA Today

29-03-2025

'Bejeweled' Dita Von Teese makes whole place shimmer in Las Vegas residency
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Dita Von Teese talks Vegas residency, Taylor Swift music video cameo
The "Queen of Burlesque" sat down in Voltaire for an interview with the USA TODAY Network.
Dita Von Teese brings opulence to her second Las Vegas residency at the Venetian Resort.
Her Voltaire show features elaborate costumes, including custom-made Swarovski-clad crystal outfits and Christian Louboutin heels.
Von Teese appeared in Taylor Swift's "Bejeweled" music video.
Dita Von Teese swirls in her larger-than-life champagne glass and the crowd leaps to its feet in joyous applause. She cups a strawberry sponge the size of a couch pillow and squeezes. Water cascades over her body.
The iconic act is one of the many reasons fans are flocking to the Voltaire inside The Venetian Resort Las Vegas to watch the vedette's second residency.
"I first started performing that with my friend, Catherine D'Lish, who's my creative collaborator in everything I've done," Von Teese says.
Dita Von Teese's rhinestone-drenched Las Vegas residency part of growing burlesque scene
Bubbles hang from the ceiling. Magenta velvet chairs shaped like seashells are scattered throughout the space that fits 1,000. Von Teese wears a 1950s black dress with a red rose pattern to speak with the USA TODAY Network before one of her shows. Her hair is styled in an immaculate pageboy like an actress from the golden age of Hollywood.
"It was originally a dueling glasses act where it was my best friend Catherine D'Lish in the champagne glass and me in the martini," she says. "And we had music that shifted back and forth between classic champagne style music and then the swinging hit martini."
Best believe I'm still bejeweled
The act caught the eye of superstar Taylor Swift, who featured Von Teese in her "Bejeweled" music video in 2022 following the release of her 10th studio album "Midnights."
"[Swift's] assistant called and started talking to me about this project," Von Teese reflects, "and then Taylor suddenly got on. It was really an amazing conversation. She knew everything about what I'd done."
The behind-the-scenes video of the "Bejeweled" set was played at each of the Eras Tour stops before Swift took the stage, bringing the art of burlesque to Swifties.
" I kind of introduced her to my whole world," Von Teese says. "Like, here's the stockings I wear. Let's do the stocking peel. And she brought a lot of new fans that maybe had never heard of burlesque, or never heard of me before."
'Dita Las Vegas'
Von Teese's 90-minute show has no dialogue. She let's her acts, dancers and body of work do the talking. Visitors must be over 18.
Clothes come off in effortless movements, and tassels adorn the dancers' breasts. The burlesque show paints sexual confidence with an artistic brush. During the second act, Von Teese rides a pink velvet mechanical bull with 6-foot-long Swarovski crystallized horns while her dancers kick up their silver bedazzled boots.
"It's really fun for me to step into the role and direct someone on how to make it their own," she explains of the vignettes performed by her cast members between costume changes. As Von Teese straps on a new corset and Christian Louboutin heels, her fleet of fast-tapping dancers entertain the audience.
More: Taylor Swift threw her broken heel to a fan. He used it to help his cousin beat cancer.
"Christian is a really close friend of mine," she says. The two met in the early 2000s while Von Teese was performing in London. "He was just here a couple weeks ago. He makes all the shoes for my shows."
Nothing makes her feel sexier than strutting the catwalk in those red-painted soles. She says the latest Louboutin heels come with inside padding allowing for a sleek and sophisticated, but comfortable, walk.
"I spent five hours on them the other day, and I was totally fine," she says.
In her final number, Von Teese elegantly strides down stairs into a classic showgirl scene with vintage Bob Mackie headpieces and feather backpacks from the last showgirl revue on the strip, Jubilee.
Louboutin loved the number but offered one note: "Christian told me, 'I think you need to wear the highest shoe with your finale.' ... He's like, 'I know it's dangerous. We can see that it's difficult and dangerous. I think you should up the ante,' And I was like, 'OK, I'm going to do that.'"
Make the whole place shimmer
The most jaw-dropping part of the show isn't necessarily the strip teases, but a Swarovski crystal dress and heels that glisten so intensely, it almost appears like an electronic animation is projected onto them. The cut of the jewels refracts every single light source. It's impossible to look away.
"I just love fantasy and spectacle and glitz," Von Teese says, smiling. "The opulence and absurdity of all of it. I just love the idea of creating things that you won't see in real life, you know?"
Tickets to see the "Queen of Burlesque" extend through October at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas.
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Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network's Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.