Dita Von Teese - Your Beauty Mark: The Ultimate Guide to Eccentric Glamour

Albert Sanchez and Pedro Zalba

Albert Sanchez and Pedro Zalba

For Misty Whiteaker and James Stone. The eccentric beauty of your individual spirits will live on.

Dita

Albert Sanchez and Pedro Zalba

Is she for real?

Im nearly always asked this when anyone learns I know Dita Von Teese. Sometimes it comes in a whisper, pregnant with snarky anticipation for something that will confirm their misconceptions; other times, its voiced at full volume across a dinner table, shushing fellow guests, eager to hear a confidence revealed.

And nearly always, the initial response that pops to mind is the observation O. J. Berman (played by the great character actor Martin Balsam) conveys to leading man Paul Varjak (George Peppard) in the film version of Breakfast at Tiffanys:

Shes a real phony. You know why? Because she honestly believes all this phony junk she believes in.

Now, dont misunderstand me. I do not believe for a nanosecond that Dita is a phony by dictionary definition.

In Breakfast, when the Hollywood agent tells the lovesick Paul that Holly is a real phony because this once small-town girl believes in the crocodile-kitten-heeled life shes conjured in Manhattan as Holly Golightly, there is a wonderfully exhilarating truth to it. In this context, the phony is the drag of makeup, hair color, and wardrobe. Its the flair of speech and mannerism. And, of course, the adopted namebe it Holly Golightly or Dita Von Teese or that of her friends RuPaul or . Or it can be insisting on a single name, like the hair guru featured prominently on these pages, Danilo, who prefers to drop the family-given Dixon altogether.

These individuals each had the courage and determination to cultivate the eccentric beauty within them, to hone it as art form and turn it into a career and a lifestyle. They have manifested who they truly imagined themselves to be. And there is nothing fake about that.

Besides, the gal who started life in a Michigan town before conquering the world as the queen of burlesque and a bona fide fashion icon is no Holly Golightly. She is neither nave nor indecisive. She is no gold digger, having always made her way in this world through grit and grace. Nor is she a woman running from her past; her mother and sisters are every part of her showbiz family. And since I first met the pretty young go-go dancer, then known as Heather but already transforming into Dita, about a quarter century ago, she has wowed the world and her friends with a relentless work ethic.

Dita is also candid about the kinds of topics most private, let alone public, figures wouldnt even imagine broaching. Yet she also has the good sense and style to know when to keep matters of her private life to herself. She is more real than any reality star.

As for other uncertainties that bring into question her realness, allow me to set the record straight:

Yes, she really lives the life. Even her casual look at home means a pretty garden dress or lacy slip la Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The only time I have ever seen her in jeans in the last quarter century? Youll have to read about it in .

As for brains, boy, has she got them. You cannot reach the height of the neo-burlesque world and maintain that stature, keep a small army employed, and fashion a signature empire without a very good head on those porcelain shoulders.

Yes, she did earn that skin and body. Okay, so some of it is due to genetics (you should see her mother, Bonnie!). And she has always copped to whatever work shes undergoneshe shares it all again in . Otherwise, the work is all perspiration and dedication. When I stayed with her in Paris, after an evening out dining on our favorite cockles and Champagne, she was off the next morning to a local Pilates session before Id emptied my first cup of tea. She frequents ballet and other classes in cities she travels to the way most visitors do the local landmarks. Oh, she enjoys herself at the dinner tablewith moderation and without failing to eat smartly the rest of the time.

Yes, Dita does her own hair and makeup 99 percent of the timeunlike 99 percent of the celebrities out there with their own beauty guidebooks. So she very much deserves to have her name on this one. In the majority of photographs featured in this book, Dita has done her own hair and makeup. And little or no retouching was done on the step-by-step photographs and a few of the glamour shots. As someone who at age thirteen started wearing a cat eye, swiping on red lipstick, and teasing my hair, I deeply appreciate that she brought me on board to collaborate, write, and creative-direct this book. I get her. And I get how real all this phony stuff is to those of us who bask in it.

Yes, it was an experience. While this book admittedly took longer than either of us imagined it would, we werent about to put her name on something that wasnt the best we could make it. That is integrity. And its an experience I will forever cherish.

As for the other most-frequently-asked query, weighed down most of the time with some skepticism: is she really nice?

Yep. Dita is no phony.

ROSE APODACA

Los Angeles, 2015

Scott Nathan

Youve read and heard it all before:

Downplay the eye makeup if lips are bold and red.

Or play up the eyes and keep the lips nude.

Nude?

As nearly naked as you can catch me in the act onstage, I am not about to pucker up in a lip shade formulated to look natural. For me, its a painted eye, a heavily penciled brow, and a swipe of crimson lipstick. Just as the true laws of nature intended.

Douglas Friedman

Rules? Youre going to tell me Marilyn Monroe, Hedy Lamarr, and Rita Hayworth got it wrong?

In my book, they got it very right. Through the magic of beauty, including some tricks outright extreme for their time, these mere mortals transformed themselves from pretty to divine. These glamorous eccentrics remain powerful weapons of mass seduction worldwide more than a half century later, painted pouts and all. If that goes against the rules du jour, then in my book, its all about breaking the rules!