The glamorous world of Dita Von Teese: The Nocturnelle chapter and beyond (EXCLUSIVE)

There are performers and then there are entities unto themselves. World famous Glampire Dita Von Teese belongs firmly in the latter.

Returning to the UK in January 2026, the undisputed Queen of Burlesque is set to unveil Nocturnelle, her most opulent and glambitious tour to date. Blending old Hollywood seduction, high art striptease and the secrets of 19th century illusion, the show promises an immersive night where sensuality meets sleight of hand. 

For Nocturnelle, Dita has married the timeless performance arts of striptease and magic. She’s been a regular at LA’s legendary Magic Castle for over 25 years, befriending master magicians and quietly absorbing the craft. “They’d been telling me for years, ‘You should put magic in your show,’” she laughs. “I resisted at first and then I didn’t.” The idea first took shape in 2019, when she began developing original illusions with some of the world’s most respected magicians. Though the pandemic temporarily paused those plans, the spark never faded. When it came time to creating a new tour, something entirely distinct from her Las Vegas residency, the concept returned fully formed.

“I never set out to start a movement… I was just telling my story, why I love what I love”

“What fascinates me is that some of these illusions haven’t changed in over a hundred years,” she says. “There’s something enchanting about that, they’re timeless.”

The tour’s host, drag icon BenDeLaCreme, was a dream booking, even for Dita. “I saw her Christmas show twice,” she says, still sounding impressed. “She writes it all herself, that level of sophisticated showbiz is amazing to watch”. BenDeLaCreme’s theatrical precision and classic wit made her a perfect match for Nocturnelle’s fantasy. “She’s incredibly busy, so I didn’t think I’d get her,” Dita admits. “I have a tendency to stay with my hosts for a long time, I get very like close to them and love working with them, I’m excited about that.”

When Dita first began burlesque in the early 1990s, her fanbase was predominantly male but everything changed after she began speaking openly about glamour as an art form and removing shame from sensuality, especially through her writing. “I never set out to start a movement,” she reflects. “I was just telling my story, why I love what I love.” Then came the moment she realised what it had become. After appearing on The Jonathan Ross Show, Dita arrived at Harrods by horse and carriage for a book signing, the cordoned off London street was lined with hundreds of fans, many wearing her signature red lipstick and glorious outfits. 

“I remember being so touched by that. It felt like something bigger than me, I couldn’t believe it. I was sort of like, oh, wow, this kind of feels like a movement, you know? And listen, this is almost 25 years ago, right? And a lot has happened since then, but it was a really exciting moment for me. And I think, at some point I did become the person that spoke to all of this when there weren’t any other women in entertainment doing this on a big scale.”

When asked about how she hopes audiences feel after seeing her perform in 2026, Dita says “I feel like people in general want to indulge in the art of creating beauty and glamor, to find their confidence and be given permission to indulge in their sensual, sexual side, a lot of times there’s not a space for that, and one of the things that I like hearing from my fans is that they have found this group of like-minded people. We don’t have to apologise for liking to wear blue eyeshadow or red lipstick or dressing an extravagant way for tea on a Tuesday afternoon. It doesn’t matter. And you should be enjoying your one great life that you have.”

“I’ve been surrounded by the eccentricity, flamboyance and decadence of [the LGBTQ+] crowd since I was just out of high school. That was and is my world”

For Dita, the audience is as much a part of the spectacle as the stage itself. “I love seeing people come together, thousands of them, dressed beautifully, extravagantly, in vintage, in drag, in whatever makes them feel incredible. It’s a very inclusive, fun and glamorous environment. People plan their outfits and hair weeks in advance, I see everyone’s pictures after shows and they make me so happy, because that’s exactly what I’m doing too.”

Few performers are embraced by queer audiences as passionately as Dita Von Teese. She traces that mutual bond back to her teenage years as a club kid in LA’s rave scene. 

“I don’t like to speak about like the LGBTQ community, like they’re this thing or everybody likes me, you know? They’re so diverse. I don’t expect everyone to like me, but I think, for me at least, there’s always been a connection. I’ve been surrounded by the eccentricity, flamboyance and decadence of that crowd since I was just out of high school. That was and is my world.”

For Dita, it’s less about labels and more about shared instincts. The joy of creating a persona, the pleasure of transformation and the thrill of spectacle. “It’s about feeling like you can be whoever you want to be,” she says.

As any fan of Dita will know, she has always championed making glamour accessible, regardless of budget. Inspired by this I had to know, if she could send three items from her modern day empire back in time to inspire her younger self at the start of her career, what would they be and why?

“Perfume is like silent cinema. It tells a story”

“The first would be something from my lingerie line, I’ve had it for over 15 years now” she continues. “I just loved lingerie, that was my first obsession, my first go-to little glamour thing. I worked in a lingerie store when I was 14, there was something about it that just spoke to me, like a rite of passage to womanhood, a secret kind of something under my clothes that wasn’t necessarily meant for someone else to see.”  

The second is lipstick. “I bought my first one for 99 cents and thought ‘This is life changing.’” I used this opportunity to ask about Dita’s MAC Viva Glam collaboration, a product I owned myself as a teenager, most notably her signature matte red lipstick. “Oh yeah! I did a big thing in the UK for that too” she laughs. Humble as she may be, Von Teese was a key spokesperson for the charity initiative for years, supporting HIV/AIDS research.

And the third, inevitably, is perfume. “Perfume is like silent cinema,” her voice smiles. “It tells a story.”

“I’ve always loved obscure perfumes that seem to be from another time. I read a lot of vintage erotica, or I like to read about my favourite movie stars like Marlene Dietrich, like what perfume did she wear? Perfume was more animalistic and unusual in the 1920s and 30s, so I’m very intrigued by that. And so, of course I have my own perfume called Scandalwood, a bestseller. It’s my personal favourite that I wear every day. I would send that to my younger self.”

Ever the pioneer and businesswoman, Dita Von Teese is one of the earliest examples of digital self-ownership. She was the first vintage pin-up figure to truly exist online in the late ’90s, long before algorithms and social media looked anything like it does today. I wanted to ask her about the platform she built, laying the foundations for what we now recognise as influencer culture. 

“I think Burlesque it’s about having authority over your sensual side and there’s a huge audience for this”

“My boyfriend at the time said there’s this thing that’s called the World Wide Web and I think you should put your picture on it. I was like, what? So, we built a page, one singular page. We had these pictures, my pinup pictures, and you could send in a check and I would send you back a little brown envelope with five photos of me. And then of course it grew and I had the first membership option via a paywall to see pictures of me, but yeah I was the first person in vintage to do this. I did all these photo shoots with the other Playboy girls around Los Angeles and around the world and we would do a photo exchange where we’d take pictures together and then we’d share them and then we’d put them on our membership site. So that was one of my first businesses, like in the very early 90s.”

Alongside her innovation and busy schedule, comes the contradiction at the heart of Dita’s art… slowness. Burlesque is deliberately unrushed. Instant gratification? We don’t know her. It demands patience, enjoyment in the anticipation and being fully present. I had planned to ask Dita if she thought this contrast with the pace of modern day life is why the rebellion of burlesque continues to resonate so powerfully, but she reframes the question entirely. Dita sees burlesque as authority, which makes a lot of sense in a world where restraint feels like a radical concept.

“I think Burlesque it’s about having authority over your sensual side and there’s a huge audience for this.” She says.

“When I was growing up, I would read vintage erotica and I would get my hands on some like Andrew Blake films, which were all shot beautifully and beautiful locations, like shot in a castle or a Frank Lloyd Wright house with beautiful fashion. I wanted erotica that inspired me and I think that a burlesque show is kind of like that.”

“Some people just want to indulge in erotica, but we don’t want to necessarily, you know, watch a, like a typical porn movie. We want something more visually eloquent, you know? And that’s Burlesque. You can go see this beautiful fantasy show that is a certain degree of risque”

Dita’s reverence for time, history and intention extends far beyond her performance on the stage. Which is why, when the conversation moves on from her art and onto her love of collecting beautiful things I get the opportunity to ask about what makes these unusual items so magical to her. 

Get your tickets for Dita Von Teese’s Nocturnelle tour, opening in Manchester on 26 January 2026

With car fanatic, Darren Styles as Attitude’s CEO, it would feel criminal not to ask vintage car collector, Dita something motor related. I asked, If Attitude were to pick her up for the day in her dream ride, what would it be? But it turns out, that whilst she is a keen collector herself, she isn’t drawn to speed or status of a car, but to its provenance.

“A car that belonged to someone like Mae West, or Marlene Dietrich,” she says. “I like to fall into the fantasy of who had it before me.”

It’s the same instinct that draws her to antique clothing, heirloom jewellery and objects that carry visible traces of former lives. To Dita, beauty has many layers, a philosophy that travels to one of her most misunderstood collections and something I was hoping I would have time to ask her about during our brief time together. Her famous taxidermy collection.

“I don’t have hunting trophies,” she clarifies. “Many of these pieces came from zoos or farms, or they’re Victorian era works and antiques.”

I ask if she has given the members of her collection names, or has any favourites. “They don’t have names, although some wear jewellery,” she laughs. “But there are favourites, I think the  two swans are the most precious to me.” She continues, “Maybe this sounds weird to people, but back in the old days, women used to do bird taxidermy, like little hummingbirds. So I have these heart shaped glass domes that sit flush to the wall and they have little birds in them. And this is an example of the kind of things that women would do when men were off to war… projects. I know it sounds weird to us, but there’s a certain relationship with death and animals that maybe people are not very close to anymore because they just buy their meat in the grocery store or whatever packaged, So I think people used to have a different relationship with things like that.”

To me, Dita Von Teese was the dream interview guest. From burlesque and digital pioneering to vintage automobiles and preserved birds. She invites you to slow down, look closer and think deeper. Perhaps, that is her greatest magic of all?

Want to find out? Get your tickets for Dita Von Teese’s Nocturnelle tour, opening in Manchester on 26 January 2026, with dates across the UK and Europe, including a sold-out run at the London Palladium. Tickets and full tour details are available now. www.myticket.co.uk.

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