Part of performing on stage is dressing up. The costume helps put the person shift from whoever they are off stage to an entirely new persona, sometimes created just for that performance, sometimes a long-standing one. Regardless of the durability of the persona the clothes make the person, with every ruffle and stitch designed to bring out every possible inch of the person. When a person is looking at burlesque clothing online they are looking for all of the little things, and not so little things, that help to define that persona and make that persona pop. As no one ever really knows what will help everyone is always looking.
Burlesque is more than just raucous comedy. More exactly, it seeks to amuse the audience by offering a hyper-sexualized version of the performer for the sake of connecting to some primal aspect of that audience. It is one of the modes of performance where the performer is actually encouraged to swing for the fences and to dive into the performance. The performer must fully submerge themselves into the persona that they have established and fully explore how that persona looks at things. By doing so the performer becomes one with an aspect of themselves that can always surprise them but, more importantly, surprise the audience as well.
The clothing helps a burlesque performer become their persona. As the performer puts on the clothing every stitch helps them to assume a new persona, one that has been developed to shock and amuse the audience. That persona can be an exaggeration of the person’s normal persona or one developed specifically for the purposes of performance. While for some performers there seems to be no real difference between the two personas beyond one is more exaggerated and the other is more subdued, albeit just relatively slightly, interestingly for some performers there is an almost eerie change in personality between the two. All of this is due to the clothes, which act as a mask for the performer.
Thus, someone looking for burlesque clothing online is looking for something to help them make that change. They are looking for something that allows them to shift from one persona to another, and so they are looking for something that adds something to that costume. Of course, wise questers will ensure that the clothes fit snugly yet comfortably, and will usually only purchase the best for their costumes, but that is ultimately just part of looking for someone new, even if that someone new is themselves. In this case the clothes really do make the person.
