Burlesque costumes are supposed to look spectacular.
They also have to move, fasten, survive choreography, read under stage lighting and work with the performer rather than against them.
A flapper dress can look perfect in a photograph and be miserable for Charleston choreography. A pair of historically convincing shoes can be unsafe for dancing. A cigarette girl tray can complete a character visually but become unusable after twenty minutes of roaming if it is too heavy or badly balanced.
The same applies to props.
A vintage telephone that photographs beautifully may be useless if it is supposed to create a Foley sound on cue. A bellhop jacket can be technically period-inspired while reading like a novelty costume from the back of a ballroom.
This guide is for performers, producers, costumers, event professionals and anyone trying to source burlesque costume supplies, theatrical props, cabaret accessories and performance-ready specialty pieces.
It focuses on a more durable question than “What should I buy?”
Where should you look, what should you evaluate, and what makes something genuinely usable onstage?
Last reviewed: September 2026. Vendor inventories, individual products and links change. This guide favors established suppliers and category-level resources over temporary product listings whenever possible.
What Makes a Burlesque Costume Stage-Ready?
A performance costume has to do more than suggest a character.
It has to function.
Movement Comes First
Before approving a costume, ask what the performer actually has to do while wearing it.
Can they:
- take a full stride?
- kick safely?
- Charleston?
- turn quickly?
- kneel?
- sit?
- climb stairs?
- lift their arms overhead?
- interact with guests?
- enter and exit without catching the garment on shoes, props or scenery?
This matters especially with 1920s flapper dresses.
Heavy beadwork can change how a dress moves. Fringe can create magnificent visual motion, but it can also tangle. A narrow lining can restrict steps even when the outer dress looks loose.
A Gatsby-inspired dress and a Charleston performance costume are not necessarily the same thing.
Secure the Details
Small costume failures become large stage distractions.
Check:
- shoulder straps
- glove fit
- shoe straps
- headpieces
- jewelry
- fringe attachment
- closures
- snaps
- hooks
- removable pieces
- anything intended to release during choreography
A headpiece that stays perfectly still in a photograph may migrate across the performer’s forehead after three minutes of dancing.
Rehearse the costume, not just the act.
Design for the Distance
A beautifully detailed costume viewed from five feet away may disappear in a ballroom.
For larger rooms, prioritize:
- silhouette
- contrast
- scale
- movement
- sparkle
- recognizable shape
- strong accessories
Tiny period details can support authenticity, but the room sees the silhouette first.
Coordinate a Cast Without Making Everyone Identical
Ensemble costumes do not have to be carbon copies.
In fact, a group can look more sophisticated when performers share a clear visual language while retaining individual silhouettes.
Try coordinating:
- one color family
- related hem lengths
- a consistent period
- complementary sparkle
- shared accessories
- similar gloves
- related headpieces
- repeated trim or embellishment
The goal is for six performers to look as though they belong in the same world, not as though six identical Halloween costumes arrived in the same shipping box.
Chicago Costume & Theatrical Resources
Chicago has unusually useful infrastructure for performers and producers who need something more specialized than ordinary retail clothing.
Chicago Costume
Best for: costume rentals, vintage pieces, wigs, stage makeup, accessories, props and last-minute local sourcing.
Chicago Costume is particularly useful when you need to see, try or assemble a look in person rather than gamble on sizing and quality from an online photograph.
Fantasy Costumes
Best for: period costumes, theatrical rentals, wigs, makeup, accessories and character looks.
For a production involving bellhops, vintage hospitality characters, formal period looks or emergency replacements, a year-round theatrical costume shop is generally more useful than a seasonal novelty retailer.
Lost Eras
Best for: vintage clothing, unusual period costumes, antiques and hard-to-find theatrical props.
Explore Lost Eras prop rentals
Lost Eras is particularly relevant when a production needs objects with age and character, not merely reproductions designed to suggest a period.
Think luggage, furniture, decorative objects, vintage accessories and unusual pieces that can help establish an environment.
Broadway Costumes
Best for: professional theatrical costume rental and larger period-costume needs.
When the project moves beyond one costume into a larger cast, theatrical rental resources become increasingly valuable.
The Costume Shop
Best for: professional custom costume builds and production-level costume work.
Explore The Costume Shop Chicago
This is a different category from a retail costume store.
A professional costume shop becomes relevant when the design itself needs to be built around the performer, choreography or production.
Midwest Costume Company
Best for: working wardrobe departments, costume-maintenance tools, expendables and professional costume-production supplies.
Explore Midwest Costume Company
Some of the most important costume supplies are not glamorous at all.
They are the things that prevent glamorous costumes from falling apart.
Chicago Fabric, Trim & Costume-Building Resources
Vogue Fabrics
Best for: fabric, trim, elastic, corsetry supplies and costume fabrication.
A costume often improves dramatically when you stop searching for the finished item and start sourcing the right material, trim or component instead.
Fishman’s Fabrics
Best for: local fabric sourcing and specialty textiles.
Fishman’s is useful when texture, drape, shine or fabric weight matter enough that seeing material in person is preferable to ordering blindly.
Mood Fabrics Chicago
Best for: fabric samples, trim, buttons, notions and designer-oriented sourcing.
Mood now has a Chicago showroom, adding another local resource for designers, costumers and performers building or altering their own stagewear.
Rhinestones, Feathers, Trims & Costume Construction
A stage costume is often assembled from several suppliers rather than purchased finished.
Rhinestones Unlimited
Best for: rhinestones and performance embellishment.
Dreamtime Creations
Best for: crystals, flatbacks, sew-on stones, adhesives, tools and bulk embellishment.
For stagewear, think beyond “more sparkle.”
Consider stone size, placement, weight, flexibility and viewing distance.
Ten tiny stones may disappear completely from the audience. One strategically placed larger element may read far more clearly.
The Feather Place
Best for: plumes, feather trim, boas and specialty feather work.
Feathers create scale and motion beautifully, but they introduce their own practical questions:
- storage
- crushing
- shedding
- moisture
- transport
- sightlines
- clearance around other performers
WAWAK
Best for: snaps, hooks, elastic, closures, boning, interfacing and professional sewing supplies.
Explore WAWAK garment-construction supplies
Hooks, snaps and elastic may not make the publicity photograph.
They can determine whether the costume survives the performance.
Manhattan Wardrobe Supply
Best for: backstage wardrobe tools, garment-care supplies and professional wardrobe problem-solving.
Explore Manhattan Wardrobe Supply
This is the kind of resource that becomes increasingly useful when you stop thinking only like a shopper and start thinking like a wardrobe professional.
Burlesque-Specific Costume Resources
Showgirl Sparkle
Best for: burlesque-specific embellishment and costume supplies.
Specialist vendors can be useful because they understand the visual language of stagewear rather than treating rhinestones, pasties or embellishment as novelty accessories.
NevaNude
Best for: reusable burlesque pasties and body accessories.
Explore NevaNude burlesque pasties
Pasties are one of burlesque’s most recognizable costume traditions, but they are also functional performance pieces.
Consider:
- coverage
- adhesion method
- movement
- skin preparation
- costume changes
- sweat
- reuse
- whether tassels need to rotate freely
Catherine D’Lish
Best for: statement robes, gowns and dramatic glamour references.
This is less a “basic supply” recommendation than a useful example of what happens when silhouette, fabric and movement are designed specifically for theatrical glamour.
1920s, Flapper & Charleston Performance Costumes
1920s-themed entertainment creates a deceptively difficult sourcing problem.
There is an enormous amount of inexpensive flapper clothing online.
Much of it was designed to look like a flapper costume, not to survive professional choreography.
A Flapper Dress Is Not Automatically a Charleston Costume
For dance performance, check:
- room through the hip and thigh
- usable stride length
- secure straps
- manageable bead weight
- neckline stability
- responsive fringe
- hem clearance
- freedom through the shoulders
- whether beads or trim strike painfully during repeated movement
Put the actual choreography in the costume before approving it.
If the performer needs to Charleston, rehearse Charleston in it.
Flapper Boutique
Best for: dedicated 1920s-inspired dresses and accessories.
For durable sourcing guides, link to the vendor or relevant collection, not one dress.
Individual styles disappear. Good suppliers remain useful.
Dance-Appropriate Shoes for Cabaret & Charleston
A costume shoe is not automatically a dance shoe.
What to Check
Evaluate:
- heel stability
- ankle security
- sole material
- floor compatibility
- flexibility
- toe clearance
- rehearsal comfort
- turning
- stopping
- repeated wear
Period accuracy does not compensate for unsafe footwear.
Capezio
Best for: character shoes, ballroom shoes and performance heels designed for movement.
Explore Capezio performance heels
BLOCH
Best for: character and chorus-line footwear with performance-oriented construction.
Whenever possible, choose the shoe for the choreography and floor first, then solve the visual period around it.
Cigarette Girl Trays & Roaming Hospitality Props
The classic cigarette girl tray looks simple.
For extended roaming, it isn’t.
What Makes a Cigarette Girl Tray Actually Work?
Before decorating one, evaluate:
- empty weight
- loaded weight
- width
- depth
- strap position
- strap width
- balance
- how close it sits to the body
- whether the performer can turn easily
- whether guests can reach the contents
- whether objects slide while walking
- whether the tray blocks the costume
- whether the front surface can accept branding or signage
A tray becomes significantly more uncomfortable once candy, favors, cards or promotional items are added.
The NSC production used trays approximately 18.5 × 13 inches, which offered enough presentation area for roaming service without turning the tray into an enormous piece of scenery.
Think About the Strap Before the Decoration
The strap carries the actual load.
It needs to:
- distribute weight comfortably
- stay positioned while walking
- avoid cutting into costume straps or bare skin
- keep the tray level
- allow the performer to release a hand when needed
Decorative lining, trim and branding should come after the ergonomics work.
Rental Reference: ACME Brooklyn
For a useful example of a theatrical vending-tray format:
See ACME Brooklyn’s cigarette-girl vending tray reference
Use individual rental pieces as size and construction references, not as permanent shopping recommendations.
Bellhop Uniforms & Theatrical Hospitality Costumes
Bellhop characters are visually simple enough that bad versions stand out immediately.
What Makes a Bellhop Costume Look Theatrical Instead of Cheap?
Look for:
- a structured jacket
- a strong shoulder line
- recognizable contrast trim
- a proper hat
- clean trousers
- good proportion
- movement through the arms
- enough visual contrast to read across a large room
The goal is not perfect museum reproduction.
The goal is an instantly readable theatrical character.
Bellhop. Hotel. Service. World.
The costume needs to communicate that before the performer says anything.
For local sourcing, begin with theatrical resources such as Chicago Costume, Fantasy Costumes and Broadway Costumes before defaulting to disposable novelty uniforms.
Vintage Hotel Props, Luggage & Theatrical World-Building
Costume establishes the character.
Props establish the world around the character.
For a vintage hotel or hospitality environment, useful objects might include:
- hotel bells
- brass room keys
- key racks
- vintage luggage
- luggage tags
- desk accessories
- period signage
- stationery
- service trays
- newspapers
- telephones
- small lamps
- directories or ledgers
One object rarely creates the illusion by itself.
A bellhop wearing a red jacket is a performer in costume.
A bellhop beside luggage, keys, a desk bell and hotel signage begins to look as though they belong somewhere.
Zap Props
Best for: vintage objects, furniture, signage, themed environments, prop rental and fabrication.
For Chicago producers, a real prop house can save enormous amounts of time when the alternative is buying, storing and later disposing of bulky objects.
Lost Eras
Best for: period antiques and eclectic hard-to-find objects.
Vintage rentals become particularly useful when age, patina and material authenticity contribute meaningfully to the world.
Foley & Vintage-Radio Props
A prop that merely looks correct and a prop that must perform a function are different production problems.
For Foley, the object needs to:
- create the required sound
- create it reliably
- work close to a microphone
- be repeatable
- reset quickly
- be comfortable to handle
- remain safe during repeated cues
A beautiful antique telephone that makes no useful sound is not necessarily a useful Foley prop.
A less valuable object that produces exactly the required cue every time may be the better performance tool.
This distinction applies to:
- desk bells
- luggage
- doors
- paper
- glassware
- telephones
- keys
- mechanical objects
- percussion effects
- anything manipulated live for sound
If an object has a job onstage, test the job.
Buy, Rent, Fabricate or Customize?
Searching longer is not always the smartest sourcing strategy.
Buy When
Buying usually makes sense when:
- the piece will be reused
- sizing can be controlled
- performers need individual alterations
- replacement parts are useful
- storage is realistic
- the purchase cost is lower than repeated rentals
Rent When
Rent when:
- the object is bulky
- it is unusually expensive
- the item is needed only once
- storage would be impractical
- period accuracy is important
- you need something genuinely unusual
Fabricate When
Fabrication becomes smarter when:
- exact dimensions matter
- the prop has to perform a specific function
- branding must be integrated
- available products are consistently wrong
- unusual durability is required
- performer ergonomics matter more than appearance
Customize When
Customization is ideal when an existing base object is close, but needs:
- new straps
- lining
- trim
- rhinestones
- paint
- signage
- branding
- hardware
- reinforcement
The useful question is not:
“Where can I buy exactly what I pictured?”
It is:
“What is the fastest reliable path to the result the performance actually needs?”
Where Burlesque Costumes, Pasties & Tassels Fit
The practical sourcing side of costuming does not replace burlesque’s visual tradition.
Pasties, tassels, gloves, corsetry, stockings, feather fans, robes, rhinestones and elaborate reveals remain some of the form’s most recognizable stage languages.
But none of these pieces has meaning simply because it is “burlesque.”
Costume supports:
- character
- movement
- timing
- reveal
- humor
- glamour
- transformation
- theatrical scale
The strongest costume is not necessarily the most expensive, most revealing or most historically accurate.
It is the costume that helps the act become clearer.
Want the larger cultural context? Explore what burlesque is and how the form works.
When the Costume Problem Is Really a Creative-Direction Problem
Sometimes the problem is not finding another dress.
The performer or production has plenty of pieces, but nobody knows:
- what belongs together
- what the visual language should be
- which period references matter
- how costumes connect to character
- what should repeat across the cast
- what should be removed
- how props and movement support the same idea
That is a creative-direction problem.
When Sourcing Becomes Event Production
One costume is wardrobe.
Now add:
- six performers
- coordinated but non-identical looks
- specialty shoes
- roaming trays
- custom signage
- bellhop uniforms
- luggage
- hotel-world props
- live Foley
- custom music
- rehearsals
- performer changes
- venue coordination
- timed interactions
You are no longer simply shopping.
You are producing an experience.
Burlesque Chicago helps document what exists and how to think about it.
Vaudezilla handles the moment when someone needs to make all of those pieces work together.
How Vendors Are Chosen for This Resource
This is not a paid “best costume websites” roundup.
A supplier belongs here when it offers something materially useful to performance professionals, such as:
- professional theatrical inventory
- specialist burlesque or dance supplies
- local Chicago access
- unusual prop inventory
- rentals
- custom fabrication
- costume-construction materials
- established performance-industry experience
- something difficult to replace with a generic online marketplace
Inclusion does not mean Burlesque Chicago endorses every product a vendor sells.
It means the resource has a meaningful place in the wider performance-sourcing ecosystem.
How We Handle Product Links That Disappear
Specific product pages are fragile.
For that reason, this guide generally favors:
vendor homepage → relevant category → individual product
in that order.
Individual items are linked only when they are particularly useful as an example of:
- dimensions
- construction
- function
- style
- an unusual specialty
If an individual product disappears but the vendor remains useful, the link should be replaced with the closest durable category or vendor page.
Last reviewed: September 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do burlesque performers buy costumes?
There is no single burlesque costume store used by everyone.
Performers commonly combine theatrical costume shops, independent designers, dancewear companies, fabric and trim suppliers, rhinestone vendors, vintage clothing, specialist makers and custom fabrication.
The best source depends on what the costume needs to do.
What should I look for in a burlesque costume?
Start with movement, security and visibility.
A stage costume should allow the choreography, remain secure until something is intentionally removed and read clearly from the audience.
Then consider character, color, embellishment and historical references.
Are flapper costumes suitable for Charleston dancing?
Some are. Some are not.
Check stride length, lining, bead weight, fringe, straps, hem clearance and footwear.
Always rehearse the actual choreography in the costume before relying on it for a performance.
Where can I find theatrical costumes in Chicago?
Chicago has several year-round theatrical resources, including Chicago Costume, Fantasy Costumes, Broadway Costumes, Lost Eras and professional costume-building shops.
Use rentals when a specialized period look is expensive, bulky or unlikely to be reused.
Where can I find vintage stage props in Chicago?
Chicago prop houses and vintage-rental resources such as Zap Props and Lost Eras can be useful for period objects, furniture, luggage, signage and theatrical set dressing.
What kind of shoes should I wear for a Charleston or cabaret performance?
Choose shoes for the choreography and floor first.
Look for secure straps, appropriate soles, stable heels, flexibility and enough comfort for rehearsal and performance.
Dance and character-shoe companies such as Capezio and BLOCH are often a better starting point than fashion shoes that merely look historically appropriate.
What should I look for in a cigarette girl tray?
Pay attention to empty and loaded weight, width, depth, strap placement, balance, guest access and whether the front can accommodate decoration or branding.
The performer may be carrying it far longer than the few minutes required for a photograph.
Should I buy or rent theatrical props?
Buy reusable, performer-specific or easily stored pieces.
Rent expensive, bulky, highly period-specific or rarely needed objects.
Fabricate when the prop needs to perform a function that commercial products do not solve well.
Explore More Burlesque & Performance Resources
Explore the Burlesque & Variety Arts Directory for performers, specialty entertainment and other resources across the live-performance ecosystem.
See Chicago burlesque shows and live performance options to see costume, character and stagecraft in context.
Explore the Chicago Burlesque Guide for shows, classes, nightlife and performance discovery.
Source the Piece. Build the World.
A costume can create a silhouette.
A prop can suggest a place.
A performer can establish a character.
The best live experiences make those elements feel as though they were always meant to exist together.
Use this resource when you need to find the pieces and understand what makes them work.
Bring in Red Hot Annie when you need to determine what the artistic world should become.