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Dita von Teese's Biography

 
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Dita Von Teese was born Heather Renée Sweet in West Branch, Michigan on 28 September 1972.

Her family moved to California when she was 13. Soon afterwards, her parents divorced.

Her father was a factory machinist and her mother was a manicurist.

When she was 15 she worked in an underwear shop Lady Ruby's in Orange County, and it signalled the start of her lifelong interest in underwear and lingerie.

Her first adult job was as a dancer in a Los Angeles strip club.

She took the name Dita as a tribute to actress Dita Parlo and the December 2002 Playboy cover gave her the last name Von Teese.

By 2002, her act had changed from stripping to a range of intricate burlesque shows, for example, the giant-martini-glass show, which Dita Von Teese describes as: "The glass is about 4ft high; I climb in, do a striptease and have a bath in it. There's another show where I ride a lifesize carousel horse covered in Swarovski crystals, and take my clothes off on the horse."

Dita Von Teese is 5' 6" tall, with a 32C bust, and 23 inch waist.

As well as her burlesque shows around the world, Dita Von Teese has worked with Cointreau and Wonderbra and designers Jean Paul Gaultier and Marc Jacobs. She has also appeared at events for Asprey and Louis Vuitton.

Back in 2000, Marilyn Manson cast her in his video for the single The Fight Song. Years later they married, but split up in late 2006 after just a year.

In the same year, Dita Von Teese's guide to burlesque and fetish, Burlesque and the Art of the Teese/Fetish and the Art of the Teese was published.

Dita Von Teese told the Times: "I believe one of the secrets of my success is getting nearly nude and wet in every show."

She lives in Paris and Los Angeles with her partner, Count Louis Marie de Castelbajac.

Around the time of her release of the book, Dita; Stripteese, and the DVD, Crazy Horse, Paris With Dita Von Teese, The Telegraph carried an interview with Dita Von Teese on her finances.



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