A few weeks ago I watched Melbourne’s DJ Tanzer take the stage in the early hours of the morning. She was wearing a full-body, hot-pink sequinned outfit so tight it could have been suctioned on. The look was completed by a matching sculptural headpiece. It was her second costume of the night and despite the hour and smouldering heat, she was completely otherworldly.
I often watch performance artists in high-camp glamour and wonder how they care for the piles of sequins and reams of shiny spandex, and imagine a puddle of sparkles and hosiery on the floor at the end of an evening. Here two artists explain what actually happens when the lights go up and the costumes come off.
Fantasy meets practicality
Given the dynamic nature of their performances, some effort goes into balancing practical constraints with the fantasy of theatre.
Generally fashion comes first for Tanzer: “Comfort? I don’t know her.”
Although she concedes: “I’m incapable of moving in a stiletto and spend long hours on my feet when DJing, so I take special care to invest in comfortable yet glamorous shoes. I have two pairs of glitter Fluevog Munsters that tick all the boxes.
“If I’m performing a full set of music and want to dance and breathe at the same time, any look that requires heels or a corset is off the menu,” she says. Making sure her headpieces are compatible with headphones is an added concern, although “the headphones themselves are continually shredded from contact with sequins of course”.
Rian Difuntorum has been performing under the drag name Aysha Buffet for eight years. She is renowned for wearing towering stilettos, voluminous trains, architectural gowns and 80s tailoring – all made in bright colours and glowing metallics.
Because she takes to the stage at least four times a week, she needs just as many costumes that can withstand repeated wear – without compromising on visual impact.
For Difuntorum, costume changes can cause the most trouble. “I have to consider whether my outfits are easy to get in and out of,” she says. “My go-to outfit is a catsuit … I have a good half dozen. The outfits I don’t wear often are usually the ones I can’t get into alone.”
She works closely with Melbourne costume designer Bryn Costume on all her looks.
For DJ Tanzer (real name Hayley Tanzer), her signature outré headwear and matching bodysuits start as drawings and sketches. She then turns to costume designers Tristan Seebohm and Alice Edgeley to help bring them to life.
Post-performance care
“My long-suffering costume makers will shudder, but most of my sequinned looks go in a delicate bag in the washing machine,” says Tanzer. She prefers to wash garments over airing them out, since she works up quite a sweat when performing. She describes herself as “a perfumed princess who cannot tolerate the lightest skank”.
Difuntorum also throws her machine-washable costumes in with her laundry. Or she’ll spray them with a fabric freshener and air them out before putting them away.
Repair and rewear
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the imagination, effort and expense that goes into a piece, both performers wear their costumes for years. Rounds of repairs and alterations help keep them functional.
“It’s common that costumes I perform in will bust a seam or two, or a zip,” says Difuntorum. “I do a lot of mending to keep them strong. A huge part of increasing the longevity of the outfits is also updating and altering them to change the look.”
Tanzer says her costumes get “a long and brutal run”. She wore a silver sequin catsuit from her earliest performance days almost 100 times. “It was only retired once the fabric had become so sheer it started to disintegrate. I still have it, I can’t bear to part with it.
“I also like to restyle old looks to give them a new context. I had an Edgeley dress from 2016 refashioned into a catsuit that’s about to star in my new music video,” she says.
Calling curtains
When a costume is ready to hang up its professional sequins, Tanzer and Difuntorum ensure it has a second life. “There is always something I can do with an old costume,” says Difuntorum, “Even if it is just to turn it into a pattern for another costume.” Often she passes them on to her drag daughters or members of the wider queer performance community, or she sells them online.
Tanzer either gives her costumes to friends or to her favourite Melbourne costume store, Rose Chong. “I hear of my old costumes appearing at fancy dress parties and in other people’s music videos all the time!” she says. “I love hearing about their new lives.”
