Career Von Teese

Von Teese began her career in a local strip club when she was eighteen. Disappointed with the lack of originality in all the other strippers' acts, Von Teese created a vintage-inspired outfit, with beehive hairstyle and elbow-length gloves coupled with a basque and seamed stockings, piquing the interest of the clientele.

Fetish and Glamour Modeling
 
It was during this time at the strip club that she began some glamour modeling, before she eventually became a fetish model. Her retro pin-up look, frequently emulating Bettie Page in photo shoots, set her apart from most other fetish models.

Her official website, often referred to as one of the first model sites on the internet, was created in 1992.Von Teese has maintained meticulous care to own the copyright to the majority of her images, very aware of what became of models, such as Bettie Page, who did not.

Von Teese achieved some level of recognition in the fetish world as a tightlacer. Through the wearing of a corset for many years, she had reduced her natural waistline to 22 inches, and can be laced down as far as 16 and a half inches. A diminutive person already, Von Teese stands at 5'6" and weighs 105 pounds.

Von Teese appeared on a number of fetish magazine covers, including Bizarre  and Marquis. It was around this time when she appeared, bound and partially suspended, on the cover of Midori's book, The Seductive Art of Japanese Bondage.

Von Teese was featured in Playboy magazine in 1999, 2001 and 2002. It was her Playboy cover in December 2002 that gave her her last name. Originally known simply as "Dita", a tribute to silent film actress Dita Parlo, Playboy insisted she use a last name.

She picked "Von Treese" out of the phonebook, but it was misspelled "Von Teese". Dita, preferring the typo, adopted it as her name. Dita says that it is her appearances in Playboy that finally won her father's respect for her profession.

The German metal band Atrocity chose her as the cover model for their 2008 album, Werk 80 II.