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Media Platforms Design Team

Dita von Teese knows a thing or two about sex appeal. It's an art form she's been studying since childhood, riffling through her mother's panty drawer ("she had some pretty sexy things in there"), getting her first job at a lingerie store at 15 ("I begged them to let me be a stock girl"), and saving up those early earnings for secret, sultry purchases (Her very first? "It was a Tiffany blue, shiny, silk garter belt").

Suffice it to say her education paid off; she can make a mid-calf hemline titillating and full nudity seem rather subtle. We asked the empress of modern burlesque, whose new retro lingerie line just launched at Bloomingdale's, what keeps her feeling sexy throughout the day.

Find your one-stop beauty booster—like red lipstick.

"I don't leave the house without a swipe of red lipstick, but I don't spend a lot of time getting ready either. I can get out the door in five minutes, and that red lipstick gives me the power to look polished. I wear super velvety matte lipsticks, like MAC's Ruby Woo and Lady Danger. They make for the most kiss-proof, food-proof lip."

Let there be great lighting.

"I have good lighting in every room of my house. I am never traumatized by stumbling into bad lighting in various states of undress. I have dimmer switches in every single room, and in my bathroom and bedroom, where I'd be getting dressed, I tend toward pink light or pink walls because it's a really flattering color. I have very few white walls in my house and lots of colorful ones."

Know your camera angles.

"If there's a flash, I'm looking down into the camera. If not, we've got to lift our faces up. Again, you have to think about your lighting. In the era of camera phones, you need to figure out your good side and your 'camera face.' It's totally acceptable to analyze that."

Seduce yourself—the rest will follow.

"Seduction is at its finest when it's nonchalant. You have to make him believe that you just are that way. So when you think, 'I'm going to try some garter belts on for him, and I think he'll like this color,' you've missed the whole point. But if you're indulging in things that make you feel good about yourself, and that are also beautiful and luxurious and fit you well--things that you would wear every day whether or not someone's looking--that's when it becomes natural and effortless. And that's when you really get him where it hurts."

Pick a sexy uniform.

"I have a distinctive aesthetic of what I think is sexy, and I have kind of a uniform. It's usually something that shows a little bit of cleavage and possibly has long sleeves. I like to wear long, black, leather upper glove and black long-seamed stocking. I like to have my hemline just below the knee, and I like a perfect Louboutin pump."

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Media Platforms Design Team
Headshot of Romy Oltuski
Romy Oltuski

Romy Oltuski is a writer and editor based in New York. Her work appears in The New York Times, Forbes, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, and The Cut.