Welcome to the Undressing Room

La Mome Inette, Fetish Model, Modeling for Yva Richard in Paris in the 1930s

Welcome to Sex Worker Style! I’m celebrating how sex workers dress, why they wear what they wear to work, and how what they wear is both influenced by and influential upon fashion, dress, and culture outside of the sex industry. I’ll be combining memoir, observation, and research. I am a primary source, having worked in many aspects of the sex industry. I experienced many secret details of fashion, dress, and costume, watching how the interplay of workers’ preferences and aspirations, the motives of their employers, the tastes of customers and clients, and the directives of law enforcement affected those details. However, I know that I have to research history to give proper context to what I experienced, so I’ve been studying fashion history for 6 years now.

Most of the posts here will be from my Instagram, but I’ll be adding more as the project develops. Feel free to send suggestions for study!

I’ve been a sex worker for nearly four decades, working primarily, but not only, as a stripper and dominatrix. I’ve been an anti-censorship activist since high school, and a sex workers’ rights activist and advocate since the 1990s. I’m the author of The Burlesque Handbook and Fierce: The History of Leopard Print. I’m also the Headmistress of The New York School of Burlesque. I’m proud to be a survivor and an achiever, after having been bullied, threatened, harassed, and dismissed, told I would amount to nothing. If you’re a sex worker, you can too! And you don’t have to wait as long as I did — I published my first book at 47 years old, and my second eight years later. You can get started whenever it feels right to you.

For those of you who want to support my work, you can tip via venmo @joweldon, or join my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/m/sexworkerstyle for more insider tips and conversations. For all the visuals, follow me on Instagram at @sexworkerstyle. For burlesque classes, see schoolofburlesque.com.

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Finally back at my library residency today! It’s on a limited basis, but it’s been over a year. It felt surreal and fabulous. It was the first time I’ve been there since moving from Brooklyn to Manhattan, since I shut down the studio classes for the New York School of Burlesque, since my mother died. I feel like it’s been a lifetime. And there was the same tote I’d left on my shelf, full of my books, with my notecards, pens, and makeup bag. The library-owned books had all been moved back to their shelves, but I’ll have some of them back tomorrow. I’m talking about my research in my Patreon, & of course I’ll be posting some of the longer essays here! #sexworkerstyle #librarylove #newyork #research #hopeful It’s chair dance time! Sign up for tomorrow’s chair dance and stocking peel workshop at schoolofburlesque.com. Image: Icon Liza Minnelli in Cabaret , 1972. I love Billie Eilish’s fashion sense just generally, & I’m happy to see she’s adding this look to her style repertoire! This outfit is by Thierry Mugler , who often honors #sexworkerstyle and #fetishfashion , and understands the pleasures of dressing up that have nothing to do with appealing to anyone but yourself. In 2015 I did my first sold-out presentation about the history of leopard print at The Wild Project in The East Village, with a mini museum in the lobby. The mini museum and presentation were also featured at The Morbid Anatomy Museum, and after the book came out it was featured at The National Arts Club. I’ve toured with it and had so many amazing people show up in leopard print clothing, with wonderful stories of their favorite movie character or drag performer or naughty aunt who wore the print. You can read about my research, a fair amount of which did not make it into the book (you’ll see why -- lots of cul de sacs), on my old tumblr, UnDomesticated Women, and listen to me talk about this history on the @dressed_podcast with April Calahan. Jennie Joyce, burlesque star, in New York in 1892. Famous for her beautiful legs, Jennie was frequently in the press during her heyday for her glamour onstage and off, as well as for her tumultuous romantic life. She was also a woman willing to fight for her rights: in 1901 she successfully sued a theater manager for nonpayment of fees. Carrie Ann Inaba, Pole Dancer in The Girlie Show, 1993 It’s @themarcjacobs birthday! Finding this out reminded me of one of the times I worked ambiance at one of his masquerade parties and he was dressed as a camel toe. After the party he left his costume in the lobby at Rockefeller Center. I stopped to pet it on the way out and the guards rushed up and started yelling at me that if that was my camel toe, I needed to get it out of the lobby. I assured them it wasn’t mine and ran off with the rest of the ambiance crew — a bunch of strippers, dominatrices, and porn models — to another party. Happy birthday, Marc! I hope you’re having a great day even without the epic party. ❤️💋🎂#marcjacobs #cameltoe #sexworkerstyle #newyorkcity #masquerade #costume #fashiondesigner Photo by me. Repost from @thebswc Rip sweet fierce lady! ❤️💔
May 2021
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