Most Halloween websites and party stores offer a variety of revealing and sexy costumes for women. In recent years, it’s become de rigueur for females to show more skin than fabric on October 31st. While you can get a sexy devil or angel costume just about anywhere, there’s one brand that has attracted the attention of Hollywood stars-and local Los Angelenos -for over three decades.
Trashy Lingerie’s website Trashy.com and their store on La Cienega Blvd in Los Angeles offer hundreds of fantasy costumes for the 2010 Halloween season. Their Halloween costumes pages feature hundreds of costumes, some modeled by popular burlesque artists like Dita Von Teese. There’s the Women Warriors Collection with Joan of Arc and Robin Hood costumes, a collection of sexy fräulein beer garden costumes, geisha girl and retro hippie outfits, to name just a few. If you can dream it, you can be it for Halloween. The costumes are made on-site in L.A., not purchased wholesale from a foreign manufacturer. Trashy has an in-house staff of seamstresses and sewers. They can also custom design Halloween costumes and other outfits, too. “If you have an idea yourself and you wanted to be a purple crayon with wings, we could make that for you. Really, the only limit is your imagination,” says owner Mary Loomis-Shrier, during a phone interview I conducted with her last week. There are different styles within each costume category. One version of a pirate costume consists of a midriff top and mini-skirt, while others may feature a leather corset, stretch velvet pants or a tutu “courtesan” petticoat.
What’s new for Halloween 2010? There’s the Bollywood Collection, a sexy take on the saris and spangles worn by dancers in Indian musicals. “We have another new line, which is not on the website. It’s only in the store,” Loomis-Shrier adds. “The costumes are unbelievably gorgeous. The new costumes have a hoop skirt, but there’s no fabric on it so you can see your legs through the front of it.”
Trashy Lingerie opened for business in 1976, initially selling provocative high-heeled shoes of every color imaginable under the name 402 Shoes. Company founder Mitch Shrier designed the “Trashy Shoe.”, which piqued customers’ imagination. “It was an open toed slingback worn with stockings,” Loomis-Shrier explains, “Mitch and his wife Tracy started dying stockings to match the shoes, because back then there was no color in lingerie. Then their customers wanted garter belts to keep the stockings up, so they started to make colored garter belts to match, and then the panties to match and then the bra. And that’s how Trashy came to be.”
One thing led to another, and the store added a line of signature lingerie. Trashy became a favorite spot for models, actresses and “underground” rock ‘n’ roll types. (You can see the Go-Gos cavort outside the store in their “Our Lips Are Sealed’ video. ) By the 1980s, Trashy charged customers a small yearly membership fee to enter the store. Once inside, customers were privy to a virtual wonderland of corsets, negligees, baby dolls, and outrageous pants and tops for daytime wear.
With the advent of the Internet and round-the-clock celebrity culture, Trashy’s star rose in Hollywood. Bette Midler, Megan Fox, Brooke Shields and Sharon Stone have worn Trashy designs during stage shows, in movies, and on magazine covers. What other celebrities have rocked Trashy outfits? “It would be easier to tell you who has not,” Loomis-Shrier says, “Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson are hosting their annual Halloween party, and they came in and bought matching outfits of our “General Perversion” costume. We did bird costumes for Miley Cyrus and all her dancers for their Halloween party. We did all the Kardashians.” One of Trashy’s most famous designs was the iconic cone bra that Madonna wore during her 1990 “Truth or Dare” tour.
The company’s website features lingerie, playful clothes for clubbing and daytime wear, and Halloween costumes for all price ranges. There are bargain and sales sections for the money-conscious, so you can fulfill your Halloween fantasy regardless of your budget.
Trashy Lingerie
402 N. La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, Ca. 90048
Phone: 310-652-4543
www.trashy.com
