Award-winning feature entertainer and burlesque showstopper, Roxi D’Lite, channels a lifetime of artistry into The Bespoke Showgirl, creating costumes designed by a performer who understands exactly how to dress the part.
(Note: This article appears in the September 2026 issue of ED Magazine.)
Try as you might, it would be a mistake to let Roxi D’Lite’s stage presence tell her whole story. She’s far more than the sum of her shimmy. So when she describes herself as an artist more than a showgirl, she means it in every sense of the word.
Long before she became one of burlesque’s most celebrated performers, claimed the coveted Miss Exotic World crown and earned Exotic Dancer magazine’s Feature Entertainer of the Year award, she was sketching, painting and studying graphic design in between shifts at the club. These weren’t outlets born from mere hobby; Roxi was meant to create. Onstage and off, it has been the common thread woven through every chapter of her life.
“I’ve had my hands in some form of art since I could hold a crayon,” she says.
Today, that lifelong artistic instinct has found a new outlet through The Bespoke Showgirl, a custom costume studio dedicated to designing couture-quality performance wear for feature entertainers, burlesque artists and stage performers.
For Roxi, a noted perfectionist, this isn’t a career pivot. It’s the next logical act.
“I never set out to turn this into a business,” she says. “I just wanted to make beautiful things. Eventually, my skills reached a point where I felt confident creating for other performers.”
From performer to designer
The journey wasn’t stitched together overnight. Raised in Canada and now based in Detroit, Roxi often struggled to find costumes worthy of the elaborate productions she was contracted to perform. She would rather be burned on the stake for an audience than be caught in some Party City, Chinese-made knock-off, but even the passable off-the-rack pieces required endless alterations and never quite matched the theatrical vision she had for her audiences.
A Roxi D’Lite performance required a Roxi D’Lite-approved costume. Because as captivating as she is without one, it’s the clothes that begin her story. The right ensemble doesn’t just complement the performance. It becomes part of the character, the fantasy and the art.
Everything changed after she met acclaimed Canadian costume designer Christina Manuge. Manuge’s work elevated Roxi’s stage productions and inspired her to learn the craft herself. That decision launched years of studying drafting, draping, garment construction and couture sewing techniques.
“No shortcuts,” Roxi says matter-of-factly.
Every performer has their own identity. My job is to amplify it, not overwrite it.
— Roxi D’Lite
The attention to detail extends well beyond appearance. Unlike many designers, she’s making costumes from the perspective of someone who still performs in them. She knows what it’s like to wrestle with a zipper moments before the DJ cues a set. She understands how different fabrics react beneath stage lights, the importance of designing costumes that can survive years of life being packed and re-packed on the road and how a quick change can derail an otherwise flawless performance if a hook lands in the wrong place.
Those aren’t lessons learned from textbooks. They’re lessons earned under the spotlight.
“I design from lived experience, not just aesthetics,” she says.
Every stitch serves the story
That performer-first philosophy shapes every commission. “Bespoke” is simply a refined way of saying “custom,” but for Roxi, it represents something far more personal. Every client is guided through a collaborative process that transforms an idea, a rough sketch or even a few scattered bullet points into a one-of-a-kind costume designed to command the stage.
“Every performer has their own identity,” she says. “My job is to amplify it, not overwrite it.”
Each project begins with an in-depth consultation exploring everything from music selection to character development. Rather than impose a signature style, Roxi prefers discovering what makes each entertainer unique before putting pencil to paper.
If you’ve met Roxi, you know her creative passion is every bit as genuine as her infectious laugh, the kind that makes you want to crack another joke just to hear it again. She’ll happily wax poetic about authentic steel-boned corsets, towering Vegas showgirl glamour, sumptuous feathers, dazzling crystal embellishments and the custom jewelry she handcrafts to complement each design. But if a client envisions something entirely different, she’s just as excited to bring that dream to life with the same artistry, care and attention to detail.
It’s less about creating “a Roxi costume” than creating your costume.
The design process resembles equal parts engineering project and artistic obsession. Ideas may begin with a piece of fabric, a vintage Hollywood film, an unusual prop or simply a color that refuses to leave her imagination. Sketches evolve into drafted patterns, mock-ups, fittings and countless hours of embellishment.
Then come the rhinestones. Lots of rhinestones.
“Once I’m happy and excited about the design, I move on to drafting or draping, multiple fittings, garment construction and lastly binge-watching some series while I meticulously glue millions of rhinestones and hand-sew embellishments. I enjoy every part of the process,” she says with a laugh.
As if designing couture costumes wasn’t enough, Roxi continues traveling as a feature entertainer while simultaneously producing the Exotic Dancer Invitationals and co-producing the annual ED Awards show. Add in her immersive cabaret production company, The Whoopee Club, and an ever-growing collection of ambitious stage productions she produces alongside her husband, Dante Wildern, and it’s fair to wonder whether she somehow discovered an extra day in the week. She hasn’t; she simply plans obsessively.
Months in advance, every costume is broken into stages. Deadlines are carefully protected, and commissions are accepted only when she knows she can deliver at the standard she’s established for herself.
“I won’t take a project if I know I can’t give it everything it deserves,” she says.
That honesty comes from personal experience. Like most entertainers, Roxi has endured the nightmare of waiting for a costume that didn’t arrive in time for an important performance. It’s an experience she refuses to inflict on anyone else. If she can’t meet the deadline, she’ll say so.
It’s a refreshingly candid philosophy in an industry where overpromising often comes easier than undercommitting.
Looking ahead, Roxi hopes The Bespoke Showgirl grows beyond one-of-a-kind commissions.
“I’m really interested in creating ready-to-wear foundation pieces performers can customize themselves, and eventually, helping entertainers develop complete productions by combining costume design, prop creation, performance coaching and act refinement.”
A costume isn’t an expense. It’s an investment in your art, your bookings and your show.
— Roxi D’Lite
It’s an ambitious vision. Then again, ambition has never been in short supply. After all, this is someone whose husband recently built her a rotating disco ball, a confetti cannon and a life-sized cake she can burst out of onstage. Ordinary has never been part of the plan.
Ultimately, Roxi sees every costume as something more than fabric and crystals. It’s wearable storytelling, a performance tool and an extension of the entertainer wearing it. While every garment is drafted, fitted and sewn by hand, she hopes the finished product delivers something that can’t be measured with a tape measure, and that’s confidence.
“A costume isn’t an expense,” she says. “It’s an investment in your art, your bookings and your show.”
For someone who has spent decades dazzling audiences around the world, that’s more than a sales pitch. It’s a philosophy stitched into every seam.
“Art has always helped people tell a story,” Roxi says. “Whether I’m onstage performing or behind a sewing machine, that’s still what I’m doing.”
For more information, follow @bespokeshowgirl on Instagram or email Roxi at roxidlite.bookings@gmail.com.
