Cabaret Costume Ideas

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About Cabaret

An intimate style of performance, Cabaret involved a mixture of song, dance, comedy, and theatrics done in a nightclub or small venue setting. It was popular in Europe, particularly in France, in the late 1800s and continued until the start of WWII. At that point, cabaret came to America where it spawned such stars as Peggy Lee and Eartha Kitt. Tap, minstrel-style performance, and the racy can-can were a staple of Cabaret dance, as was jazz and swing music.

Early French Cabarets included the Moulin Rouge and Follies Bergere where can can dancers high-kicked for patrons in attendance. It was an informal sort of nightlife in which decadence and polite society met in the middle. Cabaret life and performance in the early 20th century was shown in the Broadway play and film, Cabaret, starring Joel Grey as the Emcee who announced each performance and Liza Minelli as cabaret singer/dancer Sally Bowles. The musical Chicago also gives a glimpse into cabaret in America.

Dressing up as Cabaret

Get dolled up in Cabaret style with can can dancer costumes straight outta the Moulin Rouge with fabulously flirty skirts, garters, and fishnet stockings with feathers in your hair. For a more modern cabaret look, channel Liza Minelli's iconic Sally Bowles with a sparkly top hat in red, silver, or black drenched in glitter worn over a black bob wig or a cabaret wig. Shimmery, fringed flapper costumes do a great job when paired with the hat and wig combo. Pick up a blonde cabaret wig to dress as Roxy Hart from Chicago, and her frenemy and fellow performer {Velma Kelly) with a black cabaret wig!