Addison Rae’s Late-Night Burlesque Dress Is A Piece Of Showgirl History

It’s a great week to be in New York as a music fan. Yes, there is a certain 12th studio album from an alleged showgirl hitting rabid fans’ ears, but the more pressing matters at hand include a raucous Lorde performance at Madison Square Garden and two concerts starring Addison Rae. In between stops on her sold-out tour, Rae performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, bringing “Diet Pepsi” and a “New York” dance break to the late-night crowd in a sizzling showgirl dress with some serious history.

Rae has come a long way from doing TikTok dances for Fallon, now bringing her hit track to a different audience and showing her range off in new ways. Likewise, her fashion is never expected, not afraid to reference or not reference (you know the Lady Gaga spiel) and always feels true to her. Her stylist Dara Allen revealed on Instagram that Rae’s vintage gold beaded dress, replete with chevron fringe tassels, was originally owned by Gypsy Rose Lee. The Los Angeles-based vintage showroom The Way We Wore sourced the dress, and for it being practically 70 years old, it feels right at home on modern pop royalty, who made it feel current-day and pared-down with a gold mule and no-makeup-and-hair glam.

If the name Gypsy Rose Lee isn’t ringing a bell, she was a 1950s burlesque legend who enjoyed the life of a showgirl (sorry, I had to) with her hilarious stripteases and enduring beauty. Her life story, riddled with mommy issues and lost loves, was turned into Gypsy: A Memoir and eventually the musical of the same name, which still runs today. But back to Rae: It’s fitting that someone with infectious je ne sais quoi was able to slip into a dress worn by an original stage diva and not let it overwhelm her.

After singing “Diet Pepsi,” Rae showed why the dress was (and is) fodder for the spotlight: She writhed, twirled, and shimmied her way around the late-night set, hopping onto Fallon’s desk, offering a hint as to what a 21st-century Addison Rae burlesque show might look like. That’s the true mark of a showgirl: someone who can slip into character and still show exactly who they are. All the better to do it in something truly nobody else can say they’ve worn — besides Gypsy Rose, of course.