Trashy’s Lingerie – “Sexy Halloween Industry”
The modest birthplace of Halloween’s sexy-costume-industrial complex is hidden in plain sight on La Cienega Boulevard at the city’s sexiest private members club and charges a $2 annual.
Where is this you may ask?
Have you ever passed the pink storefront of Trashy Lingerie? Here you will find mannequins in various lingerie and costumes. With custom-made underwear and costumes, Trashy Lingerie has created a Los Angeles aesthetic and have won customer devotion in the process. This shop is family owned and will be celebrating its 50th year in April 2023. Social networking has helped a new generation of Halloween consumers, including the slow-fashion-averse Zoomers, drive sales.
“There’s a special feeling when you walk in there,” said Carmen Electra (model and actress). “You feel like, ‘Wow, this is Hollywood,’ you know?” Carmen, an aspiring singer/dancer, came to Los Angeles in the 1990’s. She walked into Trashy, filled out their application form, paid the admission fee and became one of her favourite stores to frequent.
“I remember being in the dressing room and Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian would be in the other,” Electra said. “Or you’d walk out, and Courtney Love is leaving out the back with a huge bag, and that’s just how Trashy Lingerie is.”
The store’s innovative, high-quality products and customer service have helped it establish a solid reputation, making it a sanctuary not only for celebrities but also for wardrobe stylists and costume designers. Trashy created some of the most recognizable outfits in popular culture for many celebrities, to name a few:
- Bunny costumes “Legally Blonde” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary.”
- Pamela Anderson in “Barb Wire,”
- Emma Stone in “Easy A”
- Fembots in “Austin Powers,”
- as well as Madonna, Cher, Stevie Nicks and Teyana Taylor.
For many in Los Angeles, window shopping (or doing some Halloween purchasing) at Trashy is a rite of passage. 60% of the year’s sales may occur in October, with the majority occurring in the ten days before the holiday.
The price point of Trashy can be summed up in one sentence: “If you know, you know,” said Randy Shrier, who currently operates the store. And you won’t know if you must inquire about the pricing after trying something on.
From $250 to $1,500 can be spent on popular ready-to-wear outfits for flappers, cowgirls, fairies, and nurses; the magnificent three-piece Marie Antoinette dress, the pièce de résistance made of brocade silk dripping with pearls and satin bows, costs $1,315. Orders for custom Halloween costumes, which may cost up to $4,000, must be made by July.
How Did the ‘Sexy Halloween Industry’ Begin?
“The sexy Halloween industry was based on all our stuff,” said Shrier, owner of Trashy since his parents, Mitchell and Tracy Shrier retired. When first opening the store in 1973 it was a shoe store. Mitchell and Tracy name the store “the Trashy,” which was derived from a British slang term for stylish or edgy, after one of Mitchell’s slingback designs.
Mitchell picked the spot for two reasons: it had previously been a shoe store, and there was existing foot traffic on the block. The Shriers began receiving requests for hosiery to match heels after a year, so they hand-dyed stockings in eye-catching colors for their customers. “When I was a little kid, our whole backyard was filled with nylon stockings blowing in the breeze in all the colors of a rainbow,” Shrier recalled.
Customers then requested garter belts to hold up the stockings, so these were also designed and made, and this, made the Shriers start working their way to an entire lingerie line. By 1979, the shoe racks were packed away and they had expanded to the store next to them.
L.A. was the obvious epicenter of the underwear-as-outerwear trend after the sexual revolution with its warm climate, showbiz bodies, and bikini beaches. Madonna wore a Trashy bustier on her 1987 Who’s That Girl world tour. This bustier was sold in 2011 for $72,000. Both Playboy and Penthouse centerfold shoots used Trashy’s products and, for their music video Our Lips are Sealed, the Runaways wore Trashy products on stage.
The 1990s and breast implants followed, giving Trashy another opportunity to showcase their strength. The store was maintained a secret in Tinseltown up until it debuted online in 1998. By the early 2000s, Trashy had become well-known thanks to reality TV and an unrelenting paparazzi culture.
Trashy’s an Icon
The corset continues to be the Shriers’ best-selling item, area of expertise, and distinctive look, serving as the foundation of their 10,000 square foot business. “A corset will always sell a costume,” according to Shrier. The clothing, which was formerly a representation of restriction, now makes a subversive statement. Trashy’s 36D “Edy” corset was what Caitlyn Jenner wore to reveal her new gender identification on the Vanity Fair cover in 2015.
Technical precision is necessary while constructing corsets. A six-panel waist and three-paneled cups must simultaneously raise you up and suck you in. It must be livable but not overly so.“It’s like trying to keep two dogs in a bathtub,” said Penelope Gibbs, Trashy’s newest hire.
Social media is bringing back Trashy’s glory days and introducing the company to Generation Z. This was y’all, right? Iconic af,” is a common remark made in reference to pop culture outfits. But it has also brought back outmoded attire that embraced racial stereotypes, particularly those of marginalized people. Up until this month, the website’s “Wild West” section still featured Native American clothing. The Shriers said that they no longer produce or market these costumes. “It shows the adaptation of Trashy,” Gibbs said. “Even with something you can’t anticipate — not just a different trend but a different world.”
Over the course of its five decades, Trashy has grown and shrunk, but at this point it resembles the leaner early years. It’s a new era with less stress for Randy Shrier, who initially began working in the business at the age of 16. Due to a rapid switch to mask-making during the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, a loan from the Paycheck Protection Scheme, and the government employee retention credit program, he was able to pay off inherited debt.
“Ever since I was a kid, we’ve always had debt,” he said. “It’s the first time where this company has not had that.”
“Something surprising is happening this year,” Mitchell Shrier said. “We’re getting a whole new crowd of young people.”
