Bethel Park resident’s ‘Carousel of Costumes’ show features her own designs
Beth Shari portrays the ’30s-era animated icon Betty Boop.
Harry Funk / Staff Fashion designer and performer Beth Shari
As the "Pixie Painter," Beth Shari decorates the faces of whoever might want a new, colorful look.
Beth Shari gets ready for a belly-dancing performance.
Beth Shari as Betsy Ross in a patriotic-themed costume
Long before you could watch movies on your cellphone, there was the magic of the Silver Screen.
“There’s something very glamorous about the era,” Bethel Park resident Beth Shari said about when Hollywood hit its peak, seven or eight decades ago. “It was elegant.”
Shari draws on all the glamour and elegance for her one-woman variety show, “Carousel of Costumes,” in which she portrays such cinematic icons as Marilyn Monroe, Mae West, Carmen Miranda and, taking a walk on the animated side, Betty Boop.
“I started that about six years ago to entertain at senior facilities,” Shari recalled. “It began as a 45-minute program to highlight fashion history, and it kind of evolved into more about the personalities than fashion.”
The carousel, by the way, features mostly costumes of her own making, as she is an accomplished clothing designer who specializes in lingerie, a niche that also developed from her admiration for the celluloid heroines of yesteryear and what they wore.
“In the ’20s through ’40s, those styles really complemented multiple body types,” she said, explaining the influence on her designs:
“The lingerie line,” which she calls Hollywood Glam, “actually came from wanting to create something for women that they couldn’t find at stores. I had a lot of friends who were just different body types, and I would start asking them, where do they shop? What do they do when they just want to be at home and relax?
“A lot of them would just say they’d wear a T-shirt and boxer shorts, or a tank top and sweatpants,” she continued. “And that’s fine. But what if they want to feel good? They said they couldn’t find things that fit their body type. Our body image definitely has changed over the decades.”
Showing her versatility as a designer, Shari also makes costumes for variations on her Hollywood-celebrating show, including performances with patriotic, Halloween and December holiday themes.
“I want to do a first ladies show at some point,” she said. “I would like to get down to the Smithsonian and see all the inauguration dresses, and try to re-create some of those,” from the ensembles of Martha Washington and Dolly Madison to, of course, Jacqueline Kennedy.
Further putting her artistic talents on display, Shari does face painting at fairs and carnivals, using techniques she learned by attending face-painting school in Florida. And as if all that weren’t enough, she also belly dances, continuing the terpsichorean pursuits that she started at age 3.
“I didn’t grow up interested in fashion, really,” she said about what eventually would become her focus. “I liked to dress up and go shopping, but I didn’t even know how to sew. I didn’t come from a domestic background.”
That changed at Point Park University, where the Cinnaminson, N.J., native intended to concentrate on set design in the theater department.
“The program actually had a stronger emphasis in costume design than in set, and I learned to embrace costume designers and the history of costume design,” she said. “I actually loved doing the research.”
As such, she learned all about the costumes that were designed for Hollywood’s leading ladies, including her favorite, Mary Jane West (1893-1980), better known as Mae.
“She was way ahead of her time,” Shari explained. “The things that she accomplished that no women at that time had accomplished are pretty impressive. She was involved in real estate. She was her own agent. She was a very smart lady.”