Derived from "burlesco", burlesque is a literary style of performance meant to make people laugh by being caricatures of more serious works (like Sheakespear) and often overlaps with travesty and parody (or some combo thereof) in the 19th century. Nowadays, in modern time, it refers to and is best remembered as performances in variety shows involving some level of striptease and bawdy performances, popularized during 1860 to about the 1940s.

Here, it alludes to the kind of outfits that burlesque performers might wear.

View wiki