Dita Von Teese's new underwear range is inspired by 1940s men's magazines.

The 41-year-old beauty has studied her own collection of vintage underwear, as well as designs featured in old catalogues and publications but she hopes her Von Follies line is more ''functional and wearable'' than old designs.

She said: ''It is based on times past - not replicas of vintage lingerie but finding ways of making it more functional and wearable.

''I'm just trying to show women that you can have little bits of luxury and glamour in everyday life and these are things that actually serve a purpose with your shape and how you feel in clothes.

''It's inspired by vintage pieces that I've collected in the last 23 years. I also have a lot of vintage pin-up art, old catalogues, and men's magazines from the 30s and 40s, so I get a lot of ideas from those.''

And the burlesque dancer was stunned when she was first asked to design an underwear line as her first-ever job was in a lingerie store and that was what kickstarted her career.

She explained to the Daily Star newspaper: ''My love of lingerie is what first sparked my entire career as it is. I started working in an underwear store when I was 15, and that's the real reason I started re-creating pin-up photos.

''I was already dressing retro style so my love of lingerie carried over to retro lingerie and I began to collect.

''When I had the opportunity to make my own designs, it was really like a sort of: 'Wow, full-circle moment.'''