Wouldn’t it be nice if every celebrity moving forward took a page from drag queens and had some FUN on the red carpet for once?!
An irritating and horrible Nor’easter named Toby did nothing to stop the queens of Rupaul’s Drag Race from showing UP and showing out on the red carpet in New York Wednesday night. Victor Jeffreys II, Gizmodo Media Group’s very own Bill Cunningham, was there to snap the fabulosity and compile it in artfully patched-together tryptichs.
Some restrained eleganza for you, courtesy of Aquaria’s relatively simple leotard that is giving me figure skating flashbacks, but in a good way. Miz Cracker looks like a freaking cream puff; the wig is a little yellow but the dress! I die. Fun fact: she and Aquaria have un petit bouef because they look so much alike and they’re both New York queens and are often mistaken for each other!! D-R-A-M-A!!!! Finally, Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, of the House of Mateo, is wearing an entire bottle of baby oil and a lotta beads, and I gotta say, she looks fantastic.
Visions in blue! Blue dreams! Blue is the color of my young lover’s heart! Here is Blair St. Clair, Broadway baby, fresh off the Greyhound from St. Olaf, with a dream in her heart and a twinkle in her eyes; her valise is tucked backstage and she just pulled this royal blue knockout out of its garment bag, steamed it, and threw it on! I’m struggling with Kalorie Karbdashian-Williams’s choice to wear this denim fantasy, so all I will say is that I like the bedazzled jacket and the hair. Mayhem Miller is beautiful and this dress—the ruffles! I love it.
GIVE ME WHAT I WANT AND WHAT I NEED, AT ONCE, SPARKLE QUEENS: Dusty Ray Bottoms and her signature face dots look spiffy in this gold and purple sequinned frock; Kameron Michaels looks like if the fish god from The Shape of Water emerged from a year of hibernation as a working drag queen; and Eureka O’Hara blinded me with this silver jumpsuit and that pastel hair.
More! Looks! High! Fashion! Please enjoy this photo of Mrs. Kasha Davis, who is NOT competing to be America’s next drag superstar, but has snuck her way into this photo situation and I’ve included her for funsies. Yuhua Hamasaki is repping a sort of Pan-Asian situation, much like her name, but I love dramatic sleeves and so I cannot be mad at this lounging frock rejiggered for the runway. Monique Heart’s dress is lovely, this ruffle up top is divine, and I love the embroidery!!!
HERE ARE THE BEST LOOKS OF THE EVENING, OK! Monét Exchange is both extra and restrained—this lavender drip! This wig! that lipstick!!—and I think she will be my favorite queen. Three snaps and a bag of dill-pickle flavored Kettle Chips for Asia O’Hara, no relation to Eureka, but drag mother to the dreaded Phi Phi, for waltzing out in this cape, that hair, and this Fiorrucci-adjacent bodycon dress covered in putti—those fat cherubs with the harps and shit. I love Vixen’s wig and her multi-colored nails AND her nude illusion.
Everyone is a fucking 10 and this season will be better than the rest. I’m EXCITED!!!