IN THREE WORDS

In this feature, I'll share a weekly guest with you all, and you tell me in only three words, what come to mind.

In Three Words...

Lily Savage/Paul O Grady

Well, since we all hopefully have a cock-a-tail in hand.....

EARLY BEAUTY OF DRAG

Since were looking at drag history this month, I came across this wonderful article by Linda Simpson, who was huge in the NYC scene in the late 80's and 90's. Before RuPaul’s Drag Race become a national phenomenon, before the days of step-by-step contour tutorials and YouTube, before the days of colored contacts, cheek implants, and pageant vs. camp queens, there was drag magic happening in a little town called New York City.Drag had been making waves in the underground scenes for decades, but it made it’s first big splash in the ’90s with the popularity of the city’s drag festival Wigstock, along with the iconic documentary Paris Is Burning, and, of course, the initial rise of RuPaul with his 1993 hit single “Supermodel.” So, the world of drag was making quite an impact while many of us were still in grade school.  What was this drag renaissance like?

 

 

 Armed with a camera, Linda Simpson was snapping away through the late ’80s and early ’90s, documenting the queens as well as club kids in and out of nightclubs in looks that have undoubtedly inspired many drag artists today. Now Linda has curated some of her most indelible images into an online collection, thedragexplosion.com, as well as published her first photo book with,Pages, a homage to her friend, the late NYC drag phenomenon Page. She also reminded me of some good days at Patricia Fields!!!!! Pull out a pen and take a note or two and a cock-a-tail—you’re in for an unforgettable lesson in drag beauty evolution! She really gives a great feeling of the movement then, and a interesting read. Take it away Linda.....

I’ve been carrying a camera since I was a teen, but my drag photography came together randomly. There were other photographers out documenting the scene at the time, but often they were journalists who really didn’t know the characters of the East Village nightlife as personally as I did. It was also popular then for photographers to shoot in black and white, which I rejected, because in reality, it was such a colorful time. Of course, these photos are not meant to serve as a definitive history of that era. They’re my history.

 

In the early days, drag was still widely misunderstood. You really had to watch your back, even in a place as accepting as New York. People today are more understanding of what drag means. Back then, those who weren’t involved didn’t know the difference between a drag queen and a transvestite. They thought drag was a sexual thing, or that the point was to pass as, or even become, a woman.The language is different now, too. In those days, if a person was trans, we might refer to them as “pre-op” or “post-op” which sounds crude by today’s standards. Because no one ever really used the word “transgender,” people that weren’t necessarily drag queens got kind of lumped into the drag category because the right language wasn’t part of the vernacular.

 

Ru was very experimental with her looks, but she hit it big when she went glam and recorded “Supermodel” Around that time, Arsenio Hall had Ru on his show as a guest, which was groundbreaking. The ’90s was the era of the TV talk show, and after Ru made her TV debut, the media came running. Suddenly, many of us were appearing as guests on talk shows. They would bring us on and ask stupid questions like “When are you gonna get a real job?” or “Why do you hate women?”RuPaul did change the world of drag, and when you think about it. The correlation of drag really followed along with Ru’s career—when she was up, drag was, too. When she was down, it wasn’t as popular. Now that she’s back up with her show, it’s a phenomenon again. Ru has also done a lot to give drag a warm and fuzzy element. Not to say she’s exactly G-rated, but she’s definitely a very accessible character.

 

The East Village drag look in the early ’90s was very underground: found and vintage items and cheap wigs. No one spent more than $10 on an outfit. At the same time, the Patricia Field store was really the epicenter of the trendy downtown scene and the tight, colorful spandex clothes she was selling were very popular. Queens would bring their store-bought wigs to the shop to get styled as well. As for makeup, Dermablend was popular for a full-coverage foundation option. You’ll notice in the photos that a lot of people’s foundation appears lighter than their skin tone, because we just didn’t have as many options as we do today. It was an era of experimentation. People would turn to face paint for coverage sometimes. Alcone was another popular resource because it sold both drugstore and theatrical makeup. Also, plastic surgery was not as prevalent in the drag scene as it is now, so we had to get extra creative. Overall, East Village drag was really a parody of drag, and a sort of rejection of the generations of drag that came before it. It wasn’t until our looks became more polished that drag really took off and many of us found a career in it.

 

You’ll notice in a lot of my photos that this era was very much, as I like to say, BC: “before contouring.” I don’t have anything against contouring, but I think there’s a typical contouring look that’s very common now. There’s a difference between the naturalistic contouring we did in the ’90s, and what people are doing today. Amanda LePore put it really well: “For men, it’s sports, for drag queens, it’s makeup.” I think a gold standard for many queens today is to show off that they’re really good at contouring. Yes, it shows a paint-by-numbers ability to do makeup, which can be kind of arresting, but it’s becoming homogenized. Back then, we were a bit naive, and didn’t have access to the instruction and tutorials that are available today. Our main inspirations were supermodels, makeup artists, and really, just women.

 

Advice to young queens of all orientations?

Learn your history. Understanding the drag continuum will help expand your mind as well as your outlook. Also, don’t take yourself too seriously. Drag is silly, ultimately. In fact, it can be downright childish. It’s all about keeping a fine line. Adding an air of snottiness or superiority is a real turn-off. RuPaul’s Drag Race is great, it’s fun, but just remember that it’s only part of the equation.

 

And because of all those early queens and times a changing we have all sorts of queens now....

 

The Campy,Quintessential queens....

 

Lady Bunny

 

Carmen Dioxide

 

 Lily Savage

 

The Pageant Queens....

 

Tattianna Delarouge

 

Roxxy Andrews

 

to the Uber Gender-Fuck Queens....

 

Nina Flowers

 

Acid Betty

 

Raja

 

And we love them all!

THEY HAVE STYLE, THEY HAVE GRACE

And probably even painted good face!!! One can't really have a proper drag history without noting some of the pioneering queens who lead the way. Continuing from the queens from Stonewall on, these are some of the talents that were going to burst open the closet doors and push drag and glamour for all to see.

Charles Pierce

One of the most famous drag queens of the 20th century has got to be the late Charles Pierce. His impersonations of Bette Davis, Mae West, Joan Collins and other famous stars brought drag to the forefront of theatre and radio. He performed sell out concerts in theatres across America, his whit and humor being the main draw to his work. He described himself as a male actress rather than a drag queen – the ‘original, over-the-hill, valley girl’ The 1960s and 70s saw the development of a number of drag stars. Jim Bailey performed on over seventy television shows, performed a series of concerts with Liza Minnelli, had several runs in Las Vegas and even performed to the Royal Family.

Divine who was featured in the original John Waters film Hairspray and grew to notoriety after eating a real dog turd in another of Water’s films, Pink Flamingos.

                                                                       Candy Darling

 Candy Darling was one of Andy Warhol’s Superstars, and a muse for The Velvet Underground. In the 1980s, Lypsinka rose to fame performing long, show length soundtracks featuring edited snippets from old Hollywood films. Her meticulously precise lip syncing amazed audiences across America, landing her slots on The Joan Rivers Show, amongst others. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the rise of the club kid. Particularly in New York we saw a 90s version of Studio 54 emerge with Michael Alig and James St James at the helm. The club kid era saw the rise of model and muse Amanda Lepore and the fabulous performance artist Leigh Bowery. The club kids were known for going out in elaborate and controversial costumes.

                                                                    Leigh Bowery

One of these clubkids, who rose to international fame, was RuPaul – arguably the world’s most famous drag queen. With a career that spans several decades, RuPaul is the undisputed queen of drag queens.

In the 1990s RuPaul was to drag what Naomi Campbell was to modelling – RuPaul was the world’s first drag superstar. His career has included a string of dance singles, a duet with Elton John, and a presenting slot at The Brits. He also modelled worldwide, including a campaign for MAC, and landed his own TV chat show in 1996. In 2009 RuPaul created RuPaul’s Drag Race, which was a fusion of America’s Next Top Model and Project Runway. The drag queen with the most Creativity, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent too the crown. The show was a hit success, with a sixth season  getting ready to start. Drag queens have often been featured in films, in a variety of different roles. The most noted of these are Priscilla: Queen of The Desert, Hairspray, The Birdcage, Rocky Horror, and Hedwig and The Angry Inch. These films often showed the beautiful, glamorous side of drag mirrored with the difficult lives of their male counterparts suffered. The internet allowed more drag queens to find fame.  Jeffree Star rose to fame on MySpace for his cult following from emo kids and his offensive rap lyrics. He recently signed a record deal with Akon’s record label.

Lily Savage, Danny LaRue and Dame Edna Everage make the trio of famous British drag household names adding to the cause. Combined they have over 100 years of drag experience.

                                                                        Lily Savage

 Lily Savage was one of Britain’s most successful queens, most noted for her show Blankety Blank. Previous to that Lily performed for eight years at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London.

                                                                      Danny LaRue

The late Danny LaRue,  was quite the talent, and rose to fame in the West End, performing in seven major shows, and a string of Royal Variety performances. Dame Edna, whilst not British, has received wide success and admiration with British audiences.These three queens are a small handful of drag queens who have hit the big time in Britain – there hasn’t been a drag star that’s matched their fame in recent times.

There are, however, a number of queens working in and around London who are making a name for themselves, and have been for a number of years. DJ Jodie Harsh’s fame, whose music I have featured several time here, has long outlasted that of her biological namesake. Tasty Tim is another favourite on the gay clubbing scene and Lady Lloyd has recently come off tour with Ke$ha, and is a model for Vivienne Westwood.

                                                                    Maria Millionaire

Leeds has a large number of exciting drag artists. To say it’s gay scene is relatively small, it’s number and popularity of drag queens in the city is immense. Anna Glypta was one of the first drag queens to perform and promote drag in the city, helping shape Pride events and much of the community. Another big name in Leeds is Miss Orry – famous for being one of the original Blackpool Funny Girls, and who has appeared on Deal or No Deal and Emmerdale. Other notable Leeds drag queens include Carla Jackson, Anja Bach, Roxxxy, Raven Mandela, Gisele Batrice, Bears Aloud, Cheryl Hole, Daisy DuPount, Pixie Monrue and Maria Millionaire. We will be looking at some of these girls up closer soon.