A decade of RuPaul’s Drag Race and its spinoffs have proven that camera-ready, show-stopping drag is not for the faint of heart. And according to a new VICE report, it doesn’t always favor the financially underprivileged, either.
While the international exposure of RuPaul’s competitions has undoubtedly catapulted queens like Aquaria, Bob the Drag Queen, Trixie Mattel, and countless others to household names, the expenses they’ve had to front for said exposure is massive, several queens told VICE.
Between buying wigs (VICE reports that custom synthetic looks can start at $325; high quality human hair starts at $1,000) and clothing materials (Plastic or glass jewels? Custom fit or off-the-rack?) to impress Rupaul’s prestigious cadre of laser-eyed judges, fees can easily top thousands of dollars.
Sasha Velour said she spent a total of $4,000 for her looks on Season 9, half of which came from savings; the other half was loaned to her by her father. Season 11 winner Yvie Oddly, whose trash-glam aesthetic often polarized fellow contestants and judges, told VICE she spent upwards of $14,000 on her wardrobe, emptying $2,000 in her bank account before turning to a $5,000 credit card loan from her creative partner and $7,000 a bar where she worked “sponsored” her with. Season 10 winner Aquaria spent $5,000, and said that as a cost-conscious New Yorker, money was constantly on her mind as she prepared to compete.
“I really didn’t have the money,” the tenacious Season 10 contestant Monique Hart told VICE. “I had maybe $1,500 total. I could sew, and I knew my silhouette, so I could make stuff work. I knew I had personality and flavor. I mean, it was just hard.” On Untucked following her elimination, she confessed to using her limited downtime on the show trying to perfect or make new runway pieces on the spot, which often affected her ability to learn lyrics for the week’s lip sync challenges. (Monique’s later appearance on All Stars 4 proved more fruitful, as she had $20,000 to spend and more time to prepare her looks, ultimately becoming that season’s runner-up.)
Judges often deem that some queens’ runway looks are “cheap” or “too DIY.” Velour, on one hand, was praised for her inventiveness on the show, once creating an iconic jack-in-the-box look for what she said cost $60 and included heels from Target. But in the case of the late Chi Chi DeVayne, an exchange in Season 8 represents how contestants can be penalized for pushing back on judes’ criticisms. After revealing that her Episode 4 Neon Queen Realness look nearly bankrupted her, Michelle Visage responded without mercy. “You don’t need money, girl,” Visage said. “That’s never an excuse.”
Sheer ingenuity would ideally allow for any charismatic queen to turn a trash bag into a couture piece, a point often made by RuPaul, a noted self-made multimillionaire who literally once wore trash and asked for money when getting her start in the ‘80s in New York.
There’s also the issue of cost for fit. Off-the-rack clothes that are more affordable often don’t suit drag queens who are broader, wider, and have more diverse body shapes — factors that don’t even account for breast or butt pads. “I have to get my stuff made custom if I want my gown to touch the floor, my sleeves to touch my wrist,” Bob the Drag Queen told VICE.
Furthermore, Monique Hart pointed out the racial divide between contestants of means (whether connections, finances, privilege, or otherwise) versus those without. “I think a lot of times, because of where Black and brown people grow up, they don’t have that safety of expression that I think white people have,” Monique told VICE. “And because of that lack of expression, and that lack of exposure to different forms of expression, I think that sometimes we are just confined to that which we know.”
She continued: “White homos tend to know other rich white homos with money… or if they don’t have money, they know someone who does. If you’re a Black girl, that’s generally not what’s happening.”
Regardless of the various challenges in competing, being on Drag Race at all can be a boon for any aspiring drag star’s career, often leading to better gigs and higher booking fees. Most queens agree that the initial return of investment is worth sacrifices made to become more visible. And the most booked and blessed stars – like Alyssa Edwards, who starred in a reality show about her Dallas dance studio and is set to star in a one-woman show this fall on London’s West End; or Monet X Change, who was in a Pepsi Superbowl commercial with Cardi B; or Miss Peppermint, who recently appeared on Broadway and was booked for the 2021 Inauguration entertainment lineup; or even Shangela and Willam, who both appeared in Lady Gaga’s A Star Is Born – are all testament to just how far charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent can take a queen.
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