KiKi The Drag Magazine

KiKi

The Drag Magazine

BEAUTY Naomi Smalls Fills Us On Her 9 Steps of Getting In and Out Drag

SASHA VELOUR Drag Race Reigning Season 9 Queen and the Revolutionary Art of Drag

EXCLUSIVE Then and Now: 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and the Gay Liberation Movement

contents F E AT U R E S

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22 Naomi Smalls and Her Full Drag Makeup Routine

by Kelsey DiPierro My very first time seeing a drag queen was actually RuPaul. It was the Viva La Glam campaign for MAC. I didn’t understand what drag was at the time—I just thought it was a woman and some larger than life personality.

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Sasha Velour talks vym, a magazine spotlighting the ‘Revolutionary’ Art of Drag

by Nicole Disser Listen up, because the sweet sound of Sasha Velour’s lip sync-centric victory on tonight’s finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race isn’t just a singular achievement for the Avant-garde diva...

Stonewall The People, The Place, & The lasting Significance of “Where Pride Began”

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by Dane Evans In 1969, a series of riots over police action against The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Green-wich Village, changed the longtime landscape of the homosexual in society literally overnight and the start of the gay liberation.

Shea Couleé: Jessi Cotterill sits down with season's 9 eccentric Chicago queen

by Jessi Cotterill RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 standout Shea Couleé will be coming to Tacoma Pride to perform onstage July 8th. Full interview with answers we all want to see after seasons finale shakeup—and her skyrocketing success after the Drag Race.

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KiKi Magazine

FRANCO BADILLA

ARTICLES

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Sashay Through the History of Drag Queen Culture

by Ryan Roschke In the 21st century, a drag queen is not just a man who wears women's clothes; a drag queen is an entirely separate entity. When so impeccably dressed and flawlessly painted, the person underneath the queen disappears almost completely and never to be seen again.

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Why the Fashion World Is Obsessed With ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’

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SYFRO

by Rebecca Nicholson The inspiration for Miss Malice’s drag act, she says, is “lesbian pulp novel covers, 60s B-movie heroines and mid-century working-class femmes”. One of her most popular performances is her take on Drew Barrymore’s character in the 90s teen horror movie Scream.

Darlings Trixie Mattel and Katya Take On TV: ‘We're All Gonna Die’

AZUL GARCIA

NIEGE BORGES

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Working’ it! How Female Drag Queens are Causing a Scene

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Why Drag Is the Ultimate Retort to Trump

by Jenny Jepson Rupaul Charles, America’s most famous drag queen, sat on a gold lamé couch at a luxury hotel in Midtown Manhattan one Tuesday in March, doling out advice for the white working class.

by Raja The former ‘RuPaul's DragRace’ contestant relives her final performance at Brooklyn's iconic This n’ That bar—complete with fur costumes, tears, and copious amounts of alcohol what consisted of my time there.

Shangela Talks Shocking ‘All Stars’ 3 Finale, Working With Lady Gaga & Jenifer Lewis' Reaction to ‘Snatch Game’

by Joey Lynch Before the RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars season 3 finale aired Thursday (March 15) night, fans expected Trixie Mattel or Shangela to be vying for the crown.

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by Elyssa Goodman Drag queens Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova quickly became some of the brightest stars on World of Wonder’s YouTube channel with their quirky Web series “UNHhhh.”

by Matthew Schneier Her shoes were thigh-high, bedazzled platform moon boots. Her outfit was encircled by a tutu tilted at a particularly rakish angle. Her capelet, cresting in tusklike spikes, appeared to be hand-wrought from aluminum foil.

That Time Aja Did One Last Drag Show at Her Favorite Dive Bar

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Aja Channels Her Witchy Spirit In ‘Brujería’

by Justin Moran “I am a rapper who happens to do drag,” says Aja, who famously competed on season 9 of RuPaul's Drag Race and season 3 of Drag Race: All Stars. The assertion arrives as a flurry of Drag Race alums make forays into music, from Jiggly Caliente to Trixie Mattel, but Aja's perspective is what sets her apart from the pack.

Peppermint Is Taking on a New Fight for the Trans Community

by Justin Kirkland Peppermint appeared like a flash tornado that just dropped out of the sky. In a knitted poncho, long braids, and two (maybe three) garment bags, everything about her seemed to be spinning—no, twirling please.

Poems Wo Chan Christopher Soto Stephan Boyer Jennif(f)er Tamayo Nikki Wallschlaeger Danez Smith

D E PA R T M E N T S

F AN ART

04 Contributors

Call for Art! Send us your drag fan art to @kiki.fanart.com and potentially see your work in the next issue!

05 Letters from the Editor 06 Letter to the Editor 07 Masterhead

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KiKi Editor-in-Chief

Vanessa Cardoza Editoral and Creative Director Zachary Connolly Executive Editor Sascha De Gersdorff Executive Manager Editor Maria Baugh Chief Fashion Director Aya Kanai Chief Beauty Director Leah Wyar Chief Photography Director Tracey Shaffer Online Editor Lewis Jones

Fashion/ Accessories

Fashion News Editor Emma Elwick-Bates Bookings Director Helena Suric Accessories Director Selby Drummond Editors Grace Givens, Willow Lindley, Alexandra Michler

Cover Images

Sasha Velor: Tanner Adel Aja Kween: Damon Baker

Contributors

Jessi Cotterill / Zachary Connolly Lauren Leonard / Carlos Ferreira

Beauty

Beauty Director Celia Ellenberg Beauty Editor Laura Regensdorf Beauty Associate Zoe Ruffner

Features

Articles Editor Taylor Antrim Senior Editors Lauren Mechling, Chloe Schama Entertainment Director Jillian Demling Assistant Entertainment Editor Maxwell Losgar Assistant Editor Lilah Ramzi Features Associate Noor Brara Features Assistants Lauren Sanchez

Creative

Design Director AurĂŠlie Pellissier Roman Senior Art Director Martin Hoops Art Director Fernando Dias De Souza Associate Art Director Nobi Kashiwagi Senior Designer Jennifer Donnelly, Sara Jendusa Visual Director Research Maureen Songco Contact us Editorial 020 7424 7400 Sales/distribution 020 7424 7400 Editorial Email edit@kiki.com Commerical Email advertising@kiki.com Website: kiki.com Postal Address: KiKi Magazine, Unit 10 6 West 52nd Street New York, NY, 34193

Printed in Manhattan, NY by New Print Publishing Disclaimer all copyrights and trademarks are recognized Published by KiKi Magazine Director: Vanessa Cardoza KiKi Magazine was founded in Spring 2018

by Vanessa Cardoza Š2018 KiKi MAGAZINE All rights reserved ISSN: 0950-65

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Artist Daisy May Brown

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letter from the editor

ieeeee Welcome to the second issue of KiKi the Drag Magazine!

I can remember my first time I encountered the drag queen culture. I was probably in my midteens flipping through TV channels trying to find something to watch when I stumbled on a bright neon multicolor show that instantly caught eye and had my full attention. As I sat there watching, I noticed it was a competition between what appeared as two women on stage lipsyncing to a song. I took a closer look and they were men!

I was always open to the LGBTQ+ community. If two people of the same sex want to be with each other then fine by me, love is love! So watching this show made me really happy! I really fell in love with the queens and who they are and the back stories are so touching. From there on it's herstory —I attend shows, support local queens, walked with my boyfriend to support friends for pride week, you name it—What I love about drag is it is a way to express one’s creativity. It is another form of art and one can be whomever they wish to be. The people who are behind these characters are the most genuine people you can ever meet and it has become such a passion of mine to be submerged in this culture. With KiKi we all have the opportunity to be fully submerged into the drag queen world!

VANESSA CARDOZA

EDITOR IN CHIEF

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KiKi Magazine

contributors

Zachary Connolly

leading editor Z went to college for political science and international business but after meeting his life partner Vanessa (also editor-in-chief) he drastically got into design and helped bring KiKi to life with his love.

Jessi Cotterill

beauty director KiKi Beauty Director has mastered the art of high-low and subway mascara application. Still gets chills envisioning makeup artist Peter Philips's perfect, petal-pink lip at Raf Simon's last Jil Sander show.

Lauren Leonard

photographer Lauren is a multi faceted photographer who is always one step ahead, either buying tickets for a show on a hunch or finding her way to sneak into the front row.

Carlos Ferreira

journalist Our true hero putting long hours into making sure all our articles go typo-less. He has mastered not looking at the keyboard while typing and is a huge fan of EDM, and tunes into Drag Race.

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letters to the editor Nick Sorel Victoria Modesto Thank you for the article “DragCon Artist: The Outrageous Pricing for Meet and Greets” (page 23, March 18) by Christopher Chin. It is good that someone has finally addresses a major problem within the drag fan community. DragCon 2017 has not only ruined the experience for fans but genuine queens who want to meet fans without a price. Fans are rquested to buy merchandise in order to get a photo with a potenital queen and usually these queens are “Drag Race” queens. A fan named Jacob Smith wrote: “I’ve gone the last 2 years. I don’t mind buying merch and supporting the queens. Most of them will let you buy like $2 pins and you get a pic and meet them. India Farrah a genunie is right the ridiculus pricing happening including the new fast passes and some of the attitudes though. Eureka was one of the worst experiences for me. At her booth, it was any purchase you get a meet and greet and picture. I bought 2 pics, $10 each, and because she didn’t like that I was wearing a Trinity Taylor shirt, she tried to make me buy a $40 shirt or I had to leave. I thought she was kidding, until her manager came up to me and said I either had to buy the shirt or no picture. Haven’t liked her since.” That comment really hit hard since I am also a fan of Eureka. These queens are more in it for the money then getting to finally to meet the person behind the screen that supports them. And what is the drag community without fans.

As a man born and raised Catholic but taught to be open minded and accept all individuals, I found the story Dusty Ray Bottoms told about her family in the last edition of Kiki to be very eye opening!

I am a straight man and engaged but I can only imagine the pain Dusty went through when coming out as gay to his parents. It made me imagine a world in which straight people were stigmatized.

What if I had two fathers and I had to tell them I liked girls?! What if they thought it was just a demon inside me too like Dusty’s parents. “The Devil is making you like girls, Nick!” That must have been very traumatizing for poor Dusty to go through.

Stories like this make me grateful that drag queens are open to sharing their stories. They impact some men young peoples lives and even can open the eyes of close minded individuals in the world.

I would love my son for who he is even if he comes out as gay. I feel for you Dusty and I want you to know that your story means a lot to me and I’m glad you were able to share with the world.

Love is love!

Brigid O’Rourke I gagged when the AAA girls music video came out and I gagged even more when I read the interview with Alaska Thunderfuck, Willam, and Courtney Act who are all from RuPaul’s Drag Race. Jessi Cotterri sat down with all three talent queens and gave us the scoop on fashion, boys, and are going on a North American Tour, starting at the end of this month. Alaska, Courtney Act, and Willam will be touring around the US at 15 venues. It kicks off on September 20 in Dallas, Texas and finishes on October 14 in Portland, Oregon. YES Portland my hometown I cannot wait to grab tickets and see them. The tour follows The AAA Girls’ debut album that was released during the summer. “Access All Areas” was produced by Sam Sparro and features a few original songs and a few parodies. It charted on Billboard’s Comedy Album chart at number two; and, we feel that it is certainly something you need to listen to. So far, three music videos have been released from the album, which are “AAA”, “A Lacefront Like This”, and “Heather?” We hope more will follow!

Artist Pauline/Punziella

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LOOK: TIME OUT NEW YORK dress: Casey Caldwell photo: Tawnibannister

SASHA VELOUR Talks Vym, a Blog Spotlighting the ‘Revolutionary’ Art of Drag written by Nicole Disser

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ushwick’s gay scene is thriving by almost any measure. Happy Fun Hideaway is constantly packed to the gills. Bottoms is one of the hottest bands in New York. Rashaad Newsome, the artist bringing the fine art of vogue to the fine art world, has moved to the neighborhood. The annual drag fest Bushwig popped off for its fourth year in a row this fall, and drag king performances are seeing their biggest comeback in the city since the ’90s.

And which Brooklyn neighborhood can claim its own glossy culture magazine dedicated to all things drag?

Bed-Stuy, actually, is where the editor-in-chief lives– but Vym magazine, born of the Bushwick drag scene, finds its spiritual home in this neighborhood, even if editor-in-chief Sasha Velour is looking well beyond Brooklyn for contributors and an audience.

LOOK: EP. 13 "REUNITED" jacket & pants: casey caldwell photo: lucas blair

Velour

Summer 2019 vol.1

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LOOK: NYC LIVE CROWNING PRESIDENTIAL CHIC dress: bcalla photo: lucas blair

LOOK: NYC PRIDE 2017 dress: diego montoya photo: ye zhu

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We met up with Sasha Steinberg, (who goes by Sasha Velour when he’s in character as his drag alter-ego), the co-founder of Vym along with his partner, Johnny Velour, at their apartment in Bed-Stuy. Johnny was off on a Disney cruise but Sasha, the artist-brain behind the operation, was able to fill us in. He’s not exactly a stranger to wigs, but nevertheless Steinberg-by-day, so to speak, has the unique quality of sharing a trademark “look” with his female drag counterpart, Sasha Velour, who hosts a monthly show called Nightgowns at Bushwick’s Bizarre.

Strangely, it was the act of shaving his head that brought Sasha closer to solidifying his drag queen persona.

Sasha Velour got her start at Madame Vivien V’s Bordello (another show at Bizarre) before scoring her very own night at the Bushwick bar in August.

Though Sasha’s a relative newcomer to drag, Velour’s reputation precedes her. At around the same time Nightgowns was taking off, we caught up with Lela Graham (aka Lee VaLone) at her own drag king showcase called BEEF. Lela spoke about Sasha in glowing terms: “Sasha is one of the most amazing, kind, and creative individuals I’ve ever met.” At this point, I’d never heard of this Sasha Velour, or Sasha Steinberg for that matter and, intrigued, made a mental note to keep an eye out.

Everything fell into place when I came across Vym, “the drag magazine,” a slick, graphically pleasing publication (makes sense, Sasha’s a freelance graphic designer), that immediately felt different than any publication I’d ever seen. Anyone who follows the art world closely has probably noticed

that almost anything involving LGBT artists, work that depicts queer people, and art that appears to even slightly acknowledge a discussion of gender, is slapped with the label “queer art” or “queer” what have you.

It’s not always a bad thing and is, more often that not, well intentioned as can be, but the label seems increasingly inadequate. And when it’s the only descriptor for an art show or a publication or whatever, and has been co-opted by non-queer people as a means of neatly boxing everything up, it functions to flatten the concerns of a diverse community into a gummy vitamin, something that’s easily swallowed by newbies. What’s lost is the complexity and variety of conversations going on– because there isn’t any one voice for the queer community nor is there one for trans people. And, likewise, as Vym magazine presses, there’s no single spokesperson for drag.

Sasha only started performing drag in public very recently, though you wouldn’t know it by Velour’s perfectly applied makeup and wardrobe stocked with sequined dresses, surreal headpieces, and skin-tight leotards. She occupies a strange territory between glamorous and sci-fi, which seems pretty advanced when you consider that for some people who are new to draggy dressing, learning how to walk in high heels might be challenging enough.

Sasha Velour, the character, is the final realization in a long process of fits and starts. “I always say I’ve been doing drag for my entire life, because there are all these photos and videos of me at age four, in dresses, playing female characters, being Annie or being Clara from the Nutcracker,” Sasha recalled. “I also had my Lady Macbeth phase at age eight I would take off whatever dress I was wearing and throw it out the window. So there was always bit of darkness in my drag.”

But by the time Sasha was a teenager, like many adolescents he started to feel strange about being different. “I didn’t think that female characters and female fantasies were closed to me, as a little boy.

That self-policing that some kids get right away happened to me when I was a teenager, when I was interacting with other kids and trying to learn what was ‘normal’ and what was ‘not normal,’” he recalled.

It wasn’t until years later that he would feel comfortable really embracing drag again. It all happened after he returned from Russia, where Sasha had been thinking a lot about gender expression. “The way that men and women assert gender difference in their behaviors and the way they styled themselves, to me, is extra-visible in Russia,” he explained.

He also discovered in himself a newfound determination to embrace his creative capacities. “It was actually a therapist who had me envision what my calm and happy and confident place was,” he laughed.

“And I saw like heels and lipstick and crystals. So I went out and bought my first wig as an adult– that was, like, five years ago.”

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“I always say I’ve been doing drag for my entire life, because there are all these photos and videos of me at age four, in dresses, playing female characters, being Annie or being Clara from the Nutcracker.”

LOOK: NIGHTGOWN LONDON outfit: bcalla photo: nightgown london

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He’d always been interested in drawing, but the visual realm now became a place for Sasha to express his feelings about gender and model a feminine character for himself within that context. After enrolling in school for cartooning, he started to dress in drag for parties. “We were having RuPaul’s Drag Race screenings, which I have my criticisms of,” he recalled. “But it does show how drag can be many different things, and even though the show doesn’t go anywhere near the level of diversity that drag has in places like New York, it’s a pretty good introduction. I was very influenced by it, of course.”

As a visual thinker, Sasha started to imagine his drag persona, Sasha Velour, through cartoons.

“Right from the start, I had a sense of some of the visuals I wanted to go for, because that’s the medium I excel in,” he explained. “I started drawing these characters, and cartoons about my experiences as a drag queen, but at the time I had only really gotten dressed up a couple of times and gone out.”

Following the principles of cartooning he’d learned in school, Sasha drew up a character with a readily recognizable silhouette — a bald head with “strong eyebrows, all in red, with ivory white skin” — so that she could be easily recognized from frame to frame, even if she appeared far off in the distance. The next step was shaving his own head.

“I totally discovered this character through visual art, and that’s another reason why the magazine made sense– to me, there’s a really strong per-

sonal connection between visual art and drag,” he explained. “I saw the parallels right away between this self-created identity you have with drag and the ability of a cartoonist or an illustrator to craft a whole world of living, breathing characters on the page, with like no money.” Drag was of course a fun outlet for Sasha, but it also became a form of serious artistic expression. “To some people ‘beauty’ sounds really superficial, but to me, beauty is a way of interpreting and stylizing the world that lets you have power as a marginalized person,” he explained.

His partner, who describes himself as a “theater artist and choreographer” also wanted to join in on the Sasha’s creative projects. “The DIY quality of drag is really integral,” Sasha remarked. It was actually Johnny who came up with the idea for the magazine in the summer of 2014, as a means of exercising some creative control. Sasha explained that Johnny’s career, though it gave him the opportunity to sing, dance, and perform in Broadway-style musicals, left him feeling that he had “no agency in terms of creating something or speaking for himself,” Sasha explained. Vym then became a joint creative project for the couple.

At first, the concept was not so different from a really well-produced zine which they printed that September. “We stapled it, folded it ourselves, and everything,” Sasha recalled. To their surprise, what they now see as the proto-issue sold out quickly.

“We realized, ‘OK, people are interested in this.’”

The couple then organized a Kickstarter to fund a slicker, thicker version of Vym and were able to expand the content and get the magazine professionally printed. “We wanted to go deeper into what some of these ideas about drag actually are,” Sasha explained during her talk.

The first issue of Vym centers around what seems, at first, like a really basic question: “What is drag?” But the variety of responses — in the form of essays, cartoons, photographs, art work, poetry, graphics, you name it — is remarkable. “We really tried to curate the most diverse group of drag

KiKi Magazine

performers we could find,” Sasha explained. Drag king Lou Henry Hoover, who describes herself as a “showboy extraordina-ire” penned an essay on her first experience with drag, part of “The First Drag” feature. She recalled that in high school she and her best friend were “a pair of right theater fags.” Lou lied about her age to get into a theater production, where she met a choir boy who shared a photo of himself dressed in “full showgirl pageant drag.” She immediately felt a “prehistoric” connection, from then on drag became “an implosion of forces” for her, “including a the desire to express my own gender pression neofcenterfaggy-lesbian.”

Sasha said that it “was really important” to feature drag kings in the magazine. “I’m still shocked at how many drag queens are not down with drag kings, and by how many drag kings feel marginalized by the scene and see it often as a type of misogyny, which obviously is alive and well, even in the gay community,” he said. “To me, they’re totally brother and sister art forms. Obviously the references and the type of glamor are going to be different, but the way that we’re thinking and the types of performance that we do is so similar. Drag kings show me that you can stylize masculinity too, it’s not neutral and can be totally dramatic and silly too, and that being a man is performative as well.”

Lou Henry Hoover is hardly a token female in the magazine. In fact, Lou’s partner (in performance and love) Kitten LaRoue also contributed an essay.

(The couple got hitched in Seattle back in 2013, after same-sex marriage was made legal in Washington.)

There are many more essays written by women in the magazine, including Crimson Kitty who wrote a piece on her introduction to drag. For Kitty, watching Jem and the Holograms on Saturday mornings as a kid, marked the first time she “really understood LOOK: EP.14 “SO EMOTIONAL” dress: florence d'Lee photo: lucas blair

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drag.” And, as Johnny Velour noted, more than half of the visual artists who contributed photography, graphics, and more are women, including Yuki Matsumura and Becca Kacanda.

“We put a strong emphasis on divers-ity in terms of gender and race, I think that’s really important for editors to do,” Sasha explained. “It’s not something to be light about, especially as two white cis-genderish men. It’s like, we have this background and this passion that’s driving us to create this project, but it needs to become a platform for a diverse group of people to speak for themselves. I’ve tried to have that with my show as well.”

I pointed out the very obvious racial divide between the drag and ballroom scenes, which admittedly are different types of performance in some ways, but I’ve noticed that, by and large, the drag performances I’ve seen are performed mostly by white men, while the vogue competition I saw at Rashaad Newsome’s “Coming Out Ball,” for example, was dominated by people of color.

“There’s a lot of crossing over though,” Sasha explained. “Drag queens have a really interesting understanding of race and what it means to be any sort of identity, and reflecting on that is so powerful right now. Obviously, right now in America having a conversation about trans lives and black lives mattering is important in every work of art and in every community, and the gay community has been extra-bad about not having room for those conversations.” You need to!

Sasha also emphasized the importance of including perspectives from trans people within the community. K. James, who belongs to the Brooklyn drag collective Switch n’ Play, appears in a photo essay shot by Masha Bogushevsky. “I do queer, campy drag,” reads K. James’ handwriting under his photograph. “For me, drag is parody and not about creating an ‘illusion.’”

It’s not so much that transgender drag performers are few and far between, it’s quite the opposite actually. “That really says so much about what the drag community is all about, and how much of this gender performance is actually connected to very real, personal gender flexibility or ambiguity,” Sasha pointed out. “And that gets written out of a lot of conversations about drag.”

This inclusiveness extends well beyond simply the backgrounds and biology of the individual people involved, the first issue of Vym spotlights an array of views on what drag actually means to drag kings,

“Sasha drew up a character with a readily recognizable silhouette — a bald head with “strong eyebrows, all in red, with ivory white skin” LOOK: EP.14 “RED CARPET” dress: diego montoya photo: arturo olmos

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drag queens, and even people who are peripherally involved in the drag scene. Sasha attributes this complexity to the “deep intelligence of drag.” But rather than single out certain types of drag for being smarter than others, and invoking some sort of hierarchy, Sasha is concerned with challenging people to think harder about drag. “I think people talk about ‘bad drag’ too much, and we need to focus on how powerful every act of drag is,” he said. “I think sometimes people treat drag queens and drag kings, and sometimes they treat themselves, like it’s not an art, or that it’s just silly and it’s just for fun– it is silly, and it is fun, but it’s also important. It’s a smart art form.”

If this all sounds stiff, you’d be hard pressed to convince someone the magazine is deadly serious.

Vym is just as much fun as it is smart. And that’s because Sasha’s not out to intellectualize drag or make it into something that it’s not. “It’s giving credit to something that’s already there, and when you get treated — even by the people in your own community — like it’s not serious, it’s hard to move forward with the art form,” he said. We agreed that drag, especially innovative drag, is still very much a subversive art form.

Sasha Velour didn't just come into existence; she was designed -- inspired by queens before her, by films, by fashion, by the deep and honest belief that glamour can be self-healing. To me, drag is the ultimate art form of self-creation and recreation.

To some extent, drag is always about our real living body: the things we love about it, the ways that it can change, the way we costume it, its inevitable queerness, and its beauty (which we insist on again

LOOK: HALLOWEEN 2017 dress: florence d'Lee photo: mandragora

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and again). It's not a matter of being superficial, but rather because bodies, clothes, labels, faces. That's the language of humanity, and we want to be fluent.

Drag meddles in stories about gender, beauty, and culture. Even in the act of lip syncing, we choose a song — a preexisting story that's deemed "straight" or "normal" or "nothing out of the ordinary" — and then we squeeze our beautiful queer bodies into it, shifting the meaning, disrupting the total effect.

Drag makes room for us queers as we are (or perhaps more importantly, as we imagine ourselves) in the center of every recognizable narrative.

Drag is like an act of magic, a way of casting spells. If a spell is meant to change the living world through the constitutive powers of language, then I think drag is meant to change it through fashion, gesture, and effect. And even if it's only for a moment, in the closed safety of a nightclub (or photo studio!), drag plants the seed for alternative gender and alternative beauty.

Right now we are living in a time of resistance, a time of violence towards those who are different, who are brown, who are queer. Now more than ever we are called upon to be loud and angry and alternative; to insist on a world as we see it -- a world that accepts and values difference, a world where people have options and voices. And what better place to do that than with drag?

Drag is the space of our queer dreaming. We queens and kings are dreamers and inventors, and you, the audience, the reader, who cosign these fantasies — who live for them, who scream for them — you are the revolutionaries that will take these visions, these dreams, these new expectations for beauty and change the world.

Indeed, some of her most memorable looks this season could have been pulled from the runways at Chanel, Margiela, or Prada. Process-wise, “I sketch it over and over again and figure out what I could add to it and make it more fashionable in my eye,” Velour says. For a challenge that saw her create a

LOOK: EP. 7 “BIG HAIR” elastic bodysuit: sasha velour leather jacket: nancy the girl spikes: mr. lee valone velour & johnny velour photo: mateus porto

“I think that drag is the artform of the queer imagination.”

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KiKi Magazine

drag persona for a crew member, Velour employed color to offset the vintage feel. Another occasion had the contestants re-create a memorable Madonna moment, which Velour interpreted through corsetry and leather. “I loved that something could be both simple and extreme at the same time,” said Velour of her ensemble, which mimicked designs from Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel’s Pre-Fall 2016 collection.

Though drag is certainly not equal to being transgender, obviously, to say that drag is mainstream simply because Ru Paul has a popular TV show, would miss the point of fighting for equality.

“It’s always the people who would struggle to feel fully satisfied in the mainstream party environment who are interested in drag,” Sasha explained. “It’s a home for weirdos and queers and people who want to express gender differently.”

Have we reached a turning point for drag? What about for elements of queer culture in general?

Hearing about what’s happening in the Berlin “trash drag” scene certainly convinced me of this, and the advent of Vym magazine sort of sealed the deal. But maybe, in a lot of ways the world needs drag more than drag needs any sense of approval from the rest of the world. “We’re in a moment where people are just not very political in their entertainment — partying is so apolitical and consumerist, now more than ever — and drag still leads a conversation, it gets people talking,” Sasha argued. “And that, I think, is really revolutionary.”

Vym magazine issue #2 will drop this spring, stay tuned to their website for details, but for now you can pick up issue #1 over here. Vym is currently accepting submissions.

LOOK: EP. 14 “IT’S NOT RIGHT,BUT IT’S OK” dress & mask: diego montoya photo: lucas blair

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JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE

28, 28, 28, 28, 28, 28, 28, 28, 28, 28, 28,

1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969

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T

he 1960s and preceding decades were not welcoming times for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans. For instance, solicitation of homosexual relations was illegal in New York City, and there was a criminal statute that allowed police to arrest people wearing less than three gender-appropriate articles of clothing.

For such reasons, LGBT individuals flocked to gay bars and clubs, places of refuge where they could express themselves openly and socialize without worry. However, the New York State Liquor Authority penalized and shut down establishments that served alcohol to known or suspected LGBT individuals, arguing that the mere gathering of homosexuals was “disorderly.” Engaging in gay behavior in public (holding hands, kissing, or dancing with someone of the same sex) was still illegal, so police harassment of gay bars continued and many bars still operated without liquor licenses—in part because they were owned by the Mafia. The gays didn't have a safe place at night.

STONEWALL

THE PEOPLE, THE PLACE, & THE LASTING SIGNIFICANCE OF “WHERE PRIDE BEGAN” written by Dane Evans

photo: the stonewall riot june 28, 1969

Stonewall

Summer 2019 vol.1

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“I got my civil rights!”

MARSHA P. JOHNSON photo: andy warhol

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KiKi Magazine

Within minutes, a full-blown riot involving hundreds of people began.

MARSHA P. JOHNSON & SYLVIA RIVERA photo: christopher street liberation day, day pride parade in new york city in june 1973

The crime syndicate saw profit in catering to shunned gay clientele, and by the mid-1960s, the Genovese crime family controlled most Greenwich Village gay bars. In 1966, they purchased Stonewall Inn (a “straight” bar and restaurant), cheaply renovated it, and reopened it the next year as a gay bar. Stonewall Inn was registered as a type of private “bottle bar,” which did not require a liquor license because patrons were supposed to bring their own liquor. Club attendees had to sign their names in a book upon entry to maintain the club’s false exclusivity. The Genovese family bribed New York’s Sixth Police Precinct to ignore the activities occurring within the club. Without police interference, the crime family could cut costs how they saw fit: The club lacked a fire exit, running water behind the bar to wash glasses, clean toilets that didn’t routinely overflow, and palatable drinks that weren’t watered down beyond recognition.

What’s more, the Mafia reportedly blackmailed the club’s wealthier patrons who wanted to keep

Stonewall

their sexuality a secret. Nonetheless, Stonewall Inn quickly became an important Greenwich Village institution. It was large and relatively cheap to enter. It welcomed drag queens, who received a bitter reception at other gay bars and clubs. It was a nightly home for many runaways and homeless gay youths, who panhandled or shoplifted to afford the entry fee. And it was one of the few—if not the only—gay bar left that allowed dancing. Raids were still a fact of life, but usually corrupt cops would tip off Mafia-run bars before they occurred, allowing owners to stash the alcohol (sold without a liquor license) and hide other illegal activities.

In fact, the NYPD had stormed Stonewall Inn just a few days before the riot-inducing raid. When police raided Stonewall Inn on the morning of June 28, it came as a surprise—the bar wasn’t tipped off this time. Armed with a warrant, police officers entered the club, roughed up patrons, check IDs, and arrest any men dressed as women after bringing them into the bathroom to check

their sex if they couldn’t obviously tell. (Sounds eerily familiar to the gendered bathroom laws that are popping up everywhere these days.) Finding bootlegged alcohol, arrested 13 people, including employees and people violating the state’s genderappropriate clothing statute (female officers would take suspected cross-dressing patrons into the bathroom to check their sex). Fed up with constant police harassment and social discrimination, angry patrons and neighborhood residents hung around outside of the bar rather than disperse, becoming increasingly agitated as the events unfolded and people were aggressively manhandled. At one point, an officer hit a lesbian over the head as he forced her into the paddy wagon — she shouted to onlookers to act, inciting the crowd to begin throw pennies, bottles, cobble stones, and other objects at the police. Within minutes, a full-blown riot involving hundreds of people began. The police, a few prisoners, and a Village Voice writer barricaded themselves in the bar, which the mob attempted to set on fire after breaching the barricade repeatedly.

The fire department and a riot squad were eventually able to douse the flames, rescue those inside Stonewall, and disperse the crowd. But the protests, sometimes involving thousands of people, continued in the area for five more days, flaring up at one point after the Village Voice published its account of the riots.

As the story goes, Marsha “Pay it no mind” Johnson was at The Stonewall Inn on the first night of the riots and one of the first to resist arrest, shouting, “I got my civil rights!” while throwing a shot glass into a mirror. This encouraged the rest of the patrons to resist and a huge crowd gathered outside Stonewall to protest what was happening inside. Led by the homeless kids who slept in Christopher Park, the crowd began to throw garbage cans, rocks, and bottles at the police while shouting, “Faggot cops!” Born Malcolm Michaels, Jr. on August 24, 1945 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Marsha P. Johnson moved to NYC in the mid-1960s. She faced many hardships as an African American trans woman and even lived on the streets until she broke into the nightclub scene and became a prominent 25

NYC drag queen. An eccentric woman known for her outlandish hats and glamorous jewelry, she was fearless and bold. Whenever she was asked what the “P” in her name stood for and when people pried about her gender or sexuality, she quipped back with “Pay it No Mind.” Her forthright nature and enduring strength led her to speak out against the injustices she saw at Stonewall in 1969. This act of defiance became known as the “shot glass heard around the world,” a reference to the shots fired at the Battles of Lexington and Concord that started the American Revolution. 1 On the second night of the riots, witnesses say she climbed a lamppost and threw a bag onto the hood of a police car and crushed its windshield. 2 Following the events at Stonewall, Johnson and her friend Sylvia Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) and they became fixtures in the community, especially in their commitment to helping homeless transgender youth in NYC. A kind and generous queen, Marsha would give away her last dollar to someone who needed it more than she did. She left her hometown of Elizabeth, NJ to escape the harassment she encountered there, finding a new more welcoming home in New York City. She slept on the streets and in movie theaters, rummaging through thrift stores and taking donations from friends for her unique drag. Marsha was unusually kind to everyone and was called Saint Marsha by her friends. She befriended a young male prostitute and was offered a place to stay in

his John’s home, where she lived for the next 12 years. After the Stonewall Riots she became heavily involved in activism, founding STAR with Sylvia Rivera which was the first organization that ran a homeless shelter for trans youth and drag queens. Later in her life she contracted HIV and began advocating with ACT UP to fight the AIDS epidemic.

The LGBT community was fed up with being targeted by the police and seeing these public arrests incited rioting that spilled over into the neighboring streets and lasted several days. These events have been collectively described as a “riot,” a “rebellion,” a “protest,” and an “uprising.”

Whatever the label, this was certainly a watershed moment in LGBT history. In fact many believe that the events at Stonewall sparked the modern LGBT rights movement in the United States. Though the Stonewall uprising didn’t start the gay rights movement, it was a galvanizing force for LGBT political activism, leading to numerous gay rights organizations, including the Gay Liberation Front, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD (formerly Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), and PFLAG (formerly Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).In 2016, President Barack Obama designated the site of the riots—Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and the surrounding streets and sidewalks—a national monument in recognition of the area’s contribution to gay and human rights.

Stonewall sparked the modern LGBT rights movement in the United States.

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JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE 28

28, 28, 28, 28, 28, 28, 28, 28, 28, 28, 28,

1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 KiKi Magazine

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SHEA COULEÉ

Jessi Cotterill sits down with Season 9's eccentric Chicago queen written by Jessi Cotterill

R

uPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 standout Shea Couleé will be coming to Tacoma Pride on July 8th. I got the chance to catch Shea between gigs and interview her with questions we have all wanted the answers to since that season finale shakeup—and Shea Couleé's skyrocketing success after the show.

You’re coming to Washington State for Tacoma Pride and we couldn’t be happier to see you! What does Pride season mean to you, as a performer and as a participant?

Pride season is amazing. It’s so important to me because the first time I ever did drag was at Chicago Pride six years ago. It just holds a special place in my heart as an artist and as a queer person because it’s an amazing celebration and opportunity for us to come together and organize and gather. In today's political climate, the simplest form of peaceful resistance is this.

You’ve of course gotten a billion fans from the Pacific Northwest—and all over the world — after appearing on a little show called RuPaul’s Drag Race. What has your life been like after Season 9 started airing?

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Couleé

Summer 2018 vol.1

You know, it’s honestly just been a crazy travel schedule. Most of the time I’m only in cities for 12 to 14 hours. It’s just that intense. Although it takes a lot of getting used to, it’s great getting to connect with the fans and all the people who watch and love the show, and who support the queens who participate. It’s such a wonderful experience.

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“Chicago drag is the motherfucking bomb. com...That's right, bitch, it's got it's own domain!”

LOOK: CRÈME BRULÉE VIDEO outfit: nene L.A. shiro photo: brendon brown & dan polyak

Did you always want to be on Drag Race?

Yeah, absolutely. From the very beginnings of my drag career. I watched the show and was really inspired by it. It was just a great showcase of talent and I totally saw myself being a part of that show. I auditioned 5 times, every year since I started drag.

You got a lot of well-deserved praise for your original rap and lip sync performance to “Category Is.” Had you written music before that challenge?

I’d written maybe 2 or 3 songs prior to that challenge, but it’s just something that I love. I love music and writing. I probably wrote that verse in 20 to 30 minutes and I was just like, “There it is. Let’s throw it down. Let’s do it.”

And Todrick Hall gave you such great feedback in the studio! That must feel good getting that kind of praise from someone who is so talented.

Todrick was really great. I really admire him and his work ethic. He’s a go-getter, and for that reason I think we really saw eye to eye. My mom has always called me her little go-getter.

At the Drag Race Season 9 finale, you had to go toe-to-toe against your friend Sasha Velour and perform Whitney Houston’s “So 32

Emotional,” right after telling an international audience that your father and sister had passed away. I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been. What emotions were you feeling during that performance?

To be perfectly honest, I’m gonna say I was actually a bit numb. The experience in and of itself was just so crazy and the timing and scheduling, the surprise lip-sync battle, all that new stuff that was surfacing, I felt like I was just in a place to not fully process it and take it in. I was really just trying to make it through, because with losing my dad and my sister, there wasn’t much time to grieve and be with my family. I had to put these family members to rest and then immediately hit the road. It definitely has been a challenging year for that reason alone, and to go through all those emotions and reflect on the experience and miss my dad and sister and having to lip sync against my best friend, it was a lot. I just did what I had to do to push through.

Many of us were shook AF when Ru announced Miss Shea Couleé, winner of 4 challenges this season, would not be going to the Top 2. I was pretty angry myself.

Were you as surprised as we were?

I mean, I guess yes, it was very shocking for me. But you know, gosh, I probably shouldn’t say that Production pays attention to the critiques that are given on Reddit. But I know it’s something they do pay

attention to—they’re only human—and I think the fans were feeling like this season was predictable. I think Production was trying to shake things up and give the fans a surprise ending. And ultimately taking the crown is a takeaway, but you win just by being on the show and participating. In so many ways it was still such a blessing and still is, so I’m at peace with it.

Now that the show has wrapped up, you released not one, not two, but three professionally–produced music videos. They’re all dazzling, and each very different! Do you feel like you have a set trajectory for your music, or are you more in an exploratory phase?

I’m definitely in an exploratory phase right now, because there’s just so many different types of music that I really like, so as someone who’s just experimenting and figuring out what my voice is, I’m trying all different types of things that appeal to me and see what sticks, what feels organic, what people respond to, that sort of thing. There’s no real set goal as to what my sound is, I just want to do what feels right.

It’s definitely something I’ve always, always, always wanted to try. And after I got back from filming the show, I was just really inspired. There were so many things that were happening that I wanted to get into.

Trying music, curating beats. I actually recorded 11 songs but just 3 made the cut. But I still have this nice body of work to choose from for future projects.

I just really love music, I’m such a fan of it, and I KiKi Magazine

wanted to create a soundtrack to a really interesting visual piece. I did a short film last year, Lipstick City, and one of the biggest challenges was sourcing music that worked well with the images. So we were just like, “How about we just start with the music and build from there?” It was a completely different process and so much smoother, fun, and experimental. I’m just excited to do more projects and create more music and explore more of that side of drag.

Is that where you want your career to go?

To become a recording artist?

I do have a huge passion for music. There’s also a huge part of me that loves acting and I want my career to go there too. Not just as Shea Couleé but for other things too. There’s a couple opportunities on the horizon that I’m excited to explore.

I’m excited to see where those take you! The show gave you a platform to show us your amazing talents in music, dance, fashion design, and acting too. What other talents does Shea have up her sleeve? (laughs) I’m also a witch.

You’ve earned an enormous fan following, and now have a huge platform to reach people. What influence would you like to have on the queer community at this point?

I would say the influence I would like to have on the queer community would be to inspire people—specifically queer POCs—to feel comfortable in themselves and their identities, to understand that they’re special, they’re amazing, and that anything you want or dream about, you deserve it. All you have to do is work hard and find the people who will help you.

Find your support system.

I want to inspire because I know the people who inspire me—RuPaul, Naomi Campbell—to be at a place now that they know who I am and they know my work? It’s incredible. We’re all the authors of our own destiny. We have to take control and do our best to leave our mark while we’re here. It’s so empowering and uplifting for me, so hopefully it’s that way for other people who are watching.

There has been racism in the 'Drag Race' Fandom. How are you handling all the racism going around social media toward other queens and yourself?

Queens of color are less celebrated than our white counterparts. But that's life, we have to work twice as hard to get half the recognition. Just because you're on TV doesn't mean people are going to change the way they've been trained to they think and feel. Around May 2017, while season 9 was airing, I found myself locked out of my social media accounts. They had been hacked, and the hacker was posting racially charged imagery. [The hacker] felt that it would be appropriate to post pictures

of slaves saying they were my family, and included #niggers in the post. It was a direct result of someone's racist opinions of me. Someone I had never even met. Something needs to change in it is not right for anyone to come up to someone and just have this disrespect, not with the fandom but in our nation itself. I try to not let it get to me. It does hurts but I move on with the help of friends, and family and remember there are good people out there, and I remember not all my fans are like that one individual. Whenever I have the opportunity to meet a fan who is POC and they say that my drag inspires them, or makes them feel confident, that's so rewarding. Especially when it's a black woman who says "you inspire me to be the best woman I can be." As a man it's so humbling and amazing. It’s great that we have so many people from so many diverse background in the Drag Race family. There are some people out there, especially in the LGBTQIA community, that are looking for role models or people to look up to and, in our communities, I’m happy to say we are some of those people.

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Couleé

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and her full drag makeup routine

Beauty

KiKi Magazine

written by: Leigh Beck photography by: Tom Newton

M

y very first time seeing a drag queen actually was RuPaul.

It was the Viva La Glam campaign for MAC. I didn’t understand what drag was at the time—I just thought it was a woman and some larger than life personality. After high school, I started cosmetology school, and I’ve always had a love for fashion, so it kind of made sense with drag. I just loved the art of it. I never thought I would be on RuPaul’s Drag Race. I was on Season 8, but I started watching it on Season 2. Right when I turned 18, I wanted to try and do it. I was a baby! But that was when I could go out to the clubs and see the other queens and get a feel for it. I probably sound like a broken record because I always say this, but being on Drag Race was the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. I met some of my best friends in the entire world there. It’s given me a platform to do what I love as a career.

I hadn’t seen my style of drag queen before me, and now, I see it all the time.

[Laughs] When I first started, I was using drugstore makeup and my mom’s makeup, and she’s Caucasian so it did not look good on me! I didn’t really understand how to center my features—I was just putting makeup on my face. I am very thankful for Youtube tutorials and Instagram. That’s how all the drag babies start now—through YouTube—which I didn’t have back in the ‘90s.

Back then if I was getting into drag, I would have to take the whole day off work because I was walking out the door after seven hours.

But I was also 18 and stressing, there was competition. I’m in a groove now—I like to take three hours to get ready.

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“I don’t even want to know what I spend on beauty in a month!”

Beauty

Skin Care I’m a firm believer in skincare, mostly because I don’t really have the best skin, so I’m trying to maintain what I do have. I use the Philosophy Purity Foaming Wash or Glossier’s Milky Jelly—I’ve been absolutely hooked on that cleanser. I scrub with Ocean Salt from Lush because it’s really aggressive. I have to shave every day for drag, so I shave with Prince from Lush. Then I use the Glossier Supers.

I’m obsessed with Super Bounce, that’s my favorite. After that I go in with Josie Maran Argan Infinity Intensive Creamy Oil. It helps my makeup glide on and I also have really dry skin, so the argon oil helps soak in and all that jazz. Kim Chi and I went to Korea and I stocked up on a bunch of sheet masks there. I also use the Don’t Look At Me Mask from Lush or the Boscia Luminizing Black Mask.

Philosophy by Purity Made Simple ($24), Milky Jelly Cleanser by Glossier ($18), Prince Shaving Cream by Lush 3.5 oz. ($13.95) Ocean Salt Body & Face Scrub 4.2 oz.($21.95)

Makeup

Modern Renaissance Eye Shadow Palette by Anastasia Beverly Hills ($42), Pro Longwear Foundation by MAC ($36), Pro Longwear Concealer by MAC($24)

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Queens all do their own hair and makeup. Anytime we have a challenge, we have to make an outfit. Drag is fucking expensive, period. I don’t even want to know what I spend on beauty in a month! I grew up on MAC, so I know the colors really well and it kind of just works for me. I like their concealers and foundation because they’re thick and go on like a layer that covers all your blemishes and imperfections. When it comes to foundation, most drag queens use Kryolan TV Paintstick or MAC ProCoverage—those are the ones that really give you that look. The popular one for body is MAC Face and Body Foundation. My powder is the Coty Airspun Powder, that’s another drag staple. I mix it with the Ben Nye Buff Luxury Powder and I like to bake underneath my eyes and underneath my cheeks. I have really deep-set bags under my eyes so it helps seep in and cook it with the foundation.

For highlighting, I use MAC Full Coverage Foundation again. NC35 is my foundation shade and NC20 is my concealer. I swear by MAC's concealer.

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Eyes My staple for drag makeup is my Ben Nye Lumiere Grande Color Palette because it has all the bright colors— it’s really hard to find those primary colors. These are really pigmented and they go on smooth and buttery. But before I apply any eyeshadow on my lids a good eye primer will make any eyeshadow stay on all night, one of my favorites is Urban Decay's Eyeshadow Primer Potion, it can make a world of difference. Use it as the base and your eyeshadow will stay put through rain, sweat, and even the heaviest of oil slicks produced by the skin and when you have a crowd watching you don't want to get clocked on your mug. Also, NYX Cosmetics has a glitter adhesive that I swear by. With glitter stuff, I use pointed tweezers and apply them separately. For lashes I like to use theater drag lashes. I use #302 The Creme Shop Lashes on top of Vegas Nay Grand Glamour Lashes—I stack those.

Then Ardell Natural Lash for the bottom.

But there is something to love about a nicely lined eye. Liners help your eyes pop and, if you blend correctly, it won't be obvious.

You can use liquid liners or an eye pencil, but many women prefer to use dark eyeshadow as eyeliners.

To do this, wet a slanted brush then dip it in a dark eyeshadow. Line your eyes as close to the upper lashes as possible from the inner corner to the outer corner. Follow with liner below your eyes. Smudge the bottom line with a cotton swab or your finger. You don't want a prominent line. The liner I’ve been using since I was probably in high school is Maybelline Ultra-Liner. I like it because it stays black and it’s easy to put on, and also easy to remove. Then I love the Modern Renaissance Palette from Anastasia Beverly Hills. For a smoky look, I’ll do cream eyeshadow, but I feel like I

have more control with powder. This step is a makeup artist's secret and a trick that you will use all the time once you see the results. This totally makes eyes "pop." Just like I like powder eyeshadow I prefer powder to contour—no creams, just powder.

Creams can get really muddy really fast and that won't be a good luck since I will I want to try to avoid looking less like a man and more like a woman.

My favorite bronzer or contour palette is the Original Anastasia one in Tan to Deep, my favorite blush is Strawberry from Ben Nye, and my favorite highlight is Jeffree Star’s King Tut. Also, the Glow Palettes from Anastasia.

Urban Decay has a white liquid liner, I think it’s called Bump. MAC has Pure White too that I’ll do on my waterline to make my eyes bigger. If I do a smoky eye, I don’t do that look.

This is just the standard Naomi face.

Consider glitter an essential to drag and to multiple places to use. "It can be serve as eyeshadow, liner, or highlighter," says Naomi. "My favorite is to use multiple colors of glitter in the same color family so they complement one another. Put one in the crease, one alone the lid, and one on the brow bone. If there's any glitter fallout to other parts of the dace, tidy with Scotch tape, suggests Naomi: " Tap the sticky side lightly on the skin where glitter has traveled."

Your adhesive is as important as your appliqués. Naomi suggests a non-latex based eyelash glue, which is easier to remove at the end of the night. And before you crystallize lips, be sure to prep them. "I swear by the Patchology Flash Patch lip gel [$50, ulta.com], which heal dryness and camouflage fine lines, she says. Just make sure to wipe any excess off so lips aren't moist, for optimal adhesion.

Ben Nye Lumiere Grande Color Palette ($65), King Tut by Jeffree Star ($29), Top Lashes: Vegas Nay Grand Glamour Lashes ($8)NYX Glitter Adhesive ($6.50) Maybelline Ulta Liner Black ($6)

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Beauty

Brows In my day to day, I legit wear all Glossier, but for my girl makeup, the one thing I really still use is Boy Brow. I use Anastasia’s Chocolate Dipbrow, and I have the teeniest forehead ever, so I just use my natural brows, extend out and kind of cheat it. I just keep going until I touch my sideburns. [Laughs] Then MAC Concealer with this really precise concealer brush from Sephora that I’ve had since I was in seventh grade. If I lost it, I’d be fucked. I wouldn’t even know how to do drag.

Hair & Nails I use Wigs and Grace @wigsandgrace.

At Wigs and Grace you are able to get custom made wigs styled or you can order from their selection of wigs already on their site. There even is a NAOMI wig section that are inspired by me! There is a long and luxurious 30 inch wig that was inspired by my long legs, I am 7 ft tall. I spend a lot of money on wigs and I can't even tell you how wigs I have in my closet. I keep them all. And then when they’re done I send it back and get it restyled.

For nails, I order them in bulk on Amazon. I’ll paint them myself and I use Crazy Glue to put them on— that’s what I was doing right before this interview. [Laughs] I like Essie, it goes on really nice and smooth. Sand Tropez is probably my favorite shade of all time. I also like Mint Candy Apple and Sexy Divine.

Platinum Naomi Wig by Wigs and Grace ($145), Essie Nail Polish–Sand Tropez, Mint Candy Apple, Ballet Slippers ($9)

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Lips The rules about who can wear certain lip colors? Ignore them. If you are confidence, no matter what the color it is, you can pull it off. You always want to prep lips by gently exfoliating them with a damp soft toothbrush. With lips, it just depends on my mood and what outfit I am wearing.

Right now, I create my shape with MAC Cork Liner and then I go in with 26 Pretty Auburn in Sephora’s new liquid lipsticks, which I’m obsessed with—and they’re super cheap. Then I do Dominatrix from Jeffree Star and contour with that. Then, I use Gen G in Leo from Glossier to fill in the nude part, and then I’m Nude from Jeffree Star on top of it.

There’s huge plastic surgery business in the drag community. For me, it’s to look better as a boy—then I can do whatever with makeup to look better as a girl. After Drag Race, you can watch whose lips get bigger—that’s the first thing everyone gets. People get body modifications like silicone but that isn't not for me. I like to keep Davis Heppenstall and Naomi very separate. I get Juvederm, but I haven’t gone in a year and a half—I’m going next month. I go to Judy, who works at Biomed Spa in Beverly Hills.

Gen G in Leo by Glossier($18), Dominatrix

by Jeffree Star($18), Nude by Jeffree Star ($18), 26 Pretty Auburn by Sephora ($14)

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Beauty

“There’s huge plastic surgery business in the drag community.”

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Taking it all Off Self love is very important part of taking care of your body and soul. We are all probably bath people at one point. I love a good bath and indulging in hotel baths since the life of a drag queen is always on the road and checking in and out of hotels. In the shower I can detangle, exfoliate, and be on my way in seven minutes. But in a bath of water is much more relaxing and is my down time out of drag. I can get out of drag faster than any of my friends. Probably in five minutes.

Sleep in drag—absolutely not. It’s so much makeup, there is definitely a time limit for keeping it on. I use duct tape to take off a lot of the stones and glitter. I avoid Cotton balls because they can leave behind residue or break down during usage and leave fibers on your lashes or skin," says Naomi. That can lead to irritation at a time when you're trying to detox and soothe. I always opt for flat cotton

Follow Naomi on Instagram @naomismalls

pads instead of balls, ideally with a quilted texture. Basic drugstore pads work pretty well—but specialty versions can be worth it for serious makeup wearers like me. I only use Japanese cotton squares because

the cotton is woven in such a way that it doesn't shed at all," she says.

"They're like magical little pillows that remove everything. But if you are on a budget pick up some soft cotton pads at Sephora they are super cheap. Then I go in with my makeup wipes—I like the Neutrogena ones. Wipes can be an excellent initial step in removing makeup—in fact, they're best way to remove makeup before cleansing. But a proper sink session should ideally follow. Tip: Many of us make the mistake of just using wipes and going to bed, but the makeup really is not all off, especially the heavy makeup that I wear—you still have to wash your face ladies," says Naomi, telling us what we don't want to hear. Using water and face wash is what's really going to remove residue and prep your skin for a good night regimen. If you use only wipes and then apply moisturizer, you might push dirt into your pores and wake up with pimples or blackheads.

At night I use the same Philosophy Purity cleanser that I mentioned earlier. Or you could use a makeup remover like micellar water first—or consider switching to a cleansing oil or balm. These are among the most effective at coaxing off even the most stubborn makeup, like stay-put foundations, liquid lipsticks, and brow pigments. If my skin is really going through it, I’ll use the Peter Thomas Roth Glycolic Acid Moisturizer. If it’s just a regular day, I’ll use the Murad Perfect Moisturizer. To calm my mind a scoop of the Pacific sea salts (which are spiked with detoxifying Cambrian blue clay) in Herbivore Detox Blue Clay + Eucalyptus Soaking Salts ($18, herbivorebotanicals.com) helps take the day off, while lavender and eucalyptus essential oils make me fall asleep faster. As drag queen always on the road performing show to show and wearing heels all in the mean time I get achy muscles and sometimes feel sore. Taking the time out of my night especially since I can get out of drag so fast is nicely spent on a bath.

STEPS TO REMOVE MAKEUP

1

Neutrogena Makeup Remover Cleansing Towelettes 25 count ($5)

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FRESH Sea-berry Skin Nutrition Cleansing Oil($42 Sephora.com)

4

Cotton Pads ($4 Sephora.com)

5

Philosophy by Purity Made Simple ($24)

Peter Thomas Roth Glycolic Acid Moisturizer ($32)

KiKi Magazine

Beauty

Going Out There’s a huge drag scene in Chicago, like almost too huge. They're so many queens.

My favorite club is Smart Bar, on Sundays. It’s a party called Queen. They have different house DJs and it’s in a basement—queens are just rolling out looks.

I also really like to go see drag at Berlin Nightclub, hosted by Tranikka [Rex]. They have a show every Saturday. Even if you don’t like fashion, you just like watching the performances because people are really passionate about what they do. It’s nice to see people do what they love.

Definitely not everyone is friendly. I’ve definitely had my spats with people. I mean, we’re men in wigs with our dicks taped between our ass and in heels, and we’re going to get cranky sometimes. At the end of the day, I can say I’m great friends with all the people from my season [on Drag Race]. I like seeing the progress of it and looking back. This my fourth year. Looking back at the first year, I’m like, ‘Who the fuck is that?’ It’s great.”

Smalls

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