After several sold-out joint tours with the likes of Dita Von Teese and fellow Drag Race girls – as part of the tour – Violet Chachki is putting on her “big girl panties” and stepping out solo with The winner of the seventh season of is bringing her aptly named one-woman extravaganza – part drag, part fashion, part burlesque and part circus show – to seven cities throughout the UK and Europe. “It’s called for a reason,” the 27-year-old tells , at her London hotel before the tour’s opening night. “It’s my vision and my creative direction; I’m ultimately calling all the shots and creating my fantasy show.”
And with that, we hand the mic over to Chachki, to talk us through her outfit changes, or as she calls it – moments.
The Violet does Dietrich moment
“I met Jeremy Scott in 2015 on the red carpet at the VMAs; he had designed looks for Miley Cyrus and I was performing with her. We had a kiki and we’ve been friends ever since; I’ve walked in three of his shows – most recently his Hollywood horror-inspired Moschino pre-spring/summer 2020 collection at Universal Studios in LA – and I went to this year’s Met Gala with him.”
“Being a queer designer, being as outspoken and over the top as he is – it’s pretty punk. I really admire that he doesn’t care about fitting in; he’s known for taking things – other brands, pop culture references – and turning them into caricatures. I relate to that because that’s what drag queens do – turn things on their head – and that’s what we did with this sequin tuxedo and top hat look that Jeremy designed for me.”
“The actress Marlene Dietrich was famous for wearing tuxedos and for androgyny, so I wanted to riff on that and do a gender-fuck ‘Violet does Dietrich’ moment. In this performance, the two back up dancers – big hefty guys – are dressed as show girls, I’m in the tuxedo acting a bit more butch on stage, so traditional notions of gender are reversed.”
“I’ve always been interested in androgyny and a lot of my work explores gender identity. I went to Catholic school and we had to wear gender-specific uniforms and that triggered the obsession.”
The “Frankenstein dress” moment
“I don’t pretend to be an eco-warrior; I need to perform in an air-conditioned space otherwise my make-up will melt off. But I definitely buy clothes with longevity in mind; I love the idea of a shoe that lasts a lifetime. I’m also constantly looking for beaded dresses on eBay and Etsy, which I then upcycle into burlesque costumes, use as appliqués or turn into different dress designs, as is the case with this gown. It originally had long sleeves, so I turned them into a halter-neck and inserted the the sequined waist panel. I call them Frankenstein dresses.”
“A word of advice for all the aspiring drag queens out there: be resourceful. I’m from Atlanta, which is the capital of drag, so very competitive. For my first booking in 2011 I was paid $35, I did three performances and a call back so that’s four looks. Don’t believe everything you see online, no one is perfect off the bat, you have to start from somewhere (I wore some questionable looks in those early days) and from there it’s gradual progression. You’re never going to be the best right away, I wasn’t, but now I am!”
The custom Prada shoe moment that would turn Dorothy Gale green with envy
“I’m such a shoe queen, and I’m a lucky queen, or unlucky depending on how you look at it. I have a size 43 foot and most fashion houses don’t make shoes in my size, but Prada have not only hooked me up with a custom shoe size, but a custom pitch. With a 130mm heel height, they’re like a fetish shoe and difficult for most people to walk in, but I have strong ankles.”
“Drag queens have different bodies, which makes it difficult to find off-the-rack garments, so pretty much everything we wear is custom. In a way, the drag community has its own little fashion world – it’s like how the fashion industry used to be – we are our own designers and put hours of work into these bespoke looks.”
“Right now drag is trending, so the fashion industry is embracing the community and more designers are collaborating with us. RuPaul planted the seed with his album , which came out in 1993 (the year after I was born); he was hanging out with Naomi [Campbell] and Linda [Evangelista] in the 1990s. With the internet and the TV show , now that seed has grown.”
The Art Deco beauty moment courtesy of make-up artist Pat McGrath
“For the tour, Pat McGrath has created custom beauty looks for me and has given me so many amazing products. Throughout the show, the make-up evolves, it starts off simple and classic and then builds and builds until it’s like an Erté illustration. I was inspired by Pat’s work with John Galliano when he was at Dior, so there’s lots of 1920s and 1930s references and beautiful crystal applications.”
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“When I was growing up I had images of Pat and Steven Meisel’s work on my wall. I just shot the Pat McGrath Labs Sublime Perfection foundation campaign with them. If you’d told me as a kid that I’d be working with these people I’d never believe you – it’s a dream come true. You have to be a bit delusional about yourself – fake it until you make it; that’s really worked for me – so you can maintain the confidence and self-security you need to get you to where you want to be.”
The film noir moment
“This look for the second act in the show is inspired by a number of things: there’s a nod to British heritage brands famous for trench coats like Burberry and Aquascutum; the scene in when John Waters’s character is walking down the street flashing passersby; John Willie’s fetish photographs from the 1940s and 1950s. I’m definitely channelling [animated star] Carmen Sandiego too; I always try to look like a cartoon character, my aim isn’t to pass for a woman.”
“Everything comes off in the routine except for the corset (created by Anthony Ladd Canney) and panties. I love the idea of wearing a coat as a dress, as Anna Dello Russo says in her song (if you haven’t heard it, download immediately!). There’s a seductive dance with a chair – the chair rises off the ground and I’m dancing on it; spinning, suspended from the ceiling – there’s cigar smoke. It’s all very film noir.”