faux queen photo journal

i'm excited to share with you my photo journal from the appendices of my thesis entitled, "Faux Queens--Fauxing the Real: Biological Women, the Art of Drag, and Why the Real IS Drag and/or How I became a Drag Queen and/or How to Paint a Drag Mug."  i'd love to hear what y'all think!

miss gay usofa final night!!

i'm soooo excited about final night miss gay usofa. from what i've been hearing the competition has been the fiercest yet! dallas' own miss layla larue is the 2012 miss gay usofa classic!!!

one of the first queens that i saw back in my corpus christi days

can't wait to see the gowns and talents tonight; the competition is going to be AMAZING!!!
now what to wear . . .

i'm entering another drag pageant!

yep, that's right!!! after taking last year off, i've decided that it's time to strap down my lace-front wig, throw on my fiercest costumes, and head back into the cut-throat world of drag pageants. this year i'm thinking about doing 2 . . .

i've also decided that it would be fun to document my pageant progress: from conception to creation to performance to crowning. make sure you keep coming back for more updates or never missed a rhinestoned step of my journey by following my blog and/ subscribing via email. this is going to be one crazy glittered ride!!

here are some pics from the first drag pageant i ever entered and the one (yes one, i was first runner-up) drag queen who beat me.

miss lifewalk 2010, brandi amara skyy, first runner-up

backstage painting my mug

my presentation gown made of pictures of those who have died/survived/working towards a cure for HIV/AIDS.

right before i went on stage.

my VERY unconventional gown. i wanted to do something different. the back of the ribbon was made out of tiny AIDS ribbons.

on stage for gown

talent!! i did a live version of lady gaga's paparazzi. the two dancers are my two best friends: jenna skyy and manny castro. you can kinda get the progression with these pics. i have a video, but need to figure out how to upload it :)

couldn't use fake blood so i had to create the illusion of it

crowing. i won: spirit of lifewalk, miss congeniality, overall talent winner (which i really wanted!!), and first runner-up.

2010 miss lifewalk

winner: anita nother

1st runner up: brandi amara skyy

2nd runner-up: bambi (can't remember her last name, but another faux queen as well)

Last Saturday's Drag Performance

yea! someone got a video of our drag show performance last weekend! our regular videographer had to cancel at the last minute, but at least you can see me faux queening in my costume creation.

our group is called SOMETHING FABULOUS!! we are made up of drag queens, faux queens, male drag performers, and other lgbt folks. cast: jenna skyy as Madonna, myself as m.i.a., asia o'hara as nicki minaj, michael hayes as LMFAO with the fro, josue as the other LMFAO, manny castro as my dance partner at the beginning, back-up dancers: jennifer owens, sassy o'hara, amy deaton, mike mogg.

we are an amazingly diverse family. hope you enjoy!!

drag-cap

whew! what an amazing, fun, intoxicating (tequila!),and very tiring weekend. the show, the costume, the performance was f l a w l e s s!! as promised here is a recap of the drag-(re)creation of m.i.a/madonna superbowl. enjoy!

i wanted to recreate the m.i.a headpiece with the feel of the black and gold costumes of the vogue dancers. so i made a make-shift fabric skirt, shoulder pads, and a face mask for the opening vogue dance number and then did a quick change into the m.i.a headdress and skirt.

for the shoulder pads i used fun foam for the base, hot glued my skirt fabric to cover, and hot glued a pair of $5 earrings and a $1.95 necklace.  

the face mask was something i decided to do last minute because i didn't want to do another head piece. this was my inspiration:

i used her mask for inspiration

i bought eight 99 cent mardi gras masks and hot glued them in a pattern that i liked. i added another string around the top part of the mask to keep it closer to my face.

cheap party city (yep, i'm a party city queen sometimes--ain't no shame in it) masks

here's the finished mask

immediately after the vogue dance break i rushed backstage to do a quick change. i took off the fabric skirt and the face mask and put on the skirt and the headdress.

the skirt was pieced together from fabric and trim bought at golden d'or (if you are ever in dallas this is a must-go-to for drag place!)

starting to come together

so i was originally going to use the headband (shown in pic) as the base of the headdress, but then i found this amazzzz-ing cesar-esque piece at a costume shop that i used instead. the fringe on the sides was made out of $1.50 earrings, the earrings that came with the necklaces i used for the shoulder pieced that i forged together, and $4.00 coin trim i bought at michaels. i bought a $7.00 necklace from a place called rainbow that served for the around-the-chin chain look.

i ended up ditching the headband, but kept all the other materials

here's the front of the finished headdress. i used one of the trim links from my skirt

side angle

ta-da!!   dragmation done! as a bonus, here are some behind the scene and onstage shots!

michael playing lmfao and me

mask, shoulder pads, and i used new and old necklaces to create the chain effect

during the show

the 3 queens: asia o'hara, jenna skyy, and me

project: m.i.a madonna superbowl drag

so this weekend i'm dragging m.i.a in madonna's superbowl performance and i'm going to make this head-wear:

however, in addition to m.i.a i have to make something that looks roman-esque/greek gods/goddess for the vogue opening (which i'm dancing in) and i still need to figure out my costume. So this morning minaj texts me (okay so it was really Asia O'hara, but she is nicki in the performance) and she has made this

which is MUCH bigger and more elaborate than i was thinking of doing...now i have to step up my game. i came to play. performance is saturday; today is thursday. i have a lot to do in the next 2 days. 

project  m.i.a. madonna superbowl drag in full gear. keep checking for updates on my progress! 

the faux queen anthology cfs

sooo...i've been working on various projects that relate to my life as a drag queen trapped in a woman's body and i'm uber-excited to announce the call for submissions for my latest project: the faux queen anthology! Since putting it out there in the internet universe i have gotten some great responses! i'm looking forward to connecting (and helping others connect) to all those obsessed with rhinestones!
Follow the rainbow linked road here for the full CFS: The Faux Queen Anthology CFS
To keep up with the project or to see what the hell i've been up to connect with me on facebook, twitter, and linkedin.
To follow the fabulous world of faux queens visit www.fauxqueens.com and/or our facebook page faux queens.