You will never hear these two OG Project Runway recappers complain about a design challenge on Drag Race. They remain one of the few recurring challenges where the queens are all put on their back foot, even the ones with great sewing skills. Sue us. We like to see our reality competitors struggle a little. Otherwise, what’s the point of a competition, areweright? Let’s get into this.
Everyone’s still in their feelings over the various snipping going on and we genuinely cannot tell if this is real drama (which tends to make most of the whiners look silly) or if everyone’s just playing up the conflicts for the camera. We got a fairly cute mini-challenge (sponsored by Away luggage) that let the queens be silly and stupid, which is never a bad thing:
Nina West won it, but we would have given this one to Shannel. We have to admit we rolled our eyes a little over Gottmik’s quickdrag, which involved what looked to our eyes like a Jean Paul Gaultier dress. As we’ve said before, there’s no crime in showing up in high-end labels. To our way of thinking, it’s fine if you want to use that stuff for the runway (especially since so many other queens have massive costume budgets as well), but the whole point of quick drag should be to get the queens down and dirty. Putting on high-end fashion for it feels like the wrong way to go. Granted, most mini-challenges don’t matter all that much, especially since she didn’t win this one.
The main challenge was cutely devised, giving each queen a chance to interpret one of Ru’s many songs through fashion design. We have to note that the quality of the textiles this time around was really high, which helped quite a few of the designs.
As the OG Drag Race recappers, we can’t help but have a soft spot for Shannel. Going by various wiki entries, she’s not even the oldest queen competing this season, but you can definitely sense that the competition is making her feel like she’s some out-of-touch performer past their prime. This was a lovely moment that paid off nearly 16 years of recapping and it’s genuinely heartbreaking to hear that she’s been beating herself up all this time because she thought she let Ru down. The thing too few Drag Race fans acknowledge about those early LOGO years is that those queens were freaking trailblazers. They deserve consideration and respect simply because they were put through the reality TV wringer by a production that didn’t know yet what they were doing and hadn’t yet become the global phenomenon it is today, which means most of them haven’t yielded the benefits that latter-season queens have. We suspect a lot of those early-season queens have been carrying around some shame and pain for the last decade and a half.
Category Is: Make Your Own Kind of Rusic! Which lewk is stuck in your head? #AllStars9 pic.twitter.com/DndxTat3s4
— RuPaul’s Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) June 28, 2024
These bitches turned it out at such a high level that it almost seems a little suspect. Since All-Stars is constructed to prevent any of the returning queens from being embarrassed or criticized, and since DIY drag challenges tend to reliably yield at least a couple of entertaining disasters, we’re left wondering why everyone looks so great. Just how many queens is Roxxxy helping in the Werk Room?
This was insane. We can note that there are parts of it that looked a little craftsy and a little roughly finished, but the design – and more importantly, the ambition behind it – was breathtaking. From a design perspective, we don’t think the star-shaped train worked all that well, but from a drag perspective, it was ingenious. We also have to step out on a limb here and note that we think Plastique may just be the most beautiful queen to ever appear on the show. It’s genuinely to her credit that she doesn’t just rely on her bone structure and beat skills.
If there had been an elimination, then we think Jorgeous might have wound up in the bottom this week. To be fair, the ensemble really worked and the way she used each textile was smart, but it was one of the least impressive. The styling did a lot to help it.
Gottmik’s design was incredibly ambitious, but the final result didn’t quite deliver the high impact that all of that effort begs for. It’s gorgeous, and the technique is impressive, but at the end of the day, it’s just a cute little cocktail dress. We’re sorry to say that Shannel would have also wound up in a hypothetical bottom two. Doing Christmas-themed drag opens up a lot of possibilities, but she stuck with a fairly basic campy cocktail dress with a lot of foofaraw hot-glued onto it. It was cute, but not challenge-winning.
We’ll be honest: we think this was overpraised. It was well-executed, but as a design, it was neither original nor impressive when put up against some of the other entries. We also think the proportions weren’t helping her. She doesn’t have a shape that can work a bolero and chaps at the same time. We also think a much less ladylike wig was called for her. Go big with that hair when you put your chaps on, girl. Having said that, it was cute and campy and we like the way she used the bandanna.
Y’know, we’re gonna say something here that might sound crazy, but hear us out. Vanjie should consider a career as a stylist. As a design, this is just okay, but as a look, it’s honestly one of the best on the runway. It’s cute, stylish, flatters her tremendously, and it’s extremely well styled. So many times, she’ll walk out on that runway looking less like a drag queen and more like a pop star. Get yourself some clients, girl. You clearly know how to put a look together.
Nina got robbed this time around. This was a genuinely impressive design and execution and the results made her look more glam than she ever has. To reverse our Roxxxy critique, this was a design that called for a sexy vamp wig, not a campy Hairspray wig.
Angeria should’ve stuck with her original plan to make a gown, Mama Ru’s suggestion for a jumpsuit be damned. She spiraled a little bit, partially because she was helping Shannel, but she pulled something together that mostly worked. We don’t love that drape under the bust and we think the wig is the wrong one for the look. It feels like she picked it because the outfit wasn’t enough on its own. Lots of wig critiques this week!
Personally, we would have wanted to see Plastique and Nina up there, but we probably wouldn’t have gotten nearly as good a face-off. Roxxxy is old school and she knows how to interpret a song. This one wasn’t about humping the floor or doing dips. It’s a song purely about attitude and Roxxxy delivered on that front perfectly.
We hesitate to criticize the one aspect of the season that actually feels competitive and has some stakes attached to it, but the Ruby Snippers have become tired. They’re just being passed back and forth by the same handful of queens, each of whom gets offended when someone turns around and does it to her. To be fair, they’re still better than those dumbass chocolate bars.
Legendary Children: The First Decade of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life, a New York Times “New and Notable” pick, praised by The Washington Post “because the world needs authenticity in its stories,” and chosen as one of the Best Books of The Year by NPR is on sale wherever fine books are sold! It’s also available in Italian and Spanish language editions, darlings! Because we’re fabulous on an INTERNATIONAL level.
[Photo Credit: Paramount Plus via Tom and Lorenzo, World of Wonder Productions, Inc./Paramount+]
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