A Dragged Out Halloween

2020 has been a difficult year for queer artists and the drag community on the worldwide stage.

Physical shows had been cancelled worldwide and we all became bedroom queens —a queen who only creates drag in a private space, opposed to creating and sharing in live public forums. In response to this, drag queens and kings started to create online shows which swiftly became the new norm for our community with shows being streamed all over the internet and prominently on Facebook, Youtube and Twitch. Even now in October, many, many months since lockdown began, there are still online shows going on worldwide even if live performances are allowed in your local area. It truly does seem that digital drag is here to stay, at least for the meanwhile, and is the only way that I am personally able to perform due to lockdown restrictions on live performances in Scotland.

For some performers, these digital drag shows meant learning new technical skills from photography & filming, lighting and editing all from the comfort of our own homes whilst others have worked with the tools that they have. Some of the larger, well-known performers have been able to collaborate with designers and editors to further create their vision.

Personally, I've been able to learn how to use a whole range of editing software including Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects to showcase brand new performances in ways I wouldn't be able to do on the live stage! It has even breathed new life into performances I am used to doing live on stage and I created my YouTube channel to document these outside of my Instagram (and to hopefully expand my audience).

Whilst I was younger I rarely participated in Halloween, however as a drag queen I have been able to make up for this. This Halloween, I had planned out a whole host of content to share with my followers from typical Halloween characters such as Frankenstein's Monster, to something more unique including a Bloody Mary look and a Flayed 80s Drag Queen.

My particular favourite look that I had planned earlier in lockdown was the Red Devil. To create this look I had to dust off my old sewing machine, I graduated from University with a BA(Hons) in Fashion and is about time I created bespoke looks for my drag persona; I pieced together the red PVC harness top. I have been styling wigs since starting drag back in January 2019, however this particular wig was probably my most ambitious creating gravity defying Victory Rolls and finished off with hand-crafted devil horns put together with old cereal boxes and a trusty glue gun.

I've seen many of my peers try to pick up new skills (most particularly in sewing), so as of 2 months ago I started to expand the content on my YouTube channel to include videos and tutorials on how I create my looks focusing on makeup and fashion design/construction. I take so much pride in the looks that I create so I'm thrilled to share the process of these with others. When I started to come up on the local drag scene, I never had a drag family to show me how to start creating my drag persona, so I'm beyond happy to share my process with any new and upcoming performers and even my current fellow peers in the drag community.

Although 2020 has been difficult for the drag community and artists worldwide, it is so important not to give up in times of strife. Drag is inherintly political and Pride was a protest. You don't need all these tools to create drag; if you want to share your drag online you don't need the fanciest camera or editing software and I look forward to seeing what we all create with what is left in 2020.