Drag has been influencing pop culture and society at large for decades—and while queens remain unfairly under attack in our country and beyond, the art form has never been more powerful than it is at this moment. It seems like hardly a week goes by without an iteration of Drag Race airing somewhere in the world, while queens can often be seen attending fashion events, popping up onstage at concerts, gracing the cover of magazines, and generally receiving the recognition they deserve. But while queens are often the face of the movement (the cheerleaders of Pride, as they are sometimes called), there are so many others working behind the scenes within the drag ecosystem. Take the designers behind some of drag’s best looks: they show during fashion week and dress celebrities of all kinds, but when linked with a queen, they can really let their imagination run wild. Below, we’re highlighting the best in the game—from some Emmy-winning names you’ve likely heard before to an underground artist you need to familiarize yourself with soon.
Zaldy
Zaldy first met RuPaul in the ’80s, when he and his then-boyfriend, makeup artist Matthew Anderson, were traveling around the world throwing parties with Susanne Bartsch. He’d interacted with the drag queen on occasion (once to call her out for wearing the same look two nights in a row), but in Japan, RuPaul approached Zaldy and Anderson with quite the offer—help with her new album, Supermodel of the World. “We were so focused on ourselves that taking ourselves out of it and being behind the scenes was something we had to consider,” he tells W over the phone. “But we loved Ru so much, we of course said yes.”
Thirty years later, Ru and Zaldy are still working together. The designer creates every single look RuPaul wears on the main stage of RuPaul’s Drag Race and all of its various iterations. He has designed every dress one can imagine for RuPaul, from a slinky gold body-hugging number to the sparkly,…
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