Hello darlings! Emma here, back with another magical entry in my Pink Tutu Travels blog! Itās your girl, Emma, your Derbyshire diva extraordinaire, bringing you another month's worth of time-travelling adventures in my magical, twirling pink tutu. I just canāt resist another blast to the past - I do love a good dose of historical drag fashion! Today weāre time-hopping to May 2011, my lovelies, so strap yourselves in and prepare to be dazzled! This is post number 1097, by the way, on the www.pink-tutu.com site ā get yourself there to read all the juicy updates, but donāt forget to come back here for the glamorous details of this monthās jaunt!
Now, you may think, May 2011? Thatās hardly ancient history! Well, darlings, don't be so hasty. This is the golden age of dragstalgia, my dears! In this post, Iām sharing the delights of the year in which drag queens made history, and not just on the internet. The whole world was watching. And, oh darling, I can't believe I forgot to mention: youāll love my fashion choices. Imagine Flapper chic meets Ballerina glam, and thatās my look today, hun! Think feathers, sequins and pink!
The most incredible thing? May 2011 marks a watershed moment in drag, a year where drag wasn't just the theatre - it had stepped off the stage and into the heart of culture itself! Can you believe it? Suddenly, the entire planet wanted to know, who are these fierce, fantastic performers, and where are they coming from?! In 2011, everyone wanted to be a Drag Queen. It was pure dragspiration, darlings!
From Stage to Mainstream: A Drag Queen Revolution!
So what happened, you ask? This, my dears, was the year Drag became mainstreamed! Well, maybe not fully mainstreamed...but I have a hunch this era marks the point where drag took off like a rocket, darling, fuelled by sequins, sass and, dare I say itā¦ fabulous pink tutus! We are so far beyond those old, black and white, smokey smokey, smokey, smokey "drag bars," darling! Letās leave that for the theatre museums! Drag became truly exciting, daring, theatrical and oh so very modern! I have a feeling 2011 might be the start of the world of "pop drag."
The whole drag scene was buzzing this year! RuPaul's Drag Race, which by 2011 was already well-loved, took things up another level this year. Not only was season three about to kick off - weāre talking Manila Luzon! Raja! Alexis Mateo! - but it was being shown globally! Suddenly, we're on our way to worldwide drag fandom! Weāre not just performing in small clubs anymore; weāre stars of a television phenomenon! Don't get me wrong, it's about more than TV. A real culture was happening - we were sharing it across the internet, we had the stage, the bars, and a brand new generation of fierce queen who were ready to do anything to get in on the drag action!
And just in case anyone thought the only kind of drag queen was a theatrical queen, there was Miss Fame doing his own, totally fabulous fashion take on drag! He really took off in 2011. And letās not forget Alaska Thunderfuck. In May 2011, Alaska's video Your Makeup Is Terrible was about to get released on YouTube. The rest is history! It had a bit of a drag culture commentary, you could say! She really nailed the pop culture zeitgeist of the moment, darling. Just as the real world had started getting into drag, Alaska and her crew were pulling no punches when it came to commenting on all things āDrag Race,ā giving it back to the world of mainstream fashion and culture.
We were definitely having a ādrag renaissance," darlings, if ever there was one. There was so much drag to see on this year. I just loved the look, the vibe and the amazing, edgy and artistic performance style ā it was as much about the fabulous visual as it was the sheer skill of the performers!
Drag is Art
To get you in the mood, I decided to pay a visit to a real live Drag Ball in May 2011! Of course, I always pack my pink tutu wherever I travel. You can imagine how it looked in that club, darling! Just the thought brings tears to my eyes! I was swishing and twirling in a rainbow of glittery pinkness amidst a truly electrifying crowd, darling. Let me tell you, if ever a ball was meant to be recorded for history, it was this one. The place was buzzing with that feeling of excitement and sheer joy of creativity. The crowd had never been so passionate! It was a dragball like Iād never seen, a melting pot of performers. There were theatrical queens with feather boas, some gorgeous makeup-glam Queens who were, letās face it, just so glamorous. You couldn't keep your eyes off them - thatās for sure!
And then there was camp, darlings, plenty of camp - the type that brings your childhood nightmares and fantasies together in one wonderful ball of, dare I say, performance art! They were just showing off in the best way, darlings! In a good way, mind you! Youād be laughing till your stomach ached. That's the wonderful thing about camp. It takes itself so seriouslyā¦ but not! Oh, and the ballroom fashion was out of this world. I even saw a couple of pink tutu-wearing girls on the dance floor - no surprise! But even more impressive was that these girls could really dance, and weren't afraid to strut their stuff!
London in Bloom: Drag on the Stage
You'd think that would have been the high point of my time travels, wouldnāt you? Well, dear reader, this trip had only just begun. I decided to jet off to the one city where drag has always been king, darlings - London, no less. The one city where drag has always been top of the bill - the legendary capital of creativity, that is. As luck would have it, I arrived just as the āBoom! Club* was getting ready to host an iconic drag spectacular, darling - Itās ShowTime was one of the first all-drag nightclubs in the UK! It became one of the very first venues that took drag and pushed it out of the "traditional" night clubs. They had some of the biggest names from RuPaulās Drag Race taking the stage that year. Itās no coincidence that so much drag creativity has emerged out of the UK - this club was so special. We were just bursting with new ideas - we'd had Pantomime to inspire us - and there were the legendary drag kings! Drag is so deeply entwined with London history - it was the place where drag was able to embrace everything, from camp to cutting-edge fashion, the outrageous and the daring! What a year this was - we saw The Hole come to town, it really blew the roof off everything - this was pure performance art. Drag at its best, daring and challenging our senses!
But oh! I forgot! My favorite thing in all the world! In the 2011 of London, they had a Drag and Burlesque night at a special theater. Letās just say that pink tutu wasn't even remotely a big enough outfit for that. Think show-stopping sequins, feathers, rhinestones, a dash of velvet and dare I say a very short dress that really didn't need a skirt, * darling, in a performance style that, as I said, embraced all aspects of *drag history, from the glitzy, glamour of the roaring 20s to all things daring, sexy and even a bit **naughty. There were queens doing clown drag, even, as well as fabulous glamorous Queens. It was a whole show where they didnāt take themselves too seriously, but had so much artistic integrity at the same time, It's hard to say what was better! Iām a hopeless theatre lover!
Fashion From Past to Present
It wasn't all about performing, my loves. You wouldn't catch me going to another drag time-traveling jaunt without exploring the fashion scene. 2011 was the Year of the Fabulous Drag Queen's Closet , as far as Iām concerned! I decided to take a look at some vintage dress shops in Soho, darling. Just walking through these old shops with all these treasures - it was all such vintage glamour - some 1950s drag, even. I loved finding those ballroom-style* vintage dresses, the perfect inspiration for the pink tutu's modern-day wardrobe, I went a bit bonkers, as usual! The styles they were creating now were really just taking off from the past - the perfect look, darling, if ever there was one. The shops were so excited about the whole "drag explosion."
I had such a great time that, before heading back, I decided to stop off in one of the shops and buy a new drag wig, just because! It was the perfect little memento to remember such a fabulous trip!
You'll never guess what I did to commemorate this amazing trip, darlings. That's right - I picked up a lovely box of pink tutu fabric, for a very special, tutu-tastic dress to bring this year to a close - let's just say the internet was the least of my worries!
Looking Forward
So that's my drag journey for this month - what will my pink tutu do next month? What more drag adventures await, darlings? Will there be another dazzling pink tutu look coming our way? Will I finally discover what the world is like when the magical time-traveling pink tutu canāt take me to a more glamorous destination! Letās just say there are loads more secrets coming to this Pink Tutu Travels Blog and some super special guests from my time travel journeys are about to start sharing some truly personal stories! I don't think they know just how many pink tutus we can convince them to wear!
For now, I hope youāve enjoyed this blog, darlings. Do drop by www.pink-tutu.com to read the blog, share the fabulous news, and tell all your drag-obsessed friends about whatās going on. This isnāt the end! Weāve still got more fabulous moments from 2011 to uncover, darlings! Oh - and did I mention pink tutus?
Until next time, stay fabulous!
Your very own, Emma.
