Disclaimer: This post is not the place to discuss the moral, political or romantic implications of the LGBT/drag community. Disagreement is absolutely welcome, otherwise the discussion would be preeeetty boring! But let’s please ensure a productive conversation by limiting commentary to the visual portrayal of femininity.

As I’m trying to piece my style statement together, I’m finding that my best influences are, for the most part, no longer the active forces in femininity and fashion that they used to be, even though their impact is preserved... Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Jayne Mansfield, Debbie Harry. Every time I see a discussion crop up here to discuss style icons, especially present day icons, I get super excited at the prospect of new women to pull inspiration from. But I can summarize those discussions. “Yay modest Blair, Boo slutty Serena, Audrey Hepburn, Kim Kardashian, Melania Trump, Kate Middleton, the end.” I find these options limiting, probably primarily because they don’t quite fit my own fashion aspirations. So I obviously cast about for my own present day influences and I come up with a short, sad list of women… which is ridiculous because of the number of people out there who consider themselves fashionable, and the range of style options that exist. I just don’t think there are that many women today who have a cohesive, intentional sense of style. The concepts/themes/beliefs influencing their styles, the way they execute those styles, the pieces and colors and styles and fits and brands, the consistency in anything from color palette to influence to silhouette, all leave so much to be desired in my opinion. Fashion seems disjointed and disparate, the intent of each ensemble geared wholly to that moment and that moment only rather than a meaningful or memorable narrative. When it comes to piecing together my personal style, coming up with my own brand, so to speak, I find it far more useful looking to drag queens as style icons because they have a super legible style that can guide me through the steps of wardrobe planning. I’m not gonna wear a fetish harness made of IKEA bags but I see how Willam uses his three words (comedy, luxury, whoreiness) to execute his own brand, and I love so many elements of it for myself. I think that many drag queens are better at portraying visual femininity than most women are.

Now obviously, these are men in wigs. I’m not trying to look like a man in a wig, but I think it’s interesting that in all my efforts over the last year or so to present myself more femininely, I have felt most myself, most femme, when I am cosplaying a man in a wig. WHY? I think it’s because drag queens take their influences, their world views, the idealized vision they want to bring into the world and filter that down into a style of silhouettes fabrics colors textures and accessories, they fit it to performances and content, and they harmonize it with their own strengths and weaknesses as real human beings. In their bold effort to make a statement, their fashion actually makes a statement. They don’t merely dress for a vibe, an invite to the Met Gala, or a situation… they take their “style” and find pieces that fit both that style as well as the situation. Here is a list of the drag queens who I think portray an excellent visual of femininity and their own stylistic brand the best:

• Farrah Moan, “Farrah because Farrah Fawcett and Moan because I’m a whore!” I love her name because I like reproductive sciences, but I digress. Her brand is sparkling doe eyed hyper-femininity and I adore it.

• Shea Coulee, whose brand is black excellence

• Trixie Mattel, life sized barbie

• Katya Zamolodchikova, Russian transvestite hooker

• Willam Belli, comedy whore luxury

• Sharon Needles, horror and glamor... NSFW image of Freddy Krueger cosplay

• Bianca del Rio, shady middle aged shrew

• Violet Chachki, high fashion

• Miss Fame, exquisite beauty & glamor

I think these drag queens employ all the things we talk about in wardrobe planning as well as beauty, fashion, and fitness in general when they get into drag. While I don’t have an interest in emulating the style of all of these queens by any stretch of the imagination, they are an excellent study in filtering a stylistic goal into fabulous and near perfect execution. I think a woman is hard pressed to be iconic without a consistently executed concept, because without a consistently executed concept she has no brand. I can name precious few women who have an iconic recognizable personal brand and I think it’s for all the reasons we discuss here (a mind for fashion makes it tough to take a woman seriously, for example.) I also think drag queens GO for their style and boldly execute a comprehensive look because they aren’t timid about things and don’t do things in half measures. I think that the average drag queen, and certainly one offered such a platform as RuPaul’s Drag Race (reality tv show where RuPaul and guest judge’s challenge the cast of drag queens to battle it out for the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar… America’s Next Top Model, but the drag version) will 10/10 beat certainly the average woman, if not most women, at portraying femininity. They have a better command of styling/beauty techniques, they have a better eye for detail, they are more critical of how their bodies look and adapt accordingly, and overall just have far better craft when it comes to visual feminine arts. They don’t shy away from the effort it takes to do a full face of makeup, style a wig, cinch a waist and strut in 6 inch stilettos. The intent with which they do drag, whether it’s because “gender is a construct to tear apart” or they just like glitter, there is such a drastic advantage in mindfulness that makes their final product far more compelling from a style/fashion perspective. What are your thoughts? What does this mean for women? How can we use drag queens’ examples to hone our own feminine brands?