“Now we have tutorials on YouTube, but back in prehistoric times we learned from watching others and practicing,” Sherry says. But before beauty fans had digital how-tos at their fingertips, queens had to learn from each other in the back rooms of bars before they hit the stage. With today’s access to YouTube and social media, you’ll have a hard time finding someone who hasn’t looked up a beauty tutorial to figure out how to apply makeup. ![]() ![]() “Not that it was the first time we saw bright vibrant colors in makeup (YSL of the 70’s!), but now you frequently see bright colors purples and oranges and pinks - I love it!” “I think as drag became more mainstream people started to really embrace color,” drag veteran Sherry Vine says. Today, we’re lucky to find what is essentially drag makeup in drugstore aisles. Many queens originally had to resort to using stage makeup in order to get the bright, vibrant shades they needed to help them transform into their drag personas. RuPaul put it best when he said “I don’t dress like a woman I dress like a drag queen!”Īfter over ten years on the air, RuPaul’s Drag Race has introduced an entire generation to not only drag, but the infinite possibilities of makeup. Even on the vaudeville stages, men performed as women frequently.ĭrag is often thought of simply as men dressing up as women, but drag has evolved past the idea of female impersonation into larger-than-life characters that transcend and defy gender, age, and sometimes gravity. In Shakespearian times, women were not allowed on stage, so men were forced to wear women’s clothing and play their roles. It’s easy to feel like drag was birthed with the premiere season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, but gender impersonation has been present in almost every part of recorded human history, including ancient Egypt, China, and Greece. There is no better place to see drag’s indelible mark on culture than the aisles of your favorite beauty retailer. While there is no one way for someone to be a drag performer, the art of drag is inseparable from makeup. Where only a few years ago, you’d only be able to see queens in gay bars, they’re now all but unavoidable in mainstream media, and probably in the city you live in as well. Thanks to RuPaul and his Emmy award-winning series RuPaul’s Drag Race, drag queens are now more popular, visible, and marketable than ever. Taken aback by Fame's beauty, I had Kurtis transform for (see below!) and spill some of his go-to beauty secrets in the process.Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage… Drag, which has completely taken over the world as we know it. If you've seen Miss Fame, you know that Kurtis really knows his stuff when it comes to applying a full face of makeup. ![]() Inspired by his aunts' beauty - and fueled by his natural talent for drawing - Kurtis enrolled in beauty school after high school, which eventually led to him becoming a hairstylist, makeup artist, model (signed to IMG Paris), spokesmodel for L'Oréal Paris, and world-renowned drag queen whose stage name is Miss Fame. "They all had bushy, Brook e Shields brows, shimmer shadow from their lashes up, and hair-sprayed '80s bangs, and I loved admiring them - they didn’t even know how pretty they were because we were so confined to our farm and our small town." "We only had one stoplight, and Vanna White - a gorgeous woman, flipping letters - was the only beauty reference I had, aside from my four aunts," he explained. If you missed that season, allow me to give you the rundown: 32-year-old Kurtis is a down-to-earth, put-together guy, who grew up on a farm in a small town called Templeton, California, where he tended to cows and chickens (his favorite animal, BTW). ![]() If you're obsessed with Ru Paul's Drag Race, chances are you recognize Kurtis Dam-Mikkelsen aka Miss Fame from season seven.
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