RuPaul’s Drag Race: “Heavens to Betsey!”

CLÁUDIO ALVES: Another week, another stellar episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17. I’m really enjoying the show this year, even though I probably preferred the overall cast performance of seasons 15 and 16. Not sure if it’s a triumph of production or editing or the queens, mediocre though some of their work may be at times. It helps that they have great chemistry and a tendency for mess that’s more akin to the series’ origins than its later years. That said, “Heavens to Betsey!” featured a high level of craft from our contenders, with only two queens flopping. Moreover, the challenge was a delight, made even better by this week’s extra special guest judge, fashion designer Betsey Johnson. She was sweet and inspiring, she got emotional and did the splits as she always does. What’s not to love?

NICK TAYLOR: The sheer quality of the guest judges has been lovely this season. It’s not an essential component, but you can feel the lack of it when it’s missing...

Click to read more ...

Drag Race RuCap: “Let’s Get Sea Sickening Ball”

This week, the role of Dakota Schiffer will be played by Hunter Schafer.

NICK TAYLOR: We’ve arrived at one of Drag Race’s mainstay challenges: The Ball. Do you think production expected there to be fewer girls by the time we reached this episode? Arrietty’s certainly lucky to be here, after being saved from going home by the second lever of the Badonkadunk Tank, but I think the show (and the audience) are even luckier for her to be here and give us such a complete package. Other queens delivered on drama and entertainment, and the judge’s panel delivered some of their most astute critiques of the season, even if I wasn’t expecting them to pick the tops and bottoms they did. But as a culmination of a six-episode arc for one queen, and the first challenge without a safety net, it’s a damn good episode of television. Were you as taken with this as I was?

CLÁUDIO ALVES: I loved this episode, from challenge performances to werk room drama, from guest judges to mini-challenge tomfoolery. Mama Ru is coming off that Emmy loss full of piss and vinegar, ready to prove Drag Race naysayers wrong. I know we’ve been saying this a lot, but season 17 feels like the old days of the show returned, with all the marvelous messiness that entails…

Click to read more ...

Drag Race RuCap: "Monopulence!"

by Cláudio Alves

Monopoly sure looks different since last I played it.

If you only come to these RuCaps in search of Nick Taylor's dazzling wit, I'm sad to report that, this week, you'll have to settle for little old me. Our beloved co-Rucapper was busy with a trip to New York, so, like Elphaba, I'm flying solo. But only for this design challenge episode, where drag queens celebrated the most friendship-breaking tabletop game ever, giving us a flavor of Logo-style messiness. For a while, it felt like we were back in those early Drag Race seasons, when the claws came out and nobody left an episode unscathed. So, settle in for drama and some dubious fashions, as we dive headfirst into "Monopulence!"…

Click to read more ...

Nicole Kidman Tribute: Chanel N°5: The Film (2004)

by Cláudio Alves

If someone asked me to come up with the definitive image of Nicole Kidman, I'm not sure I'd gravitate toward her work in movies or TV, nor even her red-carpet appearances. Instead, my mind would instinctually drift to that shot of industrial-grade glamour that once played at every primetime ad break. It's a Moulin Rouge! reunion and, in its way, a miniature remake with a contemporary twist. It's fashion distilled into a dream, a bespoke Lagerfeld-designed wardrobe, and a fragrance we can only imagine through the screen. It's Old Hollywood resurrected for 180 seconds of hyper-artifice and soft-focus glow, so beautiful it makes your heartache. It's Chanel N°5: The Film, of course…

Click to read more ...

The MET Gala meets the Movies

by Cláudio Alves

MIDSOMMAR (2018) Ari AsterThis Spring, the Costume Institute at the MET is putting on an exhibition titled "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion." It's all about garments that, through the passage of time, have degraded or become too fragile to wear and exhibit by traditional means. They are slumbering, but through technological wizardry and museum magic, one hopes to breathe new life into them. From pepper ghosts to glass coffins, replicas, and immersive soundscapes, the MET will deliver visions of the fashioned ephemeral cataloged through an appeal to nature. The exhibit has three elemental parts– earth, air, and water –underlining the connective tissue between the pieces and the natural world, where decay is an essential part of existence. In some ways, it's a look at notions of impermanence through fashion.

Fittingly, this year's MET Gala has a dress code defined as "The Garden of Time," a novel by J.G. Ballard that considers similar themes. However, because stylists and celebrities are literal to a fault, this has resulted in florals and flowers as far as the eye can see – the red carpet turned into a Midsommar cosplay convention. If you're dissatisfied with the offer, why not scratch that sartorial itch through cinema? Here are some possibilities…

Click to read more ...