I thank my husband for that so much, because he was working a full-time job as a sales associate, during lockdown, then coming home, and at the sewing machine, and not sleeping until, let’s say, midnight or 1 o’clock in the morning, just to get me ready for Drag Race. You had some truly phenomenal looks, which is even more impressive when you take into account all those extra challenges you faced. And I think you can just see the growth from episode to episode to episode, until now, where I’m looking beat as hell! I take the judges' critiques on board, and I ensure that I can instil it in the next week that I come on the stage, and I present. AliExpress was my good sis, when they weren't charging us extra for delivery fees because of Brexit. So I had to work with what I had to work with. There’s only so much you can do during lockdown when there’s no fabric shops that are open.
So I did most of the nails and the jewellery myself, and my husband did most of the costumes.
I didn’t have the connections most of the girls had with designers and nail techs and the jewellery people. That was a bit of a struggle, getting ready for it, because all the shops were closed. Wake me up."Ī post shared by VANITY MILAN filmed it during the pandemic, in lockdown. So actually being on the show was very like: "Oh, shit. You have to understand that RuPaul’s Drag Race is something that I’ve been watching for a very long time. I think it was because I was still trapped and hiding and shying away from what I can bring to the table, because it’s a new situation for me. There’s some things that could have been pushed further. There’s some looks that could have been elevated. How do you feel about the judges’ critiques of you in general this season? Do you think they were fair? What did you learn from them? I think I said to Krystal backstage, "Just give them hell" – before we came on. I mean, she was born to be a drag queen, so the outcome was definitely like… I knew it was coming. "I wanted to be that person who can be their authentic self, and not have to play up to the cameras"Īnd I think that Krystal turned out a really great lip-sync – that box-split was amazing. I didn’t have any Black British person that I could actually look up to. When I did the audition – I think this is what I said in my audition tape – I want to be the inspiration for the kids out there. And now you're that role model for young kids watching who can identify with that struggle. In last night's episode, you opened up about the ways people have treated you differently because you didn't conform to a traditional kind of masculinity growing up. And I think the lyrics speak really highly of that as well. I just wanted to let a lot of kids know, who don't feel comfortable, who don't feel that there’s someone there for them, that I’m that person for them. The person who you are inside shines through more than the colour of your skin. Don’t let your skin define who you are inside, because, again, it’s just a colour. I think it was just an empowering moment for POC people. Don’t let anyone determine how you should live your life, the way that you should live your life, who you love… Do it the way that you want to do it. What I mean by "live your life and do it right" is do it right in your own way. I’m letting the kids know that I went through something, and that you don’t have to hide anything. "Don’t shy or hide away from nothing" was basically just me coming out of my shell.