This year’s Met Gala marks the first ever attendance of Drag queens to the event, drawing in the likes of Violet Chachki and Aquaria Gala left an ever so powerful statement on the American pink carpet last night.
Winners of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Violet and Aquaria served their looks exactly how they do best: with plenty of fashion fabulousness. Chachki’s Moschino dress owned a train that looked like a long back glove while Aquaria stormed an ever so textural gown signed by Maison Margiela. Chachki and Aquaria are no surely no strangers to fashion: they’ve worked as models, attended a myriad of Fashion Weeks, and served looks on red carpets since their trend realms began. But it was also great to see their important work as performers recognised: Aquaria took to the stage at the iconic Stonewall Inn for a pre-Met party the night before, fifty years since the rebellion that changed the progression of the LGBTQ+ movement. For her performance, Aquaria wore a red bodysuit bedazzled in sequins, topped with a blazer covered in flowers.
Drag, however, had a much greater attendance than just Aquaria and Violet at the Gala, and rightly so: though both queens are spectacular, talented performers, it wouldn’t have been a fair move to represent drag only via slim crowds. Present at the Gala was also the legend Big Freedia, drag superstar RuPaul, and the black cast members of FX’s Pose. As Lena Waithe pointed out via the back of her jacket: “Black Drag Queens Invented Camp.”
One couldn’t expect a weary show without the presence of the queen herself, Lady Gaga: the rules of last night’s Met Gala dictated that more is more, and Lady Gaga brought us the most. Literally. The ability to pull off such micro-performance, given the volume and complexity of the attire, was utterly mind-blowing to say the least.
For over 10 minutes, she subverted the red carpet into her own stage, completed with five dancers, a make-up artist and a personal photographer. She pouted as her dancers wafted her train for paparazzi, posed with oversized props to match her outfit changes. Everyone present was thrilled, including Anna Wintour. People are now calling for the Met Gala to be renamed the “Met Gaga”. Sounds fair enough to us.
