All Dolled Up: Miss Fame
YOU PROBABLY KNOW MISS FAME as a competitor from the current season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Fame exited the competition in 7th place after unsuccessfully creating an ugly dress. Out Front recently talked with her about her life after Drag Race as well as her evolving music career.
Chris Arneson | Photos: Crystal Allen
When was the last time you were in Denver?
I actually filmed Rubber Doll in Denver. I was really impressed. Colorado is stunning. Flying in, it’s so beautiful and spacious, and growing up on the farm and in nature, I really appreciate big open spaces (and I don’t mean that with any pun attached).
Why did you decide to film Rubber Doll in Denver?
Actually, I was looking at other videos from artists I respect, and I noticed the same company, Geek Mythology — they’re the company that works with Adore and Alaska — I loved the production quality of their work. I contacted them, we started conceptualizing the idea, and they loved it. I wanted the video to look like an editorial if you screenshotted it. They were awesome. You always want to work with people who bring out your vision.
How did you develop Rubber Doll?
I work with a lot of clientele as a makeup artist, so I have clients who are models, TV personalities, celebrities, and drag queens. I was requested to do a drag transformation on a client, but I kept thinking: “This relationship is a bit different. There’s a different energy to the person.” When I discovered the cross-dressing community and these men that have normal lives, I began realizing this is like Superman and Clark Kent. They have their daily lives, and then they have this superhero that resides within, and that’s where we get to live the fantasy. I relate to that as a drag queen, but it was a bit different. The allure of these men toward Miss Fame, I was almost like this unattainable superhero that they were drawn and maybe attracted to, so I started writing down my experiences. I started going to fetish events and a really learning about the fetish community, and I thought this would be a great editorial to shoot.
Tell me about your upcoming album.
The beauty of the album is I was able to [use] my journal entries, which I’ve been writing for the past ten years. I worked with the production company who worked with Adore and Sharon Needles on their albums, so they really knew how to make music that people who love Drag Race will enjoy. We approached the album differently. I didn’t want you to hear my album song for song and think, “That’s a drag queen album.” Just hear it as music you really enjoy, and not have it covered in glitter and wigs. For me, I wanted to make it about stories, up-tempo tracks, some glamour, but really focused on my artistry and my way with words.
Has a music career been something you planned on, or did you just fall into it?
I was not originally planning on doing that direction, but when it was presented to me, I had a big contemplation. At first I thought, ‘I don’t know if this is the brand of Miss Fame. Is this something I could be attaching to my evolution?’ And I realized: if I don’t try this, I’m going to regret it. Once I participated in it, putting in my words, heart, and soul, and living through it, I felt so much more alive.
Is there anyone you model yourself after artistically?
My inspirations were drawn from the supermodels of the nineties. I was obsessed with Linda Evangelista. I just couldn’t get enough of the presence and iconicism she carried as a supermodel. You could run one of her photographs in Vogue and it would still be legitimate. I looked at the visual artistry of the supermodel and I embodied that as Fame.
I also looked at the golden age of Hollywood when there was a standard of beauty that is not necessarily executed today. I wanted to recreate that style of beauty that almost seemed unattainable.
I’m in a lot of pain when I do drag, but I think it’s worth it because the end result is images and experiences that are so profoundly beautiful. I take it seriously. If you can’t tell, I’m obsessed with drag. Every waking breath and moment is a thought on what I can do to better it, to make it more interesting, to give my fans a bit more because they give me so much. I want to make them happy.
This season on Drag Race, what was your favorite look?
I had a few. Leather and lace was one standout. I thought it was a different take on what I do. I don’t usually wear long wavy hair; I usually do a very classic look. I thought that was a very powerful, sexy, modern look.
I actually loved my ugly dress. Even though it was so ugly for me, I thought it was a take on fashion. It was almost like ugly-beautiful, like a Vivienne Westwood fantasy. The story on that dress is it was from the Met Opera. It was the Wicked Stepsister’s dress from the costume department. I knew it was from an ugly character. When I get a challenge, my challenge is how I wrap my mind around it. I know that this has history. But it didn’t translate, and obviously I didn’t stay past that episode, but I still really appreciated the entirety of that look. Unfortunately they said I can’t do ugly, but hopefully it pans out for me to have amazing modeling opportunities.
What was the most important thing you discovered about yourself on Drag Race?
My perseverance. I’ve learned, living in New York, you’re going to get rejected hundreds of times. Basically, your life is always going to be on blast. They’re going to tell you what you don’t do. So when I hit that wall repeatedly with modeling as a boy, I worked it into Miss Fame. She was able to book bigger jobs and more beautiful opportunities because I wasn’t willing to say, “You told me no, I’m going to have to quit my dream.” Just because your storyline ends on reality TV doesn’t mean your storyline ends as an artist.
You’ve been doing tutorials on YouTube since before Drag Race, right?
I just started because the fans were asking. I always loved watching YouTube tutorials and watching other artists create looks, so I did the first one, which was really well-received, and I created a few additional. I would do those all the time, it’s just with timing lately — it’s been a little harder to do all of it. I wish I had eight arms and legs. I wish I was Ganesh.
Now that Drag Race is over, what’s next for your career?
I’m going to be evolving and pushing myself with this album, and artistically. I have amazing dancers that I get to work with. I’m looking forward to doing more music videos. People like to watch my YouTube channel, so I feel giving it my music with beautifully executed visuals — that’s my most passionate part. So you get to discover more about me as an artist and what I do as a queen. We don’t have restrictions. People say, “This is what drag is,” but we set trends. People are following our vision of what is trending based off the queens from the show because we are showing the future of drag. My focus is to show this is the evolution of what drag is, from my perspective.
Are you planning to stop by Denver in the future?
I am! I’m actually going to be filming my next music video in Denver. I can’t give a specific date, but it’s coming up. I’m utilizing the landscape because I thought it was such a beautiful environment. Ideally, I’m going to make content you have never seen a queen do before.
What's Your Reaction?
