Aquaria’s herstory: “Making something out of little or even nothing is still important in drag.”
She’s the youngest winner (so far) on RuPaul’s Drag Race, one of the first two drag queens to walk the Met Gala red carpet, and is the first drag queen to represent The SM Store. The Age of Aquaria has truly come!
After last month’s announcement of the RPDR season 10 winner becoming the latest face of the retail giant, Aquaria recently visited Manila to make herstory come to life through SM’s two-day event Big Drag Energy, held last Monday at SM Megamall and last Tuesday at SM North EDSA. There, local drag queens got to put on a show alongside their superstar sister in celebration of not only the SM brand but also their own charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent. Aquaria herself lip-synced, pranced, danced, and did splits and cartwheels for ha life and interacted with her Filipino fans.
In RPDR, the 23-year-old New York City-based drag queen fast became known for serving lewk after lewk after lewk. Given that her TV exposure has led her to even more collaborations with fashion brands and designers, Aquaria admits to not having enough time anymore for constructing and sewing her own outfits. “But whether it’s a collaboration or with a designer friend of mine, I always keep my hands [involved in] the creation process, because I feel like that’s how I started getting into drag: Making something out of little or even nothing. That’s still important,” she explained during Big Drag Energy.
Should she be presented the opportunity to design something for SM, though, Aquaria would hone in on an all-important accessory in an effort to make it more comfortable while still keeping it cute for any queen: “I think I would like to design just a gorgeous little flat shoe just so I don’t have to wear heels all the time,” she revealed. “But a more fun answer would be a nice pair of chunky heels—something that is big, bold, and powerful but also wearable.”
Catch more of Aquaria and her journey with the brand by following The SM Store on Instagram.
