Dazed’s Instagram of the Week, @dragmorph, imagines what the industry would look like with a little more Aquaria, The Vixen, and Miss Va(aaaa)njie in it
“Growing up in Honduras, I never met anyone who identified openly as LGBTQ+. Drag Race was my introduction to the queer community, and it will always have a very special place in my heart,” explains Carlos, the Instagrammer who’s putting your favourite Drag Race queens all over fashion week runways and glossy magazine covers.
Scroll through @dragmorph’s feed and you’ll find Miz Cracker walking last month’s Valentino couture show, Shea Coulee on the cover of Dazed, and Farrah Moan inside the pages of Vogue Italia. “My mission with dragmorph is to show people how drag can, and should, become more common in fashion. My page's motto is ‘more queens on magazines’.”
A noble fight of course, and one that’s both incredibly beautiful as well as remarkably realistic because two such visual mediums naturally marry together incredibly well. While you can imagine most Drag Race queens finding their way onto every special bookings list in town, there’s still a very specific set of criterion which make for the perfect Dragmorph fashion-drag combination.
“I try to look for fashion images that look somewhat inspired by drag,” explains Carlos. “Drag, to me, is all about exaggerating features – so I look for fashion images that, for example, feature models with huge, long hair or colourful couture gowns. I then think of how that image might fit a queen's brand: for example, Miss Fame is very editorial and high fashion, while Miz Cracker is more playful and fun. Staying true to each queen's brand makes the image look more realistic in the end.”
And while realism is what makes the image, it’s ultimately fantasy that Carlos is focused on celebrating. “Through this pairing, I have been able to find how drag and fashion ultimately rely on the same thing – and that is, to create an illusion,” he says.
When asked what he makes of Drag Race, he explains that it’s amazing to see how much of the show has grown, “but my favourite aspect about Drag Race isn’t necessarily what we see on TV,” he continues. “I think it's more important to appreciate the visibility that this show gives to drag performers. I love how it is possible for fans to interact with these queens – either by going on social media or meeting them in person. Cynthia Lee Fontaine, for example, is a big supporter of @dragmorph, and it’s because of queens like her that I love working on morphs.”
The Drag Queen has become an iconic symbol for our generation, and Carlos’s Instagram puts them exactly where our icons should be: in full-on fantasy fashion.