Violet Chachki—burlesque bombshell, corset queen and champion of Season 7 of RuPaul’s Drag Race—has one thing to say about the fashion industry and its long-held conviction of gender binary representation: the LGBTQ+ community should also be visible.
In today’s society where the straights are slowly becoming the minority as people are beginning to realize that gender is a fluid concept, mainstream fashion has a lot of reorienting to do given its ingrained beliefs on sexuality and attraction. Chachki, who recently starred in Prada’s Neon Dream ad campaign, says it is important, if not imperative, for big brands to allow queer artists space in the mainstream sphere.
“It’s really great to see that brands are recognizing what it means to be a queer artist these days, how that looks politically, [and letting me] take up space as a queer person. Especially now, it’s more important to have visibility in mainstream brands and marketing,” she told Out magazine.
Chachki has also modeled and walked for Moschino this year in Milan, sporting a “tandem tux” by Jeremy Scott. In an interview with Vogue, Chachki shared similar sentiments on queer visibility in the fashion industry and what it was like to walk for Moschino. “To me that’s what the show was—strength! It’s very important to have visual representation, to show that queers are important, queers are powerful, queers are beautiful, queers are valid, and you can’t erase us,” she said.
