Fashion Forward? Maybe not....

A lot of drag queens try to be on the cutting edge of fashion, be it with sky-high shoes without heels, unusual fabrics sewn into equally unusual forms, or as I've heard one queen phrase it "gluing shit to other shit," I doubt I will be one of these queens. Don't get me wrong, I have a serious love for fashion that my everyday style betrays, but haute couture isn't my thing.

My personal aesthetic isn't what people would expect when they first meet me. I like black, I like the darker side of the spectrum, I love heavy sumptuous fabrics, I love embroidery, you get the idea. I have a very Victorian sense of style. If my wallet could support it, I would have a closet full of vests and opera coats, but sadly my dream wardrobe is for now just that, a dream.

I don't really envision myself as a trendsetter and I really don't want to be, too much pressure to continue to impress, but I'm definitely going to go against the drag norm in my area of the country. I live in the Midwest, which means big hair, high brows, sequins and glitter and everything else that comes to mind when you think drag. Now I understand that because of my frame and height, I'm going to need big tits and equally large hair to look proportional, but with heels I really don't want to reach seven foot with my hair, plus that isn't me. I love long hair with some volume that moves naturally, not these rigid constructions some queens wear on their head, no shade honeys just not my thing. I love dresses that flow and move and react to the body, not just hang because of the weight of the beading or sequins or what have you attached to them. I love dramatic but still somewhat natural looking eyes, not the sky high eyebrows that were popularized by Divine, some people like that look and it works very well for some people, but as I've said several times before that's not me.

The norm here is glam mixed with campy, a little serious blended with a little silly, which is extremely entertaining but that's not me. I love watching the queens lipsync to parodies of popular songs, and just camp the hell out of that performance, it makes me happy and we all need a little happy now and then. But on that same note I love the queens that will come out and perform a heart-wrenching ballad that makes me want to cry, because like I said just a moment ago we all need a little sad too, just for that release of emotion if nothing else.

I want to be something else entirely, I want to be announced as "Our own queen of darkness, Aria Nicholas," I want people to look forward to my performances not because they want to laugh or cry, but because they want to see what I've come up with this time. I want to be the queen at a pageant that while standing with the others looks like I'm going to a high class funeral, or pulled out of a Sherlock Holmes movie. I want Aria to have many faces, the rocker chick that would sooner punch you in the face than kiss you, the sophisticated grande dame of the brothel with that sparkle in her eye that makes you come back for more, or the cabaret performer that just sits on a stool singing but you still just can't take your eyes off of her. A tall order, I get that, but anymore its go big or go home, and I have no intentions of hiding in my home any longer.