How I Shop: Queen Priyanka

We all buy clothes, but no two people shop the same. It can be a social experience, and a deeply personal one; at times, it can be impulsive and entertaining, at others, purpose-driven, a chore. Where do you shop? When do you shop? How do you decide what you need, how much to spend and what’s “you”? These are some of the questions we’re putting to prominent figures in our column “How I Shop.”

As “Canada’s Drag Race” winner Queen Priyanka tells it, her personal style “is all over the place.” (Drag queens, they’re just like us.)

“It’s what I love about it,” she tells Fashionista. “I just love that you can play. Some days you can be super masculine presenting. Some days you can be super femme presenting. Some days you can be somewhere in the middle. And I love that about fashion because you could truly dress up to be whoever you want that day.”

Her love for sartorial experimentation extends into her drag style, but there’s also thoughtful intent behind how Queen Priyanka presents her performance self. She consistently pays homage to her South Asian culture and is hands-on with the design process of her custom costumes. It’s an intriguing duality — playful and pensive — that just barely scratches the surface of how far she plans to spread her fashion wings. Especially as she enters the music space — she released her debut album “Devestatia” last Friday and kicks off her world tour on Oct. 9 – Queen Priyanka is on a mission to become a performance and fashion mainstay, one rhinestone and gag-worthy silhouette at a time.

Ahead, Queen Priyanka breaks down her fashion approach to “Canada’s Drag Race” Season 1, her biggest drag queen style inspirations, honoring Bollywood and more.

“My earliest memories of fashion are basically hand-me-downs from my older brothers. It was baggy Fubu shirts and big cargo pants and things that never, ever fit me. And so when I look back at all my childhood photos, I’m wearing big clothes. It’s so weird nowadays because I love wearing baggy clothing. But I didn’t really have a relationship with fashion itself because fashion wasn’t something that was top of mind in my family because it was just wearing clothes for function and convenience. I didn’t actually start to develop any kind of style until college when I moved out of my home. Also, I feel like the more I got comfortable with my sexuality, the more I was willing to play. And the more I played and experimented with my fashion, the more freeing [it] felt.

“There are some days when you’ll catch me in big cargo pants with a really tight crop vest. Or there’ll be silver pants with a body suit underneath and a rhinestone chain sweatshirt on top. Or I’ll wear a plaid shirt and jeans looking like a cowboy. I like to show diversity in fashion because I’m in and out of drag all the time.

“When it comes to drag performance — the onstage stuff, which is my favorite — [my style inspiration] would be the Beyoncés of the world, the [Lady] Gagas and the ‘Drag Race’ designers, the people who make the ‘Drag Race’ costumes. All these amazing designers have really shaped what pop stars are wearing today. Now those designers are busy with Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B because they caught the drag wind. The people that I was jealous of growing up also inspired me. There’s a reason that I dress up super masc some days: It’s because those are the people who made me feel insecure when I was a kid and would bully me. I’m like, ‘Well, I’ll show you, bitch.’ So taking that varsity jersey and putting it with a tight pair of pants and wearing a sickening running shoe, I’m wearing that as a reclamation of that time of my life.

“My out-of-drag style is more functional unless I’m going out, but usually I’m not. I’m such a workaholic that I’m workaholic-ing in ginormous t-shirts, or oversized sweaters and track pants. Performance culture is so tight and so nuanced and so much thinking goes into everything. With my ‘boy style’ I’m like, ‘What is a statement piece that I can get from any store out there, whether it’s sparkly or just denim on denim? What’s easy?’

“We went through such a fun era growing up in the ’90s and the early 2000s, there was an era where Bollywood samples were mainstream. We had ‘Get Ur Freak On’ by Missy Elliot. We had Truth Hurts’ ‘Addictive.’ We had ‘Jai Ho’ by The Pussycat Dolls. And then it all went away — my entire life, my entire culture was just a hot trend for a second. So using drag to bring that to the mainstream, again, was the inspiration behind [my fashion choices on ‘Drag Race’]. And also the whole idea of being a person of color and wanting to be a white person when you’re younger because you only see white people succeed is so fucked up. I knew when I saved my big Bollywood eleganza for the finale, I knew exactly what I was doing because I wanted people to see that a person of color can do everything.

“I appreciate Aquaria’s fashion style. I think she has a really good mix of performance plus fashion. She has her references down. She looks great in everything. Plastique Tiara is incredible and Monét X Change. Shea Couleé is the ultimate grand supreme fashion influence for me. I don’t even consider her a drag queen, I consider her as this ethereal goddess that’s a fashionista. Tayce over in the UK, her fashion is incredible. It is just as chaotic as her and she’s found her niche where what she wears is just draping off her body. But then there are also harnesses and buckles on it because she’s just crazy. Raja’s fashion is so interesting to me because she’s not giving what she thinks is the hot trend. She’s just literally putting a look together. Everything feels very nuanced and very fashionable in that way, which is cool because when you see somebody wear a look and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s a look only you could wear,’ she gives that. So she’s probably one of the other ultimate fashion queens, and also Symone.

“Ever since I started drag, the way that it’s evolved is now I have people that can take me seriously to do the things I truly want. Things that I wanted before weren’t happening because of people’s lack of giving a fuck. And now the fashion has evolved because everything is so important — people get it now. The evolution is in the confidence of knowing exactly what you want and how to say what you want. Getting these custom costumes made for my drag is so hard. You’re fighting against a lot to get what you want out of somebody, out of the fabric, the way it fits, the tone of the fabric, the texture and so on.

“Whenever I’m [making music], I’m always thinking about what I would be wearing and how I’d be making people feel with that type of costume while I’m performing that song. When I was recording ‘Devastatia,’ there’s a line where we wrote ‘she going to need some armor harder than an armadillah,’ like an armadillo. So I was thinking the costume needed to be this coppery, armadillo-like 3D-printed bra.

“Oh my god, when was the last time I shopped a brand I like? Everything I wear is custom now.

“For fall, I love a knitted sweater. There’s something so sexy and cozy about it. I don’t even know if that’s a fashion trend right now or not. I love darker colors. I love big chunky Doc Marten boots. And a pumpkin spice latte.

“My first fashion splurge was a $3,000 Louis Vuitton bag. It was also my first designer piece, that or my Dior Saddle Bag. But the thing about fashion splurges, there’s something about wanting it that’s better than having it because once I felt like I got my saddle bag and I was so proud it for three weeks, but then like a human, the novelty, it wears off. And then I’m sitting there and I’m like, ‘I paid how much for this bag?’ That’s the West Indian girl in me.

“I love my denim jean jacket. Mavi Jeans is what it says on the tag. I believe I got it when somebody gave me the wrong jean jacket at a coat check and I went home with it and it became mine. I hope that person doesn’t miss their jean jacket because I have it.

“I feel like we’re going in a direction that’s going to be the ‘Priyanka thing.’ When you see a specific something, whether it’s a specific kind of detail on someone’s outfit or the way it fits or whatever, that’s going to be seen as my signature — that’s what I want. It’s like in ‘Mean Girls,’ when Regina George cut the circle over her titties, what’s my version of that?”

Note: This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.

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Source: Fashionista.com