Sydney drag legend Vanity tells us about creating her revolutionary business Wigs By Vanity, why she won’t be competing on Drag Race, and performing at Palmy Drag Fest.
Vanity is celebrating her 26th year doing drag, and when you ask the inevitable question about whether she will appear on Drag Race Down Under, she is quick to highlight, “I feel at this point, I should be congratulated or rewarded for getting this far without it!”
“I’m really happy for queens to have a platform and glad to see sisters who are taken up notches by being on the show and getting recognition, gigs, and good money,” she says of the Down Under franchise, adding, “but I’m disappointed that they don’t have more seasoned queens. It’s almost insulting as a professional old-school drag queen not to see people from my generation on there.”
So why hasn’t Vanity personally put her hand up to star in Down Under?
“My mental health is very important to me,” she says, confessing that she has battled with depression and anxiety.
“I don’t have that drive in me anymore. I have a very comfortable life. I’ve worked really hard to establish a position for myself in the greater community that I don’t want to risk tampering with Drag Race,” she says, wisely pointing out, “You have no control over how you’re edited or how you’re perceived. I don’t trust the platform, and I can’t risk losing my business. This is what I’ve worked my whole life for.”
Her business, Wigs By Vanity, which she co-owns with television icon Courtney Act, changed the world of drag years before RuPaul’s Drag Race reared its head.
Established in 2003 as a store on eBay, Vanity, and Courtney visited China to get Vanity’s unique designs for lace front wigs created. “When we held our first samples in our hands, we just looked at each other and said, ‘We’re gonna be rich!” she laughs, detailing that because all wigs are essentially handcrafted, the ability to create enough stock to scale up and build an empire isn’t viable.
In 2007, the business became its own online store (wigsbyvanity.com), and Vanity has created 25 designs in 70 different colours, setting an international drag standard in affordable lace-front wigs, which were previously only seen on the heads of celebrities and the very wealthy.
Like many businesses, Wigs By Vanity was badly affected by COVID. “It was known as the great wig famine,” Vanity tells us, explaining that they lost the ability to produce the lace-front wigs that they had become known for.
“So we had to shift the fashion again,” she says, telling us they renewed their focus on hard-front wigs.
“I’m glad that we lost that ability to make that original wig because it forced us to innovate,” she says triumphantly, adding that from time to time, they will even receive an order placed by RuPaul Charles himself.
At next month’s Palmy Drag Fest, Vanity will take the New Zealand stage for the first number, having only done a number at Caluzzi once before when visiting Auckland on holiday.
She tells us that while her drag is founded on the realism of female impersonation, she likes character-driven drag that focuses on who her look is channelling.
“At the moment, I’m heavily inspired by Barbie. A few years ago, I had a few extra kilos on before I had my surgery, so I would wear beautiful caftans and become this older, glamorous woman…and at Christmas, I do Mariah.”
But when she hits Palmerston North, it won’t just be about what Vanity is serving onstage.
“It’s really about getting amongst the people and letting them buy me drinks and getting absolutely blind drunk. I’m an old-fashioned good-time girl!” she promises.
