Whether about to grab her hands on the crown of Ru Paul’s All Stars 3 or not, Trixie Mattel is a glamazon in her own right. Whilst being a country singing superstar, a bold TV personality, and quick-thinking comedienne, Trixie Mattel is best known for what holds all these talents together: being a drag queen, baby! Serving her exaggerated Barbie-esque , and baby doll couture looks, Mattel is not a queen looking for fish. In serving us platinum-blonde realness and overdrawn lips to die for, Mattel is certainly an unforgettable fashion diva – not only throughout the drag community, but for everyone else looking on as she stomps up the ladder of success.
Admittedly, Mattel states she entered the drag world when a queen was unavailable to perform in a show she was in, having to rapidly fill in last minute. Since then, the Wisconsin-born artist came to WERK, slay, and execute a style of drag at only the highest of levels. Oozing essence of the sweetest pink blancmange, Mattel’s fashion philosophies contain elements of an eccentric, magical princess, having left the confines of the castle’s gates, discovering the world for what it really is, and potentially having a mental breakdown as a consequence.
Our skinny legend admits, rather tellingly, that she finds her inspiration from ‘the girl toys I wasn’t allowed to play with as a kid’. Visually this combines the facial structure of Barbie, the sugary sweetness of a My Little Pony’s eyes, and the body proportions of a Polly Pocket. Having exhibited an array of beautifully, bodacious looks over the past 10 years in the public spotlight, it is clear to see Trixie has always stayed true to her glamorous inspirations. Drawing upon the wardrobe of 1960’s dolls, Mattel applies her makeup dramatically and confidently. It must be nigh on impossible for upcoming Queens to display their originality in such a popular industry, however Mattel seems to have had no struggle in being at the forefront of individuality.
Her hyperbolic, and sometimes highly comedic beautification process holds itself accountable for the procedure of transforming Brian Firkus into the one and only, Trixie Mattel. All queens actively mirror stereotypical concepts of femininity in the process of donning their drag, and the physical attributes of womanhood is a notion with which Mattel experiments in order to push her innovative abilities to their limit. Whilst queens imitate femininity, Mattel magnifies and plays upon the very notion of drag itself. Though Mattel may see this as a method to add some edge, turning away from a more classic aesthetic of drag, a feminist commentary is also evident through her style choices. Similarly to Luce Irigaray’s psychoanalytic theories, the visuality of Mattel’s drag certainly play upon Irigaray’s philosophies of femininity as a ‘masquerade’, attempting to combat patriarchal expectations by ‘miming the mine’ – or in her case, mimicking the femininity in which queens imitate of females. Basically, she’s all for us women, oh honey!
Clocking our interests in competition on RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7, Mattel’s fantastical girly-girl looks stole our hearts from day one. Previously co-hosting Youtube’s ‘UNHhhh’, and taking this to Viceland in the form of ‘The Trixie & Katya’, it’s safe to say Mattel isn’t short of adoring fans (or a good dollar or two, either). Jetting around the world to play her guitar to swooning audiences, and helping us laugh until we cry with her clever wit and humour, it’s plausible to believe the world would be much worse off without our darling, Trixie. Brash in the best way and supporting her brand with inventive fashion statements, Mattel stands out for all the right and wrong reasons. In the words of Bianca Del Rio, “It looks like she went into Claire’s Boutique, fell on a sale rack and said ‘I’ll take it!”.
