RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16, Episode 9 was a third design challenge – a “See You Next Wednesday” Neo-Goth look inspired heavily by Netflix’s Wednesday series.
This has never once come up in over 23 years of blogging, but I was once a teenage goth! I wasn’t living the full-time goth lifestyle, but when I was at the start of my glam rock phase I wanted to be in all black, all the time with a pale white lip. I was all about looking svelte in black vinyl, pleather, or satin pants with diaphanous black shirts.
That meant my version of glam was always teetering on the edge of Goth – and, in Philly teen counter-culture at the time there was a strong Goth + Glam + Punk alliance. Or, at least, that’s what a typical night on South Street looked like, And, as luck would have it, the one Philly club that had an underage night had a room spinning all goth music!
I think a lot of queens mistook the “Neo-Goth” brief to mean “all black” and it hurt their presentations. Goth looks aren’t about being black all the time – they are about starkness. You can get away with white, red, brown, purple – even pops of brighter colors! However, Goth looks aren’t about being loud – and that’s true even when they are all black. For me, Goth is about selling a certain amount of austerity and drawing the viewer in. Neo-Goth is just a more casual, ready-to-wear version of that – a slightly preppier, ready-for-daylight version of classic Goth fashion.
What does yet another design challenge mean for our Power Rankings compared to last week’s Season 16 Snatch Game Power Ranking? Not only did we lose a front-runner, but one queen lost a bit of momentum and another one started to get her groove back. However, the real story is that we’re now into the top half of the placements! That means every queen is under scrutiny with little room to be safe. For queens who aren’t a lock for the finale, surviving each week is a careful dance of game theory in hoping the right combination of other queens fail while you succeed.
Readers, start your engines. And, may the best drag queen win!