The entwined and menacing snakes form a fierce headdress. This Thursday in January, Misty Phoenix, tries for the first time her Medusa outfit responding to the theme of the “big bad look” for season 3 of “Drag Race France”.
She starts by donning the reptilian headdress. “It might hurt a little for now, but we’re going to put polyurethane foam inside. Will you get a wig with that?” asks Romain Thévenin, the designer to whom the 24-year-old drag queen entrusted the design of several of her looks for the France 2 show. “The short yellow one? You’re going to have to flatten it like crazy.”
“It’s not a big deal, but it’s in case I have to lip-sync (sing along to a playback), I can’t perform with that on my head, it’s too heavy,” replies the candidate who has to think of everything and even the possibility of participating in the playback test to defend her place in the show and, in that case, it’s better to be able to move freely.
Moreover, during the fitting, Romain Thévenin noticed that the collar, also made of a snake, risked weighing down the structure and wondered if it should not be removed. We had the answer in the fifth episode, broadcast at the end of June: Misty Phoenix finally paraded with a lighter headdress.
This fitting, to which 20 Minutes was able to attend, was ultra-confidential. It took place a handful of weeks before the filming of “Drag Race France” in February and well before the casting was made official at the end of May. It is one of the aspects of the competition that is little known to the public: the preparation of outfits with stylists whose names are never mentioned in the show – but whom the drag queens do not fail to credit when they post their looks on Instagram.
Stressful moments with the 3D printer
Romain Thévenin, 31, is used to collaborating with the artists on the show. He designed outfits for Kitty Space and Cookie Kunty in season 2, “and also for Kam Hugh in season 1 but we didn’t see them on TV.” Because, in concrete terms, once selected, the production provides a list of themes for which the drag queens must prepare a look, without knowing which episode it corresponds to. And they have barely two months to prepare them. For this third season, in addition to “the big bad look”, Misty Phoenix commissioned Romain Thévenin to create a “living couture” dress (seen in episode 2).
“I gave him some instructions. For example, for “living couture”, I already had the wig, blonde. So I told him “we’ll start from that and we’ll need a style that goes with it”, knowing that I always dress in black and that I wanted to try a white outfit for a change. For the “baddie”, I knew that I wanted to be Medusa, who is a figure that I love. I wanted her to be a warrior”, explains the young artist who confides that she was able to have a comfortable sum to pay for her outfits. The price of a certain serenity to approach the shoot.
“We usually manage all the time, we work according to the client’s brief and budget. With big budgets, we can afford to put in Swarovski, to use noble materials. Otherwise, we adapt,” says Romain Thévenin, who admits to having “stressful moments with the 3D printer when it messes up. It costs a lot of electricity, around 600 euros per month. The Gorgon headdress alone took a week to print, with three or four failures. I did it in four layers.”
“We push extravagance to the maximum”
The designer is used to putting his talent at the service of many personalities from diverse backgrounds such as the rapper SCH, the singer La Zarra – whose outfit he made for Eurovision 2023 – or the choreographer judge of “Dancing with the Stars” Chris Marques. But working with the drag scene is for him “a particular joy”: “we push extravagance to the maximum. There is no limit to imagination”. It is also for him “a good way to have international visibility”.
He also designed and lent outfits to Soa de Muse, who will represent France in the “Global All Stars” edition of the “Drag Race” franchise launched on August 16 on the WOW Presents Plus platform. “I know that RuPaul has made very positive comments on certain pieces,” reveals Romain Thévenin. A consecration, in a way.
Source: www.20minutes.fr
