My dictionary definition is just whatever you want, anything or everything or nothing at all. My mother sometimes calls me Gigi, sometimes she calls me Sam. And sometimes I’ll be dressed like a boy and I’ll refer to myself as ‘She’. Sometimes I’ll talk about me out of drag as my boy self. SG: As a whole, I’m gender fluid, 100 percent. GRAZIA: Is that how you identify as a whole? As gender fluid? Or is that Gigi? But again, those things are interchangeable between Gigi, the gender fluid model, and Gigi, the drag queen. All of my clothes are second hand thrift store. When it comes to my out of drag style I dress like I’m from the 70s or the 90s a little bit. Once Gigi ended up on TV, I feel like Samuel left the building because now whenever I go shopping, it’s to buy things for Gigi. SG: I have not shopped for Samuel in years. GRAZIA: Is there a delineation in the overall tone and style between Samuel versus Gigi? How do you shop for Samuel? The minute that I put on that hair though, I was no longer playing with my Barbies. It was such an ugly wig, no lace and had a side bang. I remember that wig was something that I had on my head every single night. And while my dad was getting lunch, my stepmother took me and my friend to a wig shop and I found this black mixed human hair wig for $45. I was probably 10 or 11 and it was because I went downtown with a friend to go to the Aquarium. GRAZIA: At what point in your childhood did you know that Gigi Goode existed? I can imagine that everyone else feels the same way. I definitely think that fashion, clothes, hair and outward appearance – as vain as it sounds – was so crucial to my growth and evolution as a child. So I find that it could be an instinctual inheritance in that it’s something that these people felt that they needed to survive. SG: That’s a tough question…Actually a lot of my friends who are stylists, models, or people in the world of fashion more often than not grew up in places like a trailer park or a run down home in the southern suburbs of nowhere. GRAZIA: Do you think that style is something that can be inherited? I don’t want to look the same next year as I do right now and the year after that. I found that lately I’ve been really evolving my drag I’m no longer really doing those crazy heavy white eyeliners for example. I think when you hold yourself to that standard, rather than the standards other people have for you, that’s when you start to really creatively flourish and it’s just endless growth. Or I want to perform better than the last time I did.
I just want to look better than the last time I did. I’m so happy that other people are entertained by my drag, but at the end of the day, this is me being my own Barbie doll. What’s been very beneficial to me – and this isn’t a recent realisation – is that my drag is not for other people. SG: Well, I think that the most important point is that I’m one-upping myself. GRAZIA: How do you keep one-upping your own standards when there is so much pressure?
#GIGI GOODE TV#
On the other hand, it definitely has raised the standard of drag to the point where people who view drag through RuPaul’s Drag Race won’t necessarily want to go see a drag queen perform in a small town who’s not up to par with the drag queens they have seen on TV who have invested so much time and money into a single look. It feels like finally, the queer community has a liberation and a welcome into society after so many years of taboo. The fact that RuPaul’s Drag Race is so mainstream it’s literally like a miracle. I feel like that happened pre-COVID with drag and television. With so many nightclubs closed, what do you think the way forward is? What’s the future of drag look like? GRAZIA: Normally I’d be talking to you from a dressing room on a world tour right about now. So, I think that’s a driving factor in making sure I’m on my shit. We have not made nearly as much money as we should have been making right now. We didn’t really get to have a run around the world that all the other girls got to have.
Now, we’re old news – we’re the runt of the litter here. I don’t feel too hindered because of it, because, if anything, it’s been a motivator to stay on my shit and stay relevant, especially because RuPaul’s Drag Race is pumping out season after season with new girls. I think this was definitely a blessing in disguise.
SAMUEL GEGGIES(SG): I’ve been using my time very wisely and getting a lot done that I know I would not have been able to should I have been travelling the world. MARNE SCHWARTZ (GRAZIA): Tell me about your life as a creative in isolation?
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