Hi sisters! James Charles here and welcome back to my youtube channel
I just want to go ahead and jump right in
to the intro for today's video because I've been wanting to do this for literally
so long now, I am so excited and I do
think that its probably going to be one of the longest videos I ever upload to this channel
so saddle up, get ready because for today's
video we are doing my first ever full on
drag transformation! Now you're probably thinking
"Sister James what are you talking about? We've seen you do drag so
many times on Instagram and here on youtube." And yes, your
definitely not wrong. What I actually think is really really cool and almost like
a sentimental part of this video is that I started
doing makeup three years ago now and because of the fact that I started
on Instagram, all of my looks are actually documented in photo for you guys to see including my drag makeup. The first ever time that I did drag was
probably about two years ago now, and it was this photo inspired
by Raven: a legendary queen from season 2 and honestly should
have been winner of 'Ru Paul's Drag Race'. As well as every
other time that I've done drag after that. I will confidently say that
through a lot of mistakes, a lot of misplaced
eyebrows and a lot of practice my drag
makeup abilities have definitely gotten a whole lot better
and of course I've gotten some pretty nice wigs as well but
thats kind of about it. I've been a major fan
of RuPaul's Drag Race and a supporter of so many queens that have both been on the show
and off for a very very long time now. The drag
community has influenced my personality, sense of humor, and also makeup skills
with different tips and techniques. So so so
much throughout the past 3 years and
I'm genuinely so honored to be in the lgbtq community
with amazing drag queens. That being said though
even though drag and drag queens have been such a major
source of inspiration and a huge part of my life, it is an art form that I don't really know
that much about. As an outsider and as a fan,
I have even made the mistake of looking at drag queens on stage
looking beautiful and fierce as just a man
in a wig and a dress absolutely killing it.
When in reality there is so much more
that goes into actually being performance ready
with  the skills and putting the look together.
So for today's video, i'd thought it'd be really really cool
to take a topic that I love and i'm so interested in
but  can be educated on
because I am ignorant towards and really
just take a full on deep dive into the world of drag
and see what it actually takes to put together a full look
in time for a major special event or performance
I thought it would be the perfect time to take on this challenge because
I'm actually flying  to New York very very soon to work on some super secret sister projects
and while I'm gonna be there, coincidentally
Dragcon New York City  is going to be happening
and what better place to try out being a drag queen for the first time ever
than at Dragcon
a little convention filled with drag queens
that I have loved and looked up to for so long
the only issues are that I'm currently in the process of moving
and that I leave for New York in less than two days so..
this is going to be quite the time crunch.
We have two weeks to pull off this full on drag transformation
Can we do it? Let's get started
*Jame's intro plays*
Alright so we have two weeks until DragCon New York actually happens
I think, in order to have success in this I need to split up my focus into four
different categories which I figured out are the body
the outfit, the hair, and the makeup and I think I actually need to
hit them in that order as well so starting off with the body
because of course the body is going to affect the fitting
which will affect the gown and then I need to pick the hair based
on the gown
and then I need to pick the makeup based on everything all together.
So I think I definitely need to pour most of my attention into the body first
because that's gonna be
by far probably the hardest part of this entire transformation I don't
exactly have much to work with, you guys know from my several
accidental butt pics that I've posted on snapchat there isn't a whole lot there.
In order to get myself a little bit more sister shaped
I'm really going for that hourglass figure I need to get two different things
being padding and a corset
I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do my padding yet which has me
very, very stressed out, but we're gonna figure it out we always do
but I do know how I'm gonna do my corset. I reached out to a ton of my drag friends
and conveniently as well the try guys which are a huge channel here on youtube.
Just did a video last week where they got corset fitted
So I reached out to the same shop. They're called
"What Katie Did" located in Burbank, California and I have an appointment
In about
thirty minutes from now for a corset fitting, I'm going to go in and
get sister snatched so I'm gonna call an uber and lets head over
see how much of a *mwah* ⓢⓚⓘⓝⓝⓨ  ⓛⓔⓖⓔⓝⓓ I can be today.
*old timey music plays*
>>How are you? I'm Hannah
>>James nice to meet you
>> Lovely to meet you sweetheart
>>You wanna tell me a little bit about like your store?
>>So Katie, Katie, What Katie Did she started out in the 90s working in London
She's been waist training for about thirty years
>>Woah! >>*Hannah* She's fanstatic
>> *James* skinny legend
We used to have a line of like hundreds of styles and customs corsets and everything and we've kind of drawn
back to these uh several different
styles now.
They're extremely high quality you can wear them every day for years if you want to.
*gasps* Yeah
Yeah, we have a lot of really famous drag performers that use these as
their base for their costumes
>> As soon as I talked to my designer he was like "come to What Katie Did"
>>Yeah, Its a wonderful place to start out, find a corset that works for you
and they're a wonderful price.
Ok so, so the fitting is like this
we take your natural waste measurement and we go four to six inches down
>> *gasp* Wow. >> and that will be your corset size
>> Ok I'm ready for it lets do it . >> Yeahhh...Pleas lets do it *Excited*
we're going to go for the marticia one, the one over there >>Oooh! Ya ya.
>> Oh Ya. Great for padding, great to pad out
I would try you on an extreame
Um we have regular and we have an extreme version    >> *Shook* Ok I'm ready
>> This one will work for your, your padding
>>Oohh ok
i lik this one for me because the regular marticia pushes on my ribs
alot and i cant breath as much
I get anxity when I cant breath
but this one puts all the pressure on my waist which I like anyway
>> Oh Love that!
>> This is hitting flat here, this is fitting nicely
BUT THEN you can pad this out
>>Oh Yaaah
>> Yeah so you have tons of padding room
you can pad some in the butt you can pad your hips out
and you have tons of room for that
but then you have a teeny-little waist >>ohh
>>THIS IS TEENY!
>>Yeah and then once you pad it out it will be even teenier
>>*James* Hahaha love that!
>>*Hannah* Yeah cool
>>*James* Oh my LORD!
>>*Hannah* Yeah so this is pretty fantastic
>>This is CRAZY and SO COOL
>> $251.06
>>*Sigh* Perfect. Get me snatched
Ok so we just finnished up at "What Katie Did'. Everybody there was so nice and so sweet.
I am ready to be sister snatched
Im a little bit off the flops for sticking out at the sides because theyre usually meant for more cruvy people
But that is what we have padding for
I don't know how we're going to do this yet but we're going to figure it out
Alright so now that our body is all snatched and ready to go
Now we're able to move on for the wig
I reached out to "The Wiggs and Grays" who is a huge insanely talented wig stylist
She does wigs for so many queens from [RuPaul's]Drag Race including Kim Chi
and I asked her if she'd be willing to fit me in for a last minute wig for dragcon.
She acctually did say yes and that she was willing to fit in a custom wig for dragcon, which I am so excited for.
But we only have one week of time to do this which is cutting it very very close
so we just scheduled a face time call so we can plan out the style and figure out what we're going to do
So without further adue let's go meet Sister Gloria
*Loading Sounds*
*Pop*
>> *James* HI SISTER!
>>*Gloria* Hi!
>>How are you?
>>Good how are you?
>>Oh so amazing
thank you so much for calling me today. It's so nice to meet you by the way, hello, James.
>>Yeah
>>Thank you for taking my wig on today for DragCon. NewYork City
I know it's litterally in a week, but i feel like if anyones going to do it its going to be able to..
*laughs* I don't like that face
But if anyones going to do it its going to be you
>>It will be done
>> Ok. I have true true true faith in you
But before we get started on this little consultation why don't you tell the sisters a little more about you and your buisness and what we're going to be doing today.
>>So my drag name is Gloria,
I'm a little jake of all trades at "Wigs and Grays"
Yeah, Wigs and Greys has been around for about five years
People know about us because of Kim Chi and we've been involved basically every season
>> I've seen your wigs on so many iconic queens, your styling is like, insane and I am so excited to be working together for this look
Obvously this is a very very quick turn around so I feel like we should think about what kind of look we want to do, like, now
>>Yeah, so what are you wearing?
>>I just had my final planning session with my designer earlier today to we've got it all figured out
>>Ok
>>So I do have my dress all figured out
It is going to be an A-line gown, in white
>> Ok. She's doing it.
>> She's doing it
>>She's going all out
I'm feeling very like, old hollywood but with a modern twist.
Very like, Marylin Monroe meets Lady Gaga
>> Since you're wearing a gown youre going like all the way there
Are you open to wearing an updo? Would that be something you'd be interested in?
>> You know I usually go down for all my drag looks but an updo could be like, really iconic
>> You're already doing a gown so you might as well do an updo you know
>> I'm kinda down
>>Obvously like a biggish bang with like a slight wave
An then I'm thinking like the back is kinda messy so  it still doesn't read super bridal
or super like, ya know like still a little edgy
>> I am defiantly down that sounds like actually perfect
Oh god wow
>> Ok so colour, I know we talked about blondes.
>> *James* Yes
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
James: Oh no
 
 
 
Noo!
This does not need to happen right now
My feet already hurt
This is not good
What do I do?
(music)
(music)
(music)
(music)
(music)
(music)
(fan)
(music)
So guys we have arrived in draggcon New York City,
(breath)
my nerves have calmed down a little bit since i feel super super confident and beautiful
i just hope i don't fall over at this point but i have been texting a lot of my favorite queens this morning and i am going to go to all their booth's and say hi
and this should be a really incredible experience
so lets go
so lets go.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*sigh*
My stomach is back
My toes hurt so much. I don't want to cry so I'm just laughing
Oh my god this has been the longest day of my entire life, I look disgusting
Like I'm scared. Hello
My normal makeup I keep on for like a few hours during the day and like get away with
This...
No
Ew, I can't. Today was insane like
absolutely insane. I
was so nervous.
There's like a lot of things I was worried about.
My outfit, my hair, my makeup looking good because my drag makeup has definitely
been quite the rollercoaster for me. Um,
 
my shoes, which obviously did not exactly end up working out,
but you know what? It's okay, I took them off. There were a lot of other queens
that had their shoes off as well. They were walking around in slippers
or barefoot, which I thought was so iconic.
So, I definitely not the only one that wanted to go for the challange.
But the thing I was most nervous for overall was actually
meeting so many of these queens I've looked up to forever
because of the fact that I don't exactly have the best reputation in the
drag world. It's been a community that I've loved forever, but I've really tried to
stay away from it in order to avoid drama.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
So much work and love went into this, not only from me but so many amazing people aswell,
so go down and show your sister support
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
