Why the drag looks in ‘The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’ are still iconic, 30 years on
Sydney, 1994. A dimly-lit bar, wrapped in tinsel curtains and the fragmented, twirling light from a disco ball. Tick Belrose (played by Hugo Weaving) is on stage lip syncing as his drag persona Mitzi Del Bra; clad in a silver sequin dress with matching gloves and a bouffant blonde wig.
This is the opening scene from “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”, which first screened at Cannes Film Festival 30 years ago this month.
“I made that dress for myself,” Tim Chappel, one of the movie’s costume designers, told CNN. “The weekend before, I’d gone to the Miss Teen USA beauty pageant as Miss Silicon Valley, because (the dress) had joke plastic boobs inside. Stephan (Elliott, the film’s writer and director) was really on my case because I wanted to do lots of obscure stuff (to costume the film ), and he wanted (the principal characters in drag) to look like ladies. So I said we can make him look like a lady and take the piss at the same time, because the boobs are clearly from a party shop. And I’d already made it, so it was cheap!”
In the film, Tick scoops up his freshly widowed friend Bernadette Bassenger (played by Terence Stamp) and flamboyant, fellow drag queen Adam Whitley/ Felicia Jollygoodfellow (actor Guy Pearce) and goes west — both musically and literally — for a road trip across the Outback in their affectionately-christened bus: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
“We were just having a laugh!” Chappel said, recalling the film’s production. Sydney 30 years ago was at a unique point in time and culture; not yet tethered to the rest of the world via the internet, the somewhat isolated drag scene was able to cultivate its own sprawling visual language for storytelling and sexual politics, beyond the more recognizable female impersonation that Elliott might have initially pushed for.
“It was my first opportunity to really express myself as a designer, and I wasn’t going to let anybody stand in my way,” Chappel said. “I just really wanted to make (the film’s wardrobe) unique and interesting.”
Serving looks, on a budget
Film critic Susan Barber, despite calling out the problematic handling of female and non-white characters, dubbed “Priscilla” the “darling” of the Cannes Film Festival after it premiered there in 1994. The film quickly drew attention for its costuming in particular, winning Chappel and fellow designer Lizzy Gardiner an Oscar in 1995.
The plastic wig worn by Felicia Jollygoodfellow and the flip-flop dress worn by Mitzi Del Bra have become some of the film’s most iconic looks. AJ Pics/Alamy Stock Photo
Among many iconic looks is the flip-flop (or ‘thong,’ if you’re Australian) dress. It was made from shoes Chappel bought for $15 in Target using his mother’s staff discount — “which was good,” he said, “because that was about three quarters of our budget.” Their mandated thriftiness meant that several costumes, “made with hot glue, chicken wire and duct tape”, fell apart not long after the cameras stopped rolling. The flip-flop dress survived, though — that was made with cable ties, as well as duct tape.
Two years passed between Chappel first joining the project and its (limited) funding being secured. The time allowed him to play with and re-do ideas, evolving initial plans into their extravagant final form. In one scene, for instance, Tick, Adam and Bernadette put on a fireside performance of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” for a group of First Nations people. Rather than mimic Gaynor’s hairstyle directly, however, Chappel spent his elongated preparation time adding an increasing bouquet of flowers to the trio’s headpieces, until eventually there was no hair left at all.
“I think that’s definitely one of the most iconic looks,” drag artist and costumer Philmah Bocks told CNN. Bocks has been designing costumes for 30 years, having broken into the drag scene around the same time “Priscilla” was hitting screens.
Tim Chappel’s costume sketch shows the origins of the floral headpieces and flat-bottomed outfit worn by the principal trio during their performance of “I Will Survive”. Tim Chappel
By the time the costume was complete, Tick/Mitzi’s ‘wig’ was entirely made of flowers. Moviestore/Shutterstock
“The thong dress is a very iconic piece too, because I think that’s very (stereotypically) Australian. And of course the big finale look, with the emus on top of their heads. That’s the beauty of ‘Priscilla’: they’ve really captured a moment in Australian time and used Australian culture and flora and fauna to create these wonderful pieces.”
“The art of drag costuming is the ability to turn drab into fab,” she continued. “’Priscilla’ showed us a lot of that, because a lot of that type of design work was happening in and around Sydney in the early ‘90s. There was this sort of explosion of drag costuming that went beyond couture. Of course, queens were also on a budget. You couldn’t always afford hundreds or even thousands of dollars to create the most beautiful pieces, but you could kind of get there with stuff we found in a dumpster! It’s what you do with it that makes the difference… I’ve been replicating (Chappel’s) costumes for 30 years, so I’ve got a lot to thank him for!”
