News - Wigs by Vanity

A Child of Drag

July 27, 2017

I know this sounds cliche, but I was born to be a drag queen. Some of my earliest memories were of dressing up as a girl. I've loved the sparkle and the feminine since, well, forever!

I was 3 or 4 and I don't remember this, but my older sister had a red dress with white polka dots that my aunty made her. She hated it, but apparently I LOVED it. Mum would always say that if she couldn't find me, I would be in the back yard spinning around in that dress so it flared up all around me.

I still love spinning around in dresses.

Another early memory was being at my aunties house and my cousin had a brooch that was a big plastic ruby. It was in her wardrobe and just a little bit high for me to reach but I remember staring at it for hours, mesmerised by its beauty. Day dreaming about being covered in sparkling jewels.

I would steal my cousin's red pumps and play outside as Dorothy in the dirt (oh i got in trouble for that one). I played with Barbies, and when i say played, I mean I dressed them and did their hair and then redecorated their house. Most of my sisters dolls had hair cuts by the time she grew out of them. I still haven't grown out of them.

I would make my little sister costumes. Her mermaid tail was easy; Jasmine from Aladdin wasn't as easy. I made a lot of mistakes which helped me when I started sewing for myself. I love to sew now and I'm proud that i can pretty much make anything I need.

When I was 14 i ditched school and stayed home. With the whole day to myself, I played dress ups. Mum came home early from work with a headache to find me in her room, dressed in her black mini dress, full face of make up miming to Natalie Cole's “Wild Women Do” from the Pretty Woman soundtrack. And even though she was obviously angry and shocked, for all of the above reasons, I think she knew that this was who I was. Even though she didn't understand it.

Unfortunately my family had never dealt with homosexuality before, yet alone a boy who wants to dress like a girl, so somewhere along the way I was made to feel shame about doing something that came so naturally to me. I don't think they ever meant to scare or scar me, but they did.

I spent 14-18 trying to find my identity in the world and It wasn't until I was 18 and moved to Sydney that my passions started to re-emerge. And once i understood what i was, Vanity was born. I had found my identity.

It's taken me a long time to find a balance between the man and woman inside me. The society around me had forced me to keep the two very separate, even though it was who I was. But now, in a different time and with a lot of years behind me, I’m very comfortable being myself these days and even consider myself on the trans spectrum.

I have two poems that i wrote about these times. The first is called Blue and it tells the story of being a child of drag in a world that doesn't understand. And the second is called Sparkle and its about the power I got from being who I am.

They are both very personal to me and I hope you like them. Thanks for listening!

Blue

Do you remember when you were helpless?

When the shadows made you petrified.

When the darkness ran wild in your imagination

And left you frozen from the inside.

A little boy left wondering, always

Never knowing what was going on

Too busy dreaming of another life

Where wearing pink wasn't considered wrong.

It was dark in that world of confusion

And fear was often my only friend

My world was small but terrifying

And even on the truth I couldnt depend.

It wasn't their fault, they did their best

But i was so different to anything they knew

An oddity without a manual

So they took away my dolls and dressed me in blue.

All the things that I found natural

I was made to feel shame and so I suppressed

And slowly my soul was dismantled

And like a robot in blue I dressed.

I retreated into a world of distraction

My daydreams ruling my waking thoughts

Living life without even watching

Dreaming of dresses while wearing shorts.

I played with cars and even tried football.

Endured He-Man and soldiers in armies

Forced into soccer and karate and cricket

But all I wanted was She-Ra and barbies

And years went by and it was no longer

Appropriate to want to play with the girls.

The boys went out to rumble

But I stayed inside to brush out Barbies curls.

This only got me in trouble

They called me names and they teased

I understood that I was the problem

And so I tried again to keep them all pleased

So back into my corner of suppression

Backing further out of view

Trying desperately not be noticed

Hiding the fact I wasn't wearing blue.

And in my darkness survival took over

So my gender and colour would sync

Blue was a reliable camouflage

But in my mind all I could see was pink

Sparkle

It's that sequin that catches the light

And sparkles in my eye

A jewel that shines so bright

like a star twinkling in the sky

A glamorous glove made of satin

The softness of an ostrich plume

An unsown dress that's just a pattern

The delicate mist of ladies perfume

These are the things I dreamt of

When I was just a child

And I asked who ever was above

Why I wasn't born free and wild

I felt trapped in a world made of boxes

Designed to categorize me

But it's all just rules and paradoxes

And I realized I was indeed born free

As I grew into a man

A little confused of which role to play

I took a good look at who I am

And decided to own fabulous and gay.

I promised myself I would never hide

Behind a velvet curtain of shame

And that allowed the woman inside

To ignite my most glamorous flame

And all those things that seemed so forbidden

We're suddenly handed out to me

And my femininity that I had always hidden

Would be my greatest jubilee.

And now my life is filled with rainbows

And I prance among the stars

And I shout from open windows

That I choose dreams over scars.

The brush of synthetic hair on my neck

The dangle of plastic diamonds from my ears

A sequined purse to put my paycheck

A layer of make up to mask all my fears

My foot slides into a stiletto

And I feel whole and complete

I sparkle from my head to my toe

Cause my authenticity, I didn't cheat

Wigs by Vanity Introduction by Amelia Airhead

February 23, 2017

There’s something magical about quality drag performance. From the costuming to the makeup to the lipsync - it must be perfect. The crowning glory though for any drag superstar is an amazing wig – the finishing touch that brings one’s inner goddess alive.

For more than 25 years, I’ve had the pleasure of being part of Sydney’s magical Oxford Street scene. As one of the original Sydney drag supermodels, my challenge was finding a quality wig that looked amazing both on-stage and (much, much) later on the dancefloor. Back then, all we had were crappy wigs and switches, more suited to some scrubber at her first office Christmas party.

In the very late 90’s though, two baby drags bounced up to me between my shows at the Albury Hotel – all wide-eyed and full of (potential) talent. It wasn't long before these bitches, Vanity and Courtney, were winning awards themselves and stealing hearts. Evidently, one of their many skills was to be enterprising, with them soon designing and manufacturing custom-made wigs for the demanding Sydney queen. It was good-bye helmets and bird nests - hello glorious lace-front fabulousness!

So here we are, whizzing through a new millennium and Wigs by Vanity has taken the world by storm.

I’m so proud of my little grand-daughters, dear friends and now drag superstars in their own right – their amazing uber-rias, weaves and toppers adorning stars across the globe, from Rupaul, Conchita Wurst and Bianca Del Rio to Alaska Thunderfuck and many a Drag Race queen just to name a few. Constantly striving for wig perfection, they have created an all-exclusive range of beautiful wigs and accessories - made by drag queens, for drag queens.

Folks, whoever said “beauty is only skin deep”, was absolutely correct - so get yourself a WBV creation today, glue it to your damn head, and release your gorgeous inner goddess!

Love,
Amelia
Sydney drag legend and Inductee to DIVA Hall of Fame (2016)

Working on Priscilla, the Musical

January 21, 2017

After being a drag queen for about 8 or 9 years, I grew very tired of putting on make up and working in clubs and bars. As impossible as it sounds, I actually started to see drag like an office job. The monotony of doing the same thing day in day out, even though it was all sex, drugs and rock n roll, just bored me.

I started drinking more and partying more just to feel inspired. But nothing worked. I began to hate drag. Spiralling further and further down, with a real risk of being what I always feared most, I realized that nothing would change if I didn't change. I could either keep doing exactly what I was doing and be miserable or I could get my shit together and change my life.

So I trimmed the fat off my gigs. Let go of the ones I didn't love and only kept the few that I did. I stopped drinking and partying, and cleaned myself up.

I didn't know what was coming next but I was enjoying feeling like a real person again. A normal member of society.

During this time, there was a lot of hype about a stage production of the movie Priscilla, Queen of the desert. It was all very exciting as they were wanting real drag queens to be in the cast, so a lot of people I knew auditioned. Of course they were looking for people with musical theatre skills so I didn't bother. And if you've ever heard me sing then you know why! No, I wanted to be backstage and do wigs and make up.

Months went by and I was back to full strength, feeling great and enjoying life again. And then I get a call from my good friend Trevor Ashley (who got a feature role in the show) to do a couple of drag faces for a photo shoot for Priscilla. And that was it. I went in for the shoot and never left.

I truly felt like the universe had guided me to that point, the planets aligned and I was put on the path that would lead to my future.

I travelled the world with Priscilla, rose through the ranks from a casual makeup artist to deputy to head to associate make up designer and wig supervisor. I worked on Broadway, and I lived in London for 2 years. I met the most wonderful and talented people and l learned a fucking shit load of new skills and life experience. I felt so blessed and I wouldn't be here right now if I hadn't gotten that call that day.

Working in that professional environment with such a high standard refined my skills to a whole new level. I felt like I had learned all the spells and I was creating magic with everything I touched. It was a life changing 5 years of my life. But like all good things, there has to be an end. 5 years was a long time to hear the same songs over and over. I did the show 1000's of times. I set the show up in 6 different countries and I was tired. But the real issue was that the repetition made me creatively barren. There was no new flow of inspiration. I was stagnant and for someone who is an extremely creative person, realizing that your magic has gone is a shocking thing.

So Priscilla wound down and I took about 6 months off working to go back to drag full time. I needed to let my juices flow and find my magic again. It worked!

Me and Kylie from when she visited the London production.

How I started working with wigs

July 09, 2016

I want to share with you my early years as an apprentice hairdresser, and how I came to be working with wigs.

I grew up on the Central Coast of NSW, which is about a 90 minute drive north of Sydney. It is a beautiful place full of beaches and lakes... and ignorant bogans (which is kind of like an Australian redneck). Even though I wasn't technically "out" I was born out so those people hated me. I dropped out of school before I turned 16 because I couldn't stand the bullying anymore. But then I fell into hairdressing; a job that was specifically looking for 16 year olds with zero experience in the real world, and I instantly knew that this is where I belonged.

Suddenly I was celebrated for being fabulous, and after years of being miserable at school with dickheads all around me, I had found my tribe and I was happy. I was naturally gifted at hair. I just "got it" and everyone around me knew I had something special. I only had to be shown something once and I could do it on a level that surprised even the most experienced teachers.

An apprenticeship in Australia consists of 4 years of work with one day a week at TAFE (Technical And Further Education; it's like college). I was very fortunate to have a wonderful teacher at TAFE; an amazing hairdresser who had studied in the 1960's and who saw the talent in me and nurtured it. In a time when everything was blow dried, no one in my class was interested "old fashioned" techniques like setting and pin curling, and teasing and barrel curling, but that was ALL I was interested in. My teacher took me aside and showed me so much more than the other students. This was my earliest beginnings of big fabulous hair!

My first teacher was a barber which taught me solid basic mens cutting, but it was soooo boring! It was so basic that we didn't even have a basin! But doing nothing but men's hair meant that I was cutting like a 4th year before my 1st year was even up.I felt I had learnt everything I wanted to learn for the barbers, and doing ladies hairdressing at TAFE that one day a week made me realise that I needed to get myself into a ladies salon.

So, I applied for a job in a small suburban salon an hour closer to Sydney, and I got it! My new boss was the most fabulous woman - also named Ben. My god she was cool, and fuck, did she work hard. She had been hairdressing through the 60's, 70's, 80's, and at that time - the 90's. She had all the techniques that I loved, and I basically learnt most of what I know from watching her. I'm still great friends with her and her daughter Roxy. This is a photo I found of us from when I was 17 at our work Christmas party.

I trudged along in my apprenticeship, earning pitiful money but loving the education I was getting. I loved doing little old lady sets, perming, and styling hair but I knew even then that I wanted more than just salon work. I wanted to work in the theatre and do all of those wonderful things that you just cant do in the monotony of client based salon work.

So 4 years went by, I finished my apprenticeship, and I finally became a qualified hairdresser! I worked for another 9 months in a salon, but by then I had realised I wasn't happy there. I felt trapped by the appointments, and I felt like I couldn't call in sick because I didn't want to let my clients down. Also, by this time, I had started doing drag - but that's a story for another blog!

Looking for a new life of flexibility that would also allow me to travel the country performing as a woMAN, I quit my job in the salon, and I started working at the House of Priscilla, a fabulous drag shop on Oxford St owned by my good friend Chelsea Bun. Even though I only worked there for about 3 months (and was the worst shop boy you had ever seen!) people started asking me to style their wigs for them. I had only styled my own wigs before, but I dove right in and I didn't look back.

A job opportunity at The Individual Wig, a high end wig shop across the road, opened up and I took it. There I learned everything there was to know about good quality synthetic wigs. It was before the time of mass produced lace fronts so everything was hard fronted, though I knew about lace fronts and I desperately wanted one. My wig collection was growing, and I was obsessed with owning all the best wigs! One day my boss found a contact in China who made "made to measure" human hair lace front wigs... and that was the beginning of what would define the next 15 years of my life.