Violet Chachki

After her triumph in series seven of RuPaul’s Drag Race last year, 24-year-old Violet Chachki has gone from strength to strength — and there’s more to come...

WORDS: JOSEPH KOCHARIAN

SHE CAME THROUGH TO FINISH UP AS QUEEN BEE in a series full of fashion queens. And Violet Chachki, season seven winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, has taken to fashion like a supernova that shows no signs of burning out. Talking to her, there’s a mix of eagerness and someone who knows all her designer references. Violet — real name Jason Dardo — has charming warmth and humility, coupled with a resolve that matches her talent. She tells us about working with photographer Steven Klein, the scene-stealing finale dress from season eight and that waist.

Violet has many styles, even sometimes very raunchy but is particularly fond of burlesque, right

PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSHUA LAWRENCE

After you won Drag Race, you said in interviews that you wanted to be taken seriously in the fashion industry. Do you think you have achieved that?

I think that I’ll always be in tune with the fashion world, and always really want to be involved. But having said that, the fashion world is so huge, that unless you’re a supermodel such as Gigi Hadid, it’s difficult to be seen in that way. But I’ve definitely had my taste of the that life and I want more! I’m really hungry for it. I’ve worked with some really amazing people — Pat McGrath, did the makeup for my shoot with Interview Magazine and Vogue Italia. That’s the most fun for me, collaborating with artists and being respected by creative people who have been doing it for a lot longer than I have. In the Nineties, there was a resurgence of models and creative people such as photographers and artist and they are running the scene now. Eventually there will be a new era of artists and I want to be in that wave of people.