October 20, 2021

Violet Chachki | Conjuring Golden Aged Spells

by Nate Rynaski

**GUCCI** sleeves, corset, and skirt, vintage Lanvin necklaces from Paumé Los Angeles, talent’s own earrings, and vintage Saint Laurent hat from Lidow Archive.

In 1965, Kenneth Anger, an enigmatic filmmaker, published a salacious insider tell-all on the hot and succulent hubbub lurking inside the Golden Age of Hollywood during the first half of the 20th Century. Hollywood Babylon told tales of glamour, the lengths people would go to for it, and the drama of it all. But behind the drama lurked something darker and more mythical in the movie biz—magic. It takes one to know one, I suppose. Anger, the book’s author and admirer of Aleister Crowley—an occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, and more—knew a thing or two about movie magick.

**MIU MIU** bodysuit, archive Prada turban and vintage cape from Paumé Los Angeles, **THIERRY MUGLER** earrings from Tab Vintage, and talent’s own belt.

“I live for drama,” she tells me. As we speak, Violet Chachki, drag superstar—no, drag alien, drag entity—is in her hometown of Atlanta, bringing the long-delayed final shows of her first solo tour, A Lot More Me, to a close. “I live for drama.” Known for the lengths she goes to for her own glamour—cinching her waist into 18” corsets, for instance—Chachki’s drama is a sight to behold. “Drag is all smoke and mirrors,” she says. “It’s an illusion. It’s clearly been defined as a female illusion, and that’s really all magic.”

Chachki continues, “You look at someone like Jayne Mansfield. It’s like her whole career is basically built off of being a sluttier Marilyn Monroe, and all the publicity stunts that she would pull to sort of get her name out there.” Known for being, ahem, a bit of a bitch—though, to reveal this magician’s secret, I can’t say that was my experience speaking with her—Chachki’s twig-thin silhouette and sour demeanor saw her go on to win season seven of Rupaul’s Drag Race in 2015, star in a Bettie Page Lingerie campaign in 2017, walk for Moschino in 2018, grace the Met Gala in 2019, and the list goes on. It begs the question: should I be more of a bitch? Chachki smiles and says it’s all in what you’re trying to achieve. “You really create a persona,” she demonstrates of concocting Violet—sharing the name with Jennifer Tilly’s totally badass lesbian gun-wielding Violet from Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s Bound. “You can decide how they talk, how they walk, how they act, how they look, how they do their hair, how they dance.”

Vintage Dior coat from Lidow Archive, archive Jean Paul Gaultier corset from Pechuga Vintage, vintage Christian LaCroix earrings from Paumé Los Angeles, and **SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO** bracelet.

**GUCCI** sleeves, corset, and skirt, and vintage Lanvin necklaces from Paumé Los Angeles.

Chachki talks the talk, walks the walk, wears her hair like she’s walked off stage of a mid-century Vegas show, and dances... on a big penis (seriously, Google videos from her tour). Extravagant, enchanting, sprinkled with a bit of whimsy, Chachki’s an embodiment of camp—and sidenote: you TikTok kids tossing the notion of ‘camp’ around like a silver platter at an award show after-party? Take notes.

In an extension of her drag illusion, Chachki has recently released new music, showcasing her sensibilities with luscious accompanying visuals. “I’m somewhat addicted / To being depicted / The bitch with a whip and the Dior tights,” drones Chachki in “Mistress Violet” with Allie X, released not too long after “Whatever Violet Wants”. “I wanted to make music to really be able to perform it and have a fully realized drag character,” she says, proving not to just be a feast for the eyes, but the ears, too. “And it definitely is a full sensory experience when I perform.”

**GUCCI** top, skirt, and underwear, **CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN** shoes, vintage Lanvin necklaces from Paumé Los Angeles, talent’s own earrings, and vintage Saint Laurent hat from Lidow Archive.

Chachki’s magic may not be so different from the magic of that Golden Age that Anger recalled—or fabricated—who knows? Who cares? It’s gossip, and gossip is fun. Illusions are what we make of them. In the perilous minefield of Hollywoodland, Violet Chachki’s magic tricks continue to reveal that there are no limits to what she might have up her corseted, Schiaparelli-clad sleeve just out of frame and ready to tantalize.