Slaysian Royale: Runway looks that made it to the Top
Surprise, Mama Pao! Mabu-hey! Craving for more campy and iconic drag runways? Say less because the Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale, a special season of Asian drag excellence, is here to give us the most!
Five Filipinos and seven international Asian drag artists come together in this special edition of the Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale. The lineup includes Arizona Brandy, Yuhua, Brigiding, Siam Phusri, Viñas Deluxe, Ivory Glaze, Bernie, Kitty Space, Sum Ting Wong, Madame Yoko, Suki Doll, and Khianna.
So, stand before me as we transcend beyond the bloodlines of these Slaysian Queens. Which among the runway looks do you think deserves to be on Top or slayed with the karate chop?
Episode 1: From Roots to Runway
The first episode of the Drag Race PH: Slaysian Royale hailed Khianna and Siam Phusri as the top two queens of the week.
Khianna, the iKhiannic queen, won the first Maxi Challenge and earned the season’s first RuBadge. Her look was inspired with the symbols of the Philippine National Animal, Carabao, blending femininity and masculinity.
Siam Phusri gracefully slayed on the runway with her gown inspired by her country, Thailand, as the first country in the Southeast Asia to have legalized the same sex marriage — something she’s really proud of. Her gown carries a huge RuBadge in front of her dress that served as a manifestation of her dream.
Episode 2: Tech Couture
The top two queens of this episode are the fiercest drag queens of their seasons, Arizona Brandy and Viñas Deluxe.
The one and only misis, Viñas Deluxe, strutted the runway with creativity and wit as she showed in her dress the beauty of every palengkerang misis. The cute and comedic slight-reveal of the couture mixed with her confidence made her runway perfect and elegant. This look earned her first RuBadge for this season.
Meanwhile, Arizona Brandy served the runway with opulence. She is like a walking ball of fire in her dragon-like dress that serves nothing but power. Her look translates the beauty and elegance of tech couture — innovative, futuristic, and avant-garde.
Episode 3: Holy Cacao!
This episode’s Maxi Challenge is a design couture out of fossilized cacao leaves. Viñas Deluxe and Kitty Space — with their passion for visual artistry and fashion — made them to be the top queens of the week.
Viñas Deluxe, known for being a passionate visual artist, tailored exquisiteness in her long white-colored gown. She served a jaw-dropping and perfectly detailed look, from her gown, to face sculpture, combined with an elegant fan.
Along with her is another fashion queen, Kitty Space, who celestially walked in her blue-colored cacao gown. Her look was inspired from a French fashion designer Thierry Mugler, showcasing bold, blue, and intergalactic. Her huge halo around her head made her Kitty in Space.
Episode 4: Happy Face-tival
Face cards never decline! This episode of DRPH Slaysian Royale, the queens served nothing but looks and faces. And for this episode’s runway, Arizona Brandy and Brigiding made it to top, upscaling the track record.
Brigiding, inspired by the iconography of Philippine churches, gave birth to “Saint Brigiding.” This statue-like look left the judges astounded, and stoned. Brigiding’s two-faced look served pure artistry that literally amused everyone, as Pangina said, it is “confusingly great.”
Then comes Arizona Brandy, the three-faced drag queen. Arizona’s look served horrifyingly-good fashion couture, using the combination of black and red colors. The look wherein she confidently showed and embody some of her persona — grief, anxious, and judgy — will surely give you a thrilling feeling.
Episode 5: The Homecoming Gala Night
This episode is another makeover challenge with a twist, as the queens were tasked to transform the looks of our beloved OFWs as part of their family. Brigiding and Suki Doll, along with mother Bevelis D., won this runway category.
Brigiding and Suki Doll’s runway look was inspired from the colors of the Philippine National Flag that hold their own meanings. Yellow for freedom, blue for peace, justice, and beauty, and red for bravery — symbols that align to our modern-day national heroes, our OFWs.
Episode 6: Asian Mythical Creature Couture
This episode unveiled the Asian cultural horrors that lie within the countries in Asia. Fortunately, the slaysian queens served these horrors majestically-fearless. This episode hailed three queens on top — Brigiding, Viñas Deluxe, and Yuhua.
Brigiding showcased herself as a Sarangay, wherein he served horns and jewelries. Sarangays are half-human, half-bull minotaurs, known as the guard of precious and shiny jewelries. And fortunately, Brigiding is creative enough to do justice to the look.
Viñas Deluxe presented herself as a nuno sa feng shui (gnome of feng shui). A perfectly-curated work of art she made. This runway look proves that Viñas is that drag queen, whose wit and creativity doesn’t just fade.
Moreover, Yuhua showed herself as an all-white lion, with white wig, furs, feathers, and train, which covered her from head to toe. This unique clean look of Yuhua upscaled her status on the track record as this is where she snatched her own RuBadge.
The 7th episode of this season focused on the Lip Sync LaLaPaRuZa Smackdown. This smackdown falls as Maxi Challenge wherein contestants perform lip-sync against and alongside each other.
Episode 8: RuBirth
This episode’s runway category is RuBirth, where the queens were tasked to elevate and reimagine their past looks. Suki Doll and Arizona Brandy, known for their elegance and avant-garde looks, both won this runway category.
Suki Doll elegantly flaunted her expensive red-colored gown, which she amplified from her previous season. She aligned the look with her signature branding and gave us an upgraded persona of a Suki Doll.
Arizona Brandy also upgraded her previous Animal Kingdom Couture, but as a fashion queen. Her supermodel look mixed with her confidence posed the beauty of what it means to be a high-end fashion icon.
Episode 9: Award Giving Bodi-Yodi-Yodies
For this runway’s category, the queens presented themselves on their red-carpet-looks, holding their meaningful and symbolic awards. This week’s top two queens, Brigiding and Arizona Brandy, earned their spot as finalists for the DRPH: Slaysian Royale.
Brigiding walked with her “Powder Blue Elegance.” Her look is associated with shiny jewelries across her body, and her shimmering star-shaped trophy named, “Kiki Ng Ina Award.” This look represented her brand and persona as a superstar.
Meanwhile, Arizona Brandy boldly presented herself in an elegant silver and orange dress with her “Spark of Joy Award,” shaped as a wine glass. This fabulous look encourages everyone to find their spark and move forward.
Episode 10: Defying Gravity, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Come in Your Best Drag
For the three categories, here are the most loved and unique gowns of the Top 4 Queens: Arizona Brandy, Brigiding, Suki Doll and Viñas Deluxe for the finale.
First in line is Arizona Brandy’s long, orange gown for the category of Defying Gravity. It contains a love letter to local drag artists that inspire her the most — an ode for Filipino artistry.
For the Yellow, Yellow, Yellow category, Brigiding and Viñas Deluxe walked their gowns holding profound and meaningful stories.
Brigiding’s look was inspired by the 1986 EDSA People Power. Her look emphasizes that drag isn’t just glam and glamour, but also widely political.
Meanwhile, Viñas Deluxe with her invisible head portrays her story as a child who always wanted to be unseen. Then, she showed her head with a bright smile saying, “Because of drag, it became her power.”
Although Suki Doll shined the brightest in all the runway categories, her Harajuku-inspired gown for the Come in Your Best Drag category radiated the most. Serving “wink and wicked” this pink and green gown shows the real beauty within Suki.
Truly, these memorable highlights of Drag Race Ph: Slaysian Royale proves that Asian drag is undeniably fierce and powerful. All deserves to be on Top, and never the karate chop.
