Drag Race S5 E08 - Runway Recap

Surprise - another belated runway post. And what do we blame for it? That’s right: being forced to be somewhere else for 40 hours a week! And who will deliver me from this evil? YOU!

Meanwhile… the latest Drag Race had the contestants doing something I’ve seriously dreamt of doing: creating and marketing their own fragrance. Though since they’re drag queens, would it be a perfume or a cologne? =P I’ve always had my ideas for colognes, and my dream job (if it was forced to be retail) is behind a fragrance counter, so I really enjoyed this challenge. This episode was also a return to a normal runway (!!) and also one of the first of the season to involve the runway look as part of their judging, somewhat. Drag Race veterans would agree that this season has seen a notable lack of dressmaking challenges, which would have popped up a few times by now. Though it’s made this season a lot more interesting (those pure-runway challenges could get a little blah) it makes newcomers to the Race wonder why I keep putting such an emphasis on runway when these challenges don’t. I always thought those couture challenges were a bit unfair anyway.

COMMENCE… SHAKE… DOWN.

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Let’s start with Coco Montrese. One part sultry woman, one part hypnotic zebra.

Now that we’re 8 (!) episodes in, we can get an idea of what these girls do best. Coco’s forte is clearly the young cougar, glamorous trope. Everything from the neck up is just beautiful, like an empty nester-turned-speed dater who just came back from the salon. Everything from the neck down is, well… hypnotic zebra. As cool as it looks, I feel she should have worn what she did for her fragrance’s commercial shoot, which was heavy leopard. That commercial used a leopard greenscreen with a leopard couch and Coco wearing a leopard dress. It was waaayy too much and if she wore this dress for that commercial it would have broken up all that leopard wonderfully. Plus the gold tones of the dress would play off Coco’s runway hair and makeup even nicer.

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Alaska’s fragrance drove her runway look completely. That and a desire to look completely different from anything she’s worn before.

No trademark poofy blond wig here! (Though she did wear it for her commercial =P) This is probably the closest to Sharon Needles as she’s ever looked, which is great because it shows how different and unique she can look compared to her last season-winning boyfriend. Overall this is one of my least favorite Alaska looks so far, though I can appreciate that she dug deep to come up with something completely different and unpredictable. And I like the trademark poofy blond wig!

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Ivy’s dress is like one shade off from her skin tone. A rough move.

I’ll say one thing: Ivy definitely knows how to pose her body. It’s always really fun to screenshot her because she flashes so many poses through her runway, you would think she is standing still. Though we still see the showgirl in her, she’s pretty demure this week. And the hairdo, though really cute, seems a bit too casual for a dress like this. Especially for her fragrance being called ‘Dress Code,’ her look doesn’t quite match that.

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Detox has always been an angular performer, and no dress so far has been as demonstrative of that as this one is. It looks like there’s a prism covering half of her face!

This is another instance of me hating what she’s wearing, but loving how she’s making me eat it. Detox’s dominance and confidence is feeding me this look one spoonful at a time, and it’s hard for me to fault her on it. All I see on her this week are hard lines and angles, from the headpiece to the pointy shoes. Even her naughty bits are explicitly outlined, despite wearing a garment that technically is completely covering her. Oh, and her fragrance’s name? Genius!!

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Yes. Alyssa actually entered the stage, faced forward, and dropped her jaw. This was the best shot I could get of her. Seriously.

Luckily the other runway pics look much better. I really like her dress this week, matched with her good wig and sandals up to the sky. Could that shade of green be… Jade Jolie?? No pun intended. If we’ve pretty much seen every side of Alyssa that there is by now, I kinda like this side the most. And her fragrance, Alyssa’s Secret, was not only a ripoff of Victoria’s Secret, but a bad one.

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Jinkx continues the mid-20th century looks with this lovely ensemble this week.

This is obviously Jinkx’s forte so now she’s pulling out all the stops, and rightfully so. She sports a crazy (but in control) up-do, some vintage accessories, flashes a big toothy smile and admiration commences. Major props to the random woodland animal over her shoulder. I actually didn’t notice it until I was doing the screenshots, and now that I’ve just discovered it I absolutely love it. Jinkx continues to prove herself as a top contender for this race.

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And we finish with Roxxxy, who looks like she’s missing half her wig.

And I guess we’ve found Roxxxy’s trope: looking 15 years older than she is, bronzing herself like hell, overdoing her eye makeup and wearing some truly god-awful nail polish. And persons of her physical dimensions really can’t get away too well with wearing bodysuits. It’s not to the caliber of Stacy Layne Matthews’ bodysuit from Season 3, but we can see where this is going. Deep down I really want to like Roxxxy, but I feel like she could be taking her drag in a much different direction. A better direction.

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And just because I love you guys, here’s a screenshot from each contestant’s fragrance ad.

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I’m not even putting up a picture of RuPaul for this week because she looked horrendous. … Ok fine…

I told you.

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Ranking Based On Runway?: Partially
Winner: Alaska
High-Ranking: Jinkx Monsoon, Detox
Low-Ranking: Ivy Winters, Alyssa Edwards
Bottom Two: Ivy Winters, Alyssa Edwards
Eliminated: Ivy Winters =’(

I’m stunned. Ivy was one of my top contenders for this race, but unfortunately her misguided ad and blasé runway did her no favors. I would have wanted to see Alyssa go this week, as I don’t think there’s much more we have to see from her. Ivy felt like she still had more things to offer, especially as a seamstress (with the inevitable dressmaking challenges on the horizon). The lip-sync saw Ivy standing completely in place and Alyssa bouncing all over the place, eerily similar to Season 2’s sync between Sonique and Morgan McMichaels. Though in that one, Morgan (the one who stayed in place) stayed and Sonique (who did handsprings everywhere) sashayed away.

Season 5 continues to be a season of oddities if we look at the statistics. Jinkx Monsoon has ranked high for 6 weeks straight, an unparalleled record. Also we haven’t had a contestant so far who has won more than one challenge, and every remaining contestant has won a challenge. This is one of the most spread-out seasons, with no contestant clearly winning. Though Jinkx’s continuous high ranks are something to be noted, I highly doubt anyone will break Sharon Needles’ record of winning 4 challenges in the season.

With us past the halfway point of the race, this is where things start getting truly interesting, kicking off with Ivy’s surprisingly early elimination. And it only gets better from here: the drama, the talent, and the fierceness!

Yeah, I said fierceness. This show is on Logo, after all.