Why be drab when you can be fab? Queer Joy is something worth harnessing because there’s nothing that can’t be accomplished when pride is on the line.
“To Promulgate Universal Joy and Expiate Stigmatic Guilt” - The Vow taken by The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
The Second Part of the Thesis - The Spokesperson necessary to bring the message of the Sanctuary to the Masses.
Ironically, even in its first iterations as an analysis of nightclubs and then as Third Gender Third Space, I knew the thesis would have a strong drag element, due to it being a passion of mine to begin with. Additionally, having known about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence prior to the conception of the Architectural Hub in Mexico City as my proposal, this could not have been a better collision of interests. In coming up with the concept for the building, I wanted to mimic those transformations on a bodily scale. I even had the idea that I would come out “wearing” the building, capable of making a scaled model out of which I would step and explain in detail what each room would serve as. Though upon realization that to match scale with myself to act as a believable “dress/garment” the building would have to be a 9’ wide x 9’ long x 3’ high endeavor, I quickly changed my tune to just act as a mimic of sorts.
I then conceptualized three looks, “The Church”, a statuesque, hard faced and ornately veiled outer shell, “The Nun”, an ostentatious member of the Sisters who is proposing the overhaul of the church, replete with sequin, glitter, and accessories to get the point across, and “The Transformed”, the target audience being services, a colorful and vulnerable individual who would find community in this proposed structure.
The inspiration, similarly to that of the Baroque-isms project was centered around Drag Aesthetics, and particularly in the case of “The Church”, the style of Drag done by the artists of the Grand Canary Islands, particularly Drag Sethlas. Their drag is centered around religiosity and the juxtaposition of the holy and unholy, the saved and the damned, the duality of Christian Symbology and its Opulence and Drag/Queer Expression as a means of conveying that with worldly means. I wanted the representation of the church to be dower yet still powerful, harder and more stiff than the other two costumes, and in doing so I chose to make the outfit out of heavier materials. Brocade fabrics and curtains, again a very architectural sewing material due to its usage in upholstery and interior design to begin with. I opted to use a crinoline hoop skirt to inflate the figure past what it would have been and ensured that the outermost robe properly concealed what was underneath, with larger sleeves and overhanging ruffles near the bottom. The robe itself is double sided, technically capable of being worn forward or backward, another highlight of duality in its construction.
Two features were vital in the making of this garment into the start of this essentially Matryoshka Doll-Like moment, being the Overhanging Veil and the Magnetic Middle Seam. The veil, in keeping with the religious theming and source material was actually creating using a few vintage items one could easily associate with church going. The first item, the base was made with a vintage pillbox/bonnet hat with an oversized brim for a draping of the fabric, and the second was the ruffle of lace attached to a communion dress, a rite of passage amongst the pious and a perfect jumping off point for the outfit. The veil sat atop my head and coupled with the mask allowed for my Drag face and Nun’s habit and coif to be concealed.
The other element which brought further Drag performance into the outfit was the magnetic seam that ran down the center of the robe, it was sewn into each side of the outfit in order for the reveal into the next outfit to be seamless. The strength of the magnets was just enough to allow for the integrity of the look to be maintained throughout the introduction of the Church as an entity of oppression and an institution of conformity but with a tug it would be undone with ease and fall to the floor and upon the removal of the mask and veil I would effectively assume the next role as Sister R.C. Texture of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
An important aspect to keep at the forefront of the project was the performance of each portion, every part played a role that linked onto the next, and in this case the Church outfit needed to be stuffy, ornate, stark and relatively conservative to show churches as institutions of rules and as enforcers of a less free standard, to have a mask that conceals emotion and even a veil of modesty to keep its own innocence intact while judging others silently. In conceptualizing these looks I went with a butterfly/moth motif and at this stage I saw the Cocoon, a heavier protective casing which blocks off the outside world and remains heavy and hollow following the insects departure, capable of housing beauty but still very burdensome to move, stubbornness incarnate.
The second look was the pivotal performance outfit, seeing as it would be the one I would be explaining the project in, handing the pop-up books out in, and essentially being the emcee of an event in, which meant there needed to be a flowiness and ever present glint in its design to keep the laypeoples’ attention throughout the explanation. In the conceptualization phase I knew there were certain elements which I wanted to include, staples within drag circles and further elements which I knew would be useful in making sure people understood the feeling the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are meant to convey - those being glitter, sequins, pattern clashing, iridescent material, and accessories. I was aware that the sisters get to choose a color or two to center their drag around and to be known as “The _____ Nun/Sister” and in this fashion I chose the colors Blue and Green and the Composite Blue-Green for both makeup and outfit to bring with me a calming sensation while still incorporating elements of environmental design into my color story.
I made the robe, and the coif as well as the habit collar, being sure to keep the versatile angle of the robe from “The Church” in “The Nun” by having the main robe also be reversible, with the lining maintaining the floral pattern from the other side but in a different size. The sleeves of the robe as well as the flowing skirt and the veil all had aspects of eye-catching movement in them, with changing colors, glinting materials, and shifting silhouettes being aspects of the outfit I desired.
I completed the look with a few adornments like nail gloves, providing a somewhat nonhuman touch to the extension of my hands, clawed stiletto nails on black fabric that juxtapose from the trademark white face painting of the Sisters while in Drag. Additionally both on the robe and on the habit collar there are butterfly pins sprinkled around, one having pronoun descriptors and the nonbinary coloring on it, another being handmade and wooden, each representing a transformation or a soul being touched by the works of the Sisters, a sense of Metanoia - something that will get expanded upon in the Pop-up book section - that shows change being possible with the right actors and intentions.
Unlike the Cocoon of “The Church”, the Nun is meant to convey the Chrysalis, the shinier and more recognizable butterfly stage of transformation, this outfit was meant to catch attention and keep it there. A requirement for membership into the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is the ability to host a crowd, to capture an audience’s focus and maintain it through an event, and as someone with experience in both public facing roles and as a showman who has had to present projects in the past, this was a relatively easy task, the fact that it was in drag was the twist, but as it is true to form with their public appearances I knew it would be crucial to essentially “Become a Sister” - a play on words that both invokes a religious calling and reads distinctly as an intentional queering or trans-ing of identity, shaking the foundation of the church-enforced gender binary while also reaffirming my own gender identity as someone capable of inhabiting either, both, or neither of those spaces. In the capacity as emcee I was able not only to look the part, but to feel the part and ensure my audience had a pleasant time learning as I paced the floor and used the Model as a tool to get my point across, using all of the nooks and crannies present in the model to further my plans and points about their usage in the proposal.
I was acting as a representation of what I would hope the sisters would continue to do, spreading entertainment and education, as well as safety and acceptance to those who need it in Mexico City, out of the Central American Hub. The services provided by the Sisters are meant to be done out of no guilt, they are done altruistically to ensure the continued life and exuberance of everyone who would potentially pass through the doors of the temple, and in this project there would be a present, established, and historical building out of which to operate, something that does not presently exist, all the more reason for the project to move forward.
The third and final look was yet another reveal out of the habit of “The Nun” and into the visage and ornament of “The Transformed” - a Third Personality that represents the future of possible change in store for those who are impacted by the good both the Sanctuary houses and the Sisters provide. The visual language of freedom and expression are captured in the manner of clothing and the donning of the Butterfly Wings, both meant to symbolize a lightness and shifting quality of someone healing and growing into a more ethereal version of themself.
I removed the Nun’s habit and the robes, allowing for my hair to pop out and occupy space, and as someone with hair like mine, that was quite the transition to see live. I had the crinoline and nun skirt come off to reveal shorts and high heels, still maintaining a drag element, both in the corsetry and the glitter of the footwear. Another element of the Transformed is the Butterfly Mask, made from armature wire and meant to invoke the butterfly imagery when I was not wearing the wings. Regarding the wings, I made them from laser-cut foam core and iridescent fabric that shifted color in the light, they were incredibly lightweight and the fronts of the wings were decked in grey glittering fabric as well, similar to moth wings. I kept duality in each layer to have a consistent point of reference at each stage.
As an afro-indigiqueer artist, I found so much solace in this stage and this outfit, allowing for expression to flourish and for the human form not to be masked by so many layers or restrictive elements, to be something not quite in the binary and to represent a creature whose motif is that of radical transformation and the ancient representation of a soul transmuted. I also speak as someone who was at one point religious but has since distanced myself from the church specifically due to the failure of the institution to truly support the doctrine of unconditional love and acceptance being espoused in its teachings, so I serve as someone who would directly benefit from the retrofitting of a project such as this being real. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence provide social services to people in need, they have tenants they follow towards Ministry, Education, Service, Entertainment, and Activism, meaning that baked into their core is a sense of holistically assisting others and helping those who most need it, this level of selflessness needs to be supported, and structures need to be put in place, especially in locales where violence around identities is based. While not an official member of their organization, this project is one of the steps I began taking to make more tangible differences using design and I hope that more “Transformed” crop up, those who will utilize the spaces of design to reaffirm their own identities, indigiqueer or otherwise, because spaces of belonging and inclusion must exist if we are all to live the fullest versions of our lives.
