As someone born in the late 90s, I completely missed the first wave of club kids, including incredibly iconic personalities we still recognize today like Amanda Lepore and James St. James. With the surge of drag queens into the mainstream, their close cousins and occasional overlappers, the club kids, have garnered plenty of attention. Performance artists, nightlife personalities, genderfuckers, musicians, makeup artists, dancers, models, and up-and-coming fashion icons comprise some of today’s new and fresh club scene. Now that the old King of the Club Kids has done his time and Danceteria and The Limelight are long gone, the original club kids have taken up many different walks of life that don't all include nightlife. Today, the following kids on the scene are ones to watch.
Nico
This absolute beauty and self-proclaimed #alienstreetwalker captured my eye and my heart immediately. Nico is one of the many Chicago faces that make up a large portion of this list and is one of my personal favorite humans, er, aliens. She’s a sweet drag queen, insanely talented makeup artist, and an incredible performer. She also has a fantastic sense of humor, evident in some of her looks and silly performances like her lip sync to the Hannah Montana tune “Rock Star” wearing fake nails on her toes. Sometimes a clown, sometimes a goddess, occasionally an old lady, and always eccentrically glamorous. I associate this alien with her partner in crime, Lucy Stoole.
LOCATE THE ALIEN
She’s my favorite unflushable bearded queen and occasionally-titled “bar wench," Lucy Stoole. Just from her name, she already radiates a nerdiness and intelligence I expect and adore. What I love most about her is that she embraces her ultra deep voice and incorporates her beard into her looks, slaying every time. Her looks are always creative, varied, and polished, from a tulle explosion to a hot pink cyborg. What adds to her beauty is her open mindedness, outspokenness, and devotion to social activism, including her recent reminders for people to participate in the elections currently happening in America.
FIND HER, FLUSH HER
She’s a goddess of transformation and a drag queen with killer looks that expertly paints others as well as she paints herself. She’s my personal empress of latex and looks like she should’ve been born in it. I can’t think of anyone else who looks as good in crazy contacts or without eyebrows, either. Her love of old cartoons and things dark, erotic, and somewhat grotesque is oddly charming.
LOOK BUT DON'T TOUCH:
Aquaria has taken all of New York City and the rest of the world by storm, evidenced by titles she holds like Odyssey New York’s Best Drag Breakthrough Artist of 2015, her appearance in Vogue Italia, and her many gigs at historic or well-loved venues like the Stonewall Inn. She has taken over and is now sought after to perform and to host incredible parties, and for good reason. We’re enamored with her beauty, as I’ve never seen her look any less than perfect. On top of that, she’s an incredible performer, doing hilarious mixes, including ones where she pairs bits from Alvin and the Chipmunks with jokes about Laganja Estranja. She obviously has a great sense of humor, an incredible sense of style, and she can dance, too! What can’t she do? She even has her own lipstick shade! What’s even better is that she frequently turns out looks as a pair, with fellow club kid celebrity and friend Jordan Stawecki.
ALL HAIL THE QUEEN
She’s an original clubkid from Chicago, but she’s still turning out looks all the time alongside fellow phenomenal Chicago performers and personalities. She creates such whimsical, colorful looks and plays with varying textures to create neon fantasies. My favorite part of her makeup is typically her eyes and her eyebrows, and she often uses her features to create looks that are completely different from previous ones. At some times, she looks glamorous, and at other times, she’s a scary clown. On top of these incredible looks, her Instagram is one of the most artistically eccentric that I’ve ever seen, showing off her skills at drawing, her intricate plaster casts, and even dolls she has made that look like they have personalities of their own.
Dick sketches galore on her Instagram, but we're not complaining; it's art!
Somehow, I only discovered Nicky a few weeks ago, but I’ve been hooked ever since. If you could attribute only one person to the modern club kid scene, at least in regards to New York City where the movement originally began, then I would, without a doubt, choose Nicky. He’s bold, colorful, electric, impossibly positive, and constantly himself. Anything neon or holographic, I now associate with him. Looking at his personal style, his photography, and his apartment, you’ll understand. He’s a talented photographer and knows how to host a good party, too. He even has an impressive new Instagram account here devoted to photos from his Flash Factory parties, Freaky Friday and Sexy Saturday. They make you really wanna be him, or at least friends with him.
COLOR BEGINS HERE:
Linux is all sorts of crazy goodness. She somewhat recently made a move from California to New York City and has seemed to morph into this even wilder and more amazing version of herself, if that was even possible. She’s an impressive club drag performer and even produces and performs her own music. Watch out for her new self-produced album, Everybody Hates Linux, releasing on none other than April Fools Day.
SPOT THE IT GIRL
Snapchat: im_linux
Imp Queen
In her Instagram bio, Imp Queen describes herself as a “trans fashion icon,” and I couldn’t agree more. She’s a Chicago stunner and the poster child for everything creative, inventive, and progressive. I know her best for her big, overdrawn lips, her adorably large signature beauty mark, and her even larger billowing black lashes. She’s a glamorous hot pink confection that isn’t all looks, either. She also comes off as extremely intelligent and socially aware. She hasn’t been the queen that we know her to be for very long, but she has already achieved so much in such a short span of time, making her one that I’m really excited about.
CATCH OUR JETSETTING POPSTAR
Miss Queen Sateen and Exquisite
They’re the ultimate musical married drag couple of New York City, and you can rely on them to consistently turn out one amazing look after the next. Thankfully, they don’t strive to match each other every time they go out, so you get to know them as individuals, too. On the other hand, whenever their looks do complement each other, you’re floored. Either way, they never fail to impress. They, too, were featured in Vogue Italia with Queen of the Night and party-thrower extraordinaire Susanne Bartsch. They’re ultra well known as party hosts and as the musical disco pop duo Sateen, with catchy songs like TREAT YASELF.
DID SOMEONE SAY DIOR?
WRITER'S NOTE: Most of the people in this article are not referred to by their actual gender pronouns, but by how their followers know them. As far as I know, the drag queens listed are typically referred to with she/her pronouns when speaking to or about their drag personas. Thanks!
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