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Fashion Photo RuView

Fashion Photo Ruview is a companion series of the American reality show Rupaul’s Drag Race co-hosted by Raja and Raven. It is uploaded on the WOWPresents’ YouTube channel. It has been broadcast since 2014 and there have been different hosts during these years. The episodes are released after the airing of the main episode of Rupaul’s Drag Race. In this show, the hosts evaluate the looks of the queens on the runways.

Hosts

Fashion Photo Ruview is typically hosted by Rupaul’s Drag Race alumni Raven and Raja Gemini from Season 2 and Season 3, respectively. When one of the queens is not present, they are replaced by other fellow queens of other seasons, being Manila Luzon and Delta Work some of these queens.

Raja Gemini

Format and scoring system

Raven

Rupaul’s Drag Race includes challenges of different types, such as singing, dancing, comedy and sewing a gown from scratch with recycled materials, for example. After these challenges, each of the racers, as RuPaul calls them, showcases a runway look to be judged in tandem with their corresponding dancing or singing performance. These runway looks are the main focus of Fashion Photo RuView, where they are evaluated based on execution and creativity as good or bad, or “toot” or “boot”, respectively.

Impact

"The world of Drag is a trendy one." RuPaul’s Drag Race has raised the bar and has put a heightened emphasis on fashion, throughout the years since it first aired in 2009. The runway has ceased to be only a place to showcase a garment to become a platform for activism. Fashion Photo Ruview’s hosts seek to give a further and more detailed analysis to what meets the eye at first glance and comment on what is going on in society. In Raja’s words: “as drag queens and artists, (we) should reflect what is happening in our times, that is one of the jobs of being an artist; and it is one that involves what is happening in one’s society, especially in America. I really appreciate this (garment)” (Raja making reference to Symone’s dress in season 13). In this sense, Fashion Photo Ruview not only entertains the audience but also provides a whimsical insight on how fashion has become an art form and a way to convey a powerful message.