Yahoo Movies Bosco's wings broke, Jasmine's hair was late: Drag Race season 14 queens reveal wild stories behind their finale looks
The RuPaul's Drag Race season 14 finale was nothing short of fashionable perfection, but behind-the-scenes chaos nearly derailed several of the impeccable looks that graced the stage.
"My angel costume that I wore for the reveal did not come until that morning. I did one rehearsal with the wings, and the wings were originally attached to my costume, and then they broke off," Bosco tells EW in our exclusive Awardist roundtable reunion with the five trans queens who made her-story for representation on season 14.
World of Wonder Bosco, Willow Pill, and more 'RuPaul's Drag Race' season 14 queens reveal the stories behind their finale looks.
"When we went to do the live taping, we were in back trying to set the dancers and we were supposed to get the wings to attach to me, and they just broke off like four times," Bosco continues. "What we're seeing on television is I had all the dancers hold everything and we just improv'd how that whole reveal went.... That was the first time I'd done that number, was on live television, but it worked fine."
Season 14 winner Willow Pill adds that she initially had her now-iconic finale looks switched; she was originally going to wear the oversized suit for her "I Hate People" performance, but ended up wearing her three-headed gown (complete with molds of her face made in collaboration with season 13 queen Utica) instead.
"When they gave me [the finished] 'I Hate People' song — we developed that song together — I was like, I think we've got to make this change," Willow remembers. "The crotch reveal, we were about to leave Utica's house because she'd done the whole outfit, and we had one face left that wasn't even painted that she was like, 'Do you want this? It's an extra that's kind of cracked,' and my assistant held it up to my crotch and I was like, actually... [and] we had it painted it that night before we left in the morning, like, we've got to make this happen."
RuPaul's Drag Race Willow Pill debuts three new heads on the 'Drag Race' season 14 finale.
Jasmine Kennedie also had to shift her wardrobe from a green dress she wanted to wear during the reunion episode that she ended up pushing to the finale because of a late wig arrival.
"My finale hair got shipped the day of the reunion. I was so pissed. I switched my looks around, I was supposed to wear the green look for reunion, and that peach little moment was supposed to be finale," she says, adding that she's thankful the peach dress held up through her dramatic clashes with Daya Betty during the reunion. "It got there that day [I was leaving for Vegas], so my boyfriend had to fly it the next day. I had to switch my whole looks around because of it. I'm actually nine times happier that happened because I got to yell in that dress."
Kerri Colby says she leaned into social media chatter about her place in the competition when it came to devising a finale look, after Jasmine, Bosco, and Kornbread cited her as an inspirational force on their journey through gender identity. She ultimately worked with a designer to craft a metallic recreation of a suit worn by Marvel character Thanos as a playful ode to the internet affectionately dubbing her the "Tranos" of the season.
"I was wanting to do something very heavy metal and reflective, and I had this running theme where I didn't get the golden bar, so I wanted to be gold for everything that had to do with Drag Race," she recalls. "People kept going on about the whole Tranos thing.... and I was like, you know what, this is a good idea, so I got with my designer and sent them some Mugler references, but I was like, 'Don't copy it but, like, hurt me,' because it's going to be metal. I don't want plastic, I don't want it to look like metal, I want it to actually be metal and feel it. I felt so cool, I always joke and say that was the first time I was in drag."
Denise Truscello/Getty Images
And, in fitting fashion, almost none of it would've been possible without Kornbread, who says she drove to the reunion and finale from Los Angeles with about "16 billion people's stuff in my trunk," which she assembled out of the kindness of her heart after asking if anyone needed her to pick anything up: "I literally had half the f---ing reunion and finale in my car."
Watch the full season 14 reunion roundtable above.
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