Loverboy has been following NY drag queen, activist and club icon, Stephanie Stone, on Facebook for some time. We enjoy her unashamedly direct opinions on both Queer & Black Culture – and more importantly always agree! We love Stephanie schooling us on the fashion industry and as for looks, we’ve given up gagging so, ’cause she brings it to us every ball! Loverboy’s George Alley sat down with Ms Stone to discuss the flip-side to dressing as a woman, Karl Lagerfeld and how people need to STAY THE FUCK OUT OF HER PUMPS!
Stephanie Stone, how are you?
I’m exhausted! I have been working like a crazy woman! It was New York Fashion Week so it was 600 parties crammed into three days.
The other day I read how when you were studying fashion at Parsons in the 90s, you would take a mid-day break to hear Frankie Knuckles spin at Body and Soul. I see you as that merging of high-fashion and nightlife.
I wish it was as wonderful as you made it sound, but it’s a little more simple. When you start doing drag in college on Halloween, you do it and then think about whether you like it or not. I was lucky enough that the women in my family are gorgeous and I knew I had the opportunity. Looking like a woman is not everything in drag but I was lucky enough that I could pull it off so I didn’t have that fear of drag. I knew I could be a 20-year-old woman or a 70-year-old woman; but always a woman. So it wasn’t about fashion pushing me into it; I just knew I could do it.
Did the power you received from others’ reaction to you in drag inform you?
Absolutely, because you get accepted. But at the same time you have to realize that you are imitating a woman – so you get all the misogyny that goes along with that too honeeey! Enjoy! So along with that pretty dress you also get treated horribly!
Do you think doing drag made you more of a feminist?
Oh, I was a raging feminist before drag. I’ve never thought of my clothes as a costume. I’ve always dressed like a powerful woman because those were the woman I was around – my friends and family. I saw the power clothing had and how you could control it. That is a very feminist thing to do. Jennifer Lopez walking into a room wearing a low-cut gown is a very different first impression to her wearing a business suit and she controls that. She decides what she wants you to think. A lot of these girls know exactly what they are doing. I think they are wonderful. Women have been allowed to do this for so long and men are finally catching up, thank God, as men’s fashion has become more interesting.
What a lot of people don’t see is you using these symbols as a language…
Well, you and I talk about that a lot, George, and we’re both that way inclined. I love history. I wasn’t looking at Vogue for the pretty pictures – I was reading it.
How would you describe your style?
For Stephanie, it’s always been about American fashion. So, you may have caftans ad-nauseum, but my first love was Halston, before I moved on to Bill Blass and Perry Ellis (who would also make a caftan as well.) I liked those shapes, volume and colour; all the American idioms but used in a sportswear way. I was never going to just throw on a bodysuit, corset or over-the-knee boots. You do still have to make yourself noticeable to people where they want to book you, when you’re not doing what everybody else is doing.
Right and you are working in a field that’s increasingly eclipsed by Rupaul’s Drag Race. How do you manoeuvre in that?
If you get any of the New York Nightlife girls together, their core value is honesty. People respond to the way you make them feel and they will remember that. Amanda Lepore is one of the funniest women on Earth. It is Jackie Beat and Bianca del Rio’s honesty that people respond to.
I was lucky to come up at the time where there were a lot of great drag queens. It was a wonderful experience, we practically all lived on the same street. If you didn’t know how to do something, you could grab a coffee and they would show you how. If you broke up with a boyfriend they would tell you the real T. Now, we’re more spread out so it’s harder but it’s still important.
Drag has a giant history in activism, in being there for a community. ‘Girl, when you get that test result, you call me first and then your mom.’ Drag queens have always carried that heavy load and lifted the burden. We are not going to ignore or shun you. It’s the angel part of being a drag queen. People need to remember the glamour and the fun is cute but what are you doing with it? It’s a very effective medium for effecting change, small and big.
These are the shamans of the tribe….
Or deities even. Not to say that working at Pieces makes you Christ. Jay Roth and I used to do a coat drive at Eastern Bloc every winter and we’re going to start again.
Tell me about your fantastic series Ten Questions With Steph.
I realised no one really gets to talk to people at parties like I do. So I thought, let’s take these people that aren’t exactly famous and let you hear what they have to say. I think it’s one of the most important things I’ve done. You get access to actually talk, to not just be on your phone for cruising, or getting a drink. That’s cute too but there also has to be human interaction to spread that Marie Kondo joy!
Speaking of Marie Kondo joy. What are somethings in the wardrobe of Stephanie Stone that spark joy!
Oh my god, if you could see the tornado that’s gone off in my room this fashion week there is A LOT of joy. Joy of all kinds! Right now I’m looking at a sweat suit sitting inside a ball gown.
Wow! This sounds like an art installation piece.
Happy Fashion Week! But there are so many things. I’m a Libra so I am very sentimental, the things that bring me joy are the things that people have given me and I don’t care what it is. I will save something FOREVER. I had some friends over at my house one night and we were looking at this rose that Domonique Echeverria had given me from her headdress before she moved to LA and one of my friends knocked it off! The person immediately knew this was not just a dried rose and that I was now REALLY MAD! That rose actually means more to me than some fur coat.
I always get mad when people want to try on my hat.
Oooh no girl, when they try on your shoes! Are they insane? So you can stretch them out and I can’t wear them anymore? Unless we are the same size…and I give you permission! Until then…STAY OUT OF MY PUMPS!
Finally, Loverboy is obviously named after the infamous Mariah Carey song. Can you tell me your favorite Mariah moment.
The wonderful thing about Mariah is that’s the girl we’re all rooting for. There are moments of fabulous failures and then giant moments of huge success. My favourite, and this will take people back, was when she was on BET, first starting out. Karl Lagerfeld had recently made these oversized Chanel bags and she just gave two of them to her backup singers…live on TV! Those bags were like 20K a piece. I gagged. Mariah is fierce!
Follow Stephanie on Facebook or Instagram.
All photos by TIM – The Image Maker
