RuPaul’s 2008 Appearance on ‘Project Runway’ Shows Exactly How ‘Drag Race’ Desperately Needs to Change in 2023

Before 2009, if you wanted to watch queer people struggle to turn literal garbage into high-end fashion, you had to tune into Project Runway. RuPaul’s Drag Race did not exist. Instead, Bravo’s groundbreaking reality competition series was where you turned to see a range of queer people — okay, primarily white, cis, homosexual men — on your television. There was the ruthlessly catty Michael Kors, the uber-fop Austin Scarlett, punk bear Jay McCarroll, and the wide-eyed, is he on drugs or is he just that sensitive, wonder of Andrae Gonzalo. And of course, there was Tim Gunn, the most important figure in reality competition TV history. Project Runway, which returns to Bravo with an all-star-studded Season 20 on June 15, was the place to be for all the queer icons. And in 2008, the series welcomed RuPaul to the judges’ panel.

This was 10 years after the end of The RuPaul Show, Ru’s late-night VH1 talk show. It was before the launch of RuPaul’s Drag Race, although this season of Project Runway and Season 1 of Drag Race were both filmed in the summer of 2008. At the time, RuPaul was not as omnipresent as she was in the early ’90s and definitely as she is today. Project Runway issuing a challenge to the designers to create a look for a drag queen was very much a novelty when this episode aired. Watching it in 2023 is a wild experience for many reasons — but there’s something that the hot competition show of the present could learn from its ancestor.

But before I get to that, I have to talk about the queens. First, there’s Project Runway Season 4 designer, the late, great Chris March. He was a NYC queen who designed for queens and, considering how underground drag was at the time, his involvement in the previous season probably introduced drag to a lot of Project Runway viewers all across the country. He returns to introduce this challenge as well as a lineup of late ’00s NYC drag queens. Notable amongst the group are RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 8’s Acid Betty and the legendary Sherry Vine, most recently seen on Hulu’s Drag Me to Dinner. There’s also Sharon Needles and Farrah Moans, but they are not that Sharon or that Farrah.

Then there’s RuPaul, whose appearance on this episode can best be described as infamous. This is not the goddess that we see on our TVs today, one that’s been touched by the hand of Raven or styled by Zaldy. In a recent interview with Joseph Shepherd, Acid Betty said that Project Runway wouldn’t allow Ru’s makeup and hair people to style her for the episode, so she went with the in-house team. If you’ve ever wondered what the difference between a makeup artist and a drag makeup artist is, well, here you go.

With introductions out of the way, I should finally get to what this 15-year-old episode of TV has that today’s Drag Race lacks, besides RuPaul serving Kohl’s realness. Hint: it has to do with the storytelling.

The story arc starts when designer Suede picks to work with drag queen Hedda Lettuce. You know the producers smiled down upon this pairing. Suede — the designer with a blue streak in his hair and no last name, who also refers to himself in the third person, who also dresses like a punk but has less edge than Ross Mathews — chose to design for a comedy queen with a razor-sharp wit.

After a rocky start, Suede hits Suede’s stride when Suede has a vision of Suede’s grandfather sowing seeds on the sleeves of Suede’s garment. Did I mention that Suede is perfect television? Suede sews a bunch of little lettuce heads all up Hedda’s gloves and Suede is basically like, “I’m the only one.” Then Hedda comes in for a fitting and, after calling the look “barnacle-y,” throws some shade at the gloves: “Were you being lazy with the gloves and didn’t want to put sleeves on the outfit?”

This is nothing compared to the pop-offs we’ve seen on Drag Race. It’s no “go back to Party City where you belong.” It’s no “I’m not joking, bitch!” It’s no “if you don’t have star quality, get the fuck outta here.” But in 2008, in a TV landscape void of drag? This was a moment.

This is the kind of conflict that feeds competition shows, and this episode is a feast. Suede starts calling her “Soggy Lettuce.” Fellow designer Jerrell advises Suede, “She starts coming at you crazy on the runway, you read her ass back.” Even Tim Gunn tells Suede to make her wear the glove, and to tell her that Suede’s “been to a different rodeo, and don’t you-know-what with me sister.” How timely — Tim’s quoting Joan Crawford and Drag Race just did a Joan Crawford Rusical.

Right before the runway, Suede and Hedda have a moment in the sewing room. Suede tells Hedda how offended he was by that comment, and Hedda has a look on her face like, “What comment?” because you know that was probably the 12th shadiest thing she said that day. But whatever — the two make up, Hedda walks the runway, and those of us who have spent the last 15 years watching Drag Race know what’s going to happen: of course Suede is going to be in the top or bottom (but most likely bottom) because the producers will want to re-litigate all of this drama for the judges. The bus is coming around the bend!

But that doesn’t happen. Suede…. is safe. Suede will not be critiqued by the judges. Suede goes backstage. That hug in the sewing room? That was the end of the Suede vs. Hedda story arc — the story arc that defined this whole episode. How can this be? How was Suede’s look safe? Well, look at the designs with the highest scores.

Look at the designs with the lowest scores.

The tops are so clearly top and the bottoms are so clearly bottom, and Suede’s look is the definition of fine. It’s not a sparkly pink sailor jumpsuit, nor is it a boring spring dress found on a JC Penny sale rack. It’s like the producers maybe let the judges score the runway without being aware of gloves-gate. Sleeves-gate? Hedda-gate? Lettuce-gate. Instead of extending the conflict to the judging portion, the show knew that Michael Kors would have something bitchy to say no matter what looks were out there. Sure enough, Kors takes aim at Jerrell’s matronly gown with a Dilophosaurus collar and says, “One of my aunts would have worn that dress, it’s like a good bar mitzvah moment.” Basically, Project Runway realized that they got their closure in the sewing room and left it at that.

This does not happen on Drag Race! If any drama happens anywhere, it is going to be dredged up on the runway — even if a queen is truly safe that week. Just look at the plight of Heidi N Closet on the currently airing All Stars 8. As fan theories go, it looks like she was consistently passed over for winning or even placed high because of reasons not having to do with her performance. Other queens seem to have had storylines to continue that affected the judging — specifically Heidi being safe in Episode 3’s ball challenge instead of being placed high or winning so, presumably, Kandy Muse and Jessica Wild could get their first critiques of the season from the judges.

Don’t get me wrong: I do enjoy some drama during the critiques and I like a good bus-throwing moment. Heidi and LaLa Ri’s performances as those busted goobers in the TV show pilot challenge should’ve landed them in the top — but I’m not going to argue with the choice to put Alexis Michelle on that stage and have her spectacularly deflect all responsibility for a team fail just like she did on the very same challenge six years ago.

And I’m not acting like Project Runway is a safe space. Forget everything you’ve seen on Drag Race, because Project Runway has one of the most spectacular moments of in-fighting between a failed team ever captured in the genre. It’s awkward. It’s vicious. It culminates with Tim Gunn reading frontrunner Gretchen to filth. Project Runway Season 8, Episode 5, “There Is an ‘I’ in Team” — but a word of warning: Peacock has heavily edited versions of Seasons 8 through 16, so I have no idea how much of all that good drama is left in the episode.

So why does this matter? Why should Drag Race not drag the drama through the entire episode, especially if it interferes with judging? It’s partly about fairness, or at least the footage we see matching up with the results of the edited episode. But it really comes down to surprise. That’s ultimately why Suede and Hedda being safe shocked me and why I’m here writing nearly 2,000 words about it. I know the formula of this format, and I forgot that old-school Project Runway didn’t. The rhythms of production and editing are so in place now that even a casual viewer can tell which competitor is going to be in the top or bottom after watching for about 5 minutes.

Because of all this, I want Drag Race to be fine with letting the Werk Room drama be separate from the judging if that’s how it’s playing out — especially when you have to pull a WandaVision to contort reality into the outcome the show initially wanted. Be okay with putting a pin in the personal drama while the queens are judged, judged by what they actually did in the challenge, and then let it fly again in the next episode. Honestly, who knows what kind of drama can be found and shade can be thrown during the judging! And we know from herstory that queens on the stage have no problem bringing drama to the judging, regardless of whether or not they are safe or even if it’s their own tea to spill. As this episode of Project Runway from 2008 demonstrated, drag queens don’t have to try very hard to make major TV moments.