I too would insist that everyone else be quiet whenever Juriji is in the room.

Better start late than never, huh?

The main reason that these are starting late is that somehow the premier of the season completely slipped by me (I was just very distracted by the never ending season that is Season 14) and I felt a bit weird starting recaps late – but as the season went on, I just needed to talk about it, even just for myself because these queens are top tier. And the IMHO girls and MovieBitches release delayed recaps, so I’m in good (and extremely relevant) company, right?

As with the first season, I will give a full disclaimer: I am not Spanish, which is why I’m keeping these recaps to just the looks, which I can much more easily find and understand the references of – even if it is an upward battle against World of Wonder’s truly terrible subtitles – so I mostly have Marta Mama on YouTube to thank for that side of things! Also, I will probably be hideously biased but this my blog, not yours. This is a Juriji der Klee stan zone.

Entrance Looks

Samantha Ballentines

The first queen to enter the Werk Room was Samantha Ballentines and confused Baywatch Era Pamela Anderson is certainly a look. I really love the cropped motorcycle jacket, I just wish it had been put over something a little edgier than a modestly stoned bathing suit, because from the tits up, this works as a look!

Which as it turns out is a pretty apt description of most of Samantha’s looks – it’s like she forgets she has a torso.

Onyx

It was a mercy to let Samantha walk in first because my God if she had to follow Onyx serving some straight off the set of Star Wars realness, I think she might have just dissolved on the spot. I love how much this just works with the Werk Room lighting – it looks like a photoshoot. I’m also just impressed that her alien makeup managed to survive the infamously homophobic Werk Room lighting

oh to be a completely poreless alien.

Venedita von Dash

Given that her drag name is in part an homage to Dita von Teese, this looks makes perfect sense – I cannot however make sense of her entrance look being “Did somebody order a takeaway zebra?” I really like this look though, I’m sucker for a well executed 1940s look and this is rather divine. It took me a while to even realise that she was a bearded queen given hers is more of a chinstrap that’s giving me Pearl

Trixie saying “C’mon chin strap!” when Pearl walks in is one of my all time favourite Drag Race quotes.

I just hope she doesn’t get the Madame Madness treatment and that the judges embrace the beard rather than slowly pushing her closer and closer to psychological breakdown until she shaves it, and then eliminating her. REMEMBER THAT? Holland Season 1 was WILD.

Drag Sethlas

Well, it wouldn’t be Drag Race Espana without a moon-booted queen from Las Palmas – and given she’s won the Carnival of Las Palmas before I think we can guarantee she’s going to bring it hard this season – we’ll just have to hope the judges get more hung up on Venedita’s beard than her shoes. I also love that she came in basically dressed like a cathedral – religious imagery seems to be her thing, and I’m glad she’s sticking with it given that she was famously sued by a Christian lobby for dressing up as Mary and Jesus for her Carnival performance – this felt like at least a little of a “fuck you” to that whole experience.

Estrella Xtravaganza

Without someone explaining this to me, I would never have got that she was dressed up as the logo of Tio Pepe sherry and I would have just assumed she was Carmen Sandiego playing the role of Emcee in a Berlin production of Cabaret. I don’t love the skirt, it bunches a little weirdly but I really love the latex ringmaster bolero, even if it does give her a hump

She’s the Greatest Dromedary Showman.

I did love that because she had painted her brows in that sad mime way that Miz Cracker also did for lawnchair widow look in season 10, she always looked like she was about to sob, which made her reaction when Jota walked in *very funny*

it’s a brave decision to make your first impression into a permanent woobie face.

Ariel Rec

I’m a little confused as to why you would make your first impression to the world at large that of a popstar from The Flintstones Cinematic Universe (she’s called Dino Lipa, obviously) and I think this would have been just as cute a look without the bine in her hair, but… sure? I guess, why not?

Marina

In terms of straight up fashion, I think this was my favourite entrance look – I love a Gaultier reference and this did feel like it was at least a novel take on the Gautier aesthetic – it was very much from within the world of the Eau de Parfum advert where the men all got to wear slutty sailor outfits and the women got to wear… the least sexy lingerie

and I think that combination speaks to Marina’s very androgynous, ungendered drag style. Also, she turned a ship’s wheel into the most unusable purse, we have no choice but to stan.

Jota Carajota

This is phenomenal, and definitely could have been used as a crowning look, so I’m very excited to see what else she has. I’m not entirely sold on the wig and the makeup – with the dress being so semi-traditional looking, it’s a little jarring that her head looked so modern and weirdly ladybug-themed for absolutely no reason?

Had it been tiger stripes and the earrings she later wore on the runway

it would have at least matched the airport giftshop tiger she was flinging about.

Lolita, The Universe’s Pet

SLAY QUEEN.

Marisa Prisa

I mean it really wasn’t hard to spot the first boot, if not for the EXTREMELY cumbersome reveal, but then also because she brought snacks

it’s The Macarena vibes.

Diamante Merybrown

This is… a lot of hits and misses for me. I honestly think this would have been several degrees better without the garter tights which are a distinctly off-putting shade of uncorporeal silver so it makes the lower half of her body look undead. And then the top half is at least an effort to jazz up a white bodysuit – I really like the collar and the beaded silver wig is a lot of fun

I just wish there had been a little more detailing on the leotard, even just some of the beading that was weirdly confined to a single hip to really slash in her waist, because it was phenomenally fitted so she could have really accentuated it. But she probably thought they were going to have to do some terribly embarrassing mini challenge in their entrance looks and not pose as fake nudes.

Juriji Der Klee

Do I understand the hole airheaded, slightly high off her tits routine she had going on when she walked in? No! Did I love that it pissed just about everyone off IMMEDIATELY? Yes, of course I did. This is a really cute outfit – I ADORE the fabric and I really love the ribbon up her arm, it feels very burlesque and as if you pull it, her whole outfit will just unravel. I’m still not entirely sure what her intentions with the makeup was and something about it gives her the same sort of young-but-old face that Milly Shapiro has

which is a nicer way of saying “Ma’am, you look like a haunted doll”. I can only hope that the wonky eyelash is a nod to her fellow trans drag sister Gia Gunn

the eyelashes she’s failed to glue down.

Sharonne

My understanding is that Sharonne is an incredibly well established drag artist in Spain, and that her name was floated around as a potential host of the show – which in my eyes puts her on the same sort of level as Miss Coco Peru in terms of how much you would shit your pants if you saw her walk in and know you have to compete against her? Which probably made the incredibly intimidating sword a little redundant.
I don’t *love* the jumpsuit, I think if the embellishments had been more erratically placed it would have made it look more bespoke and slightly more expensive but it’s hard to be mad at it because it’s an entrance look.

An Entrance Look Ranking

1. Onyx’s Comic Con Warm Up Lap
2. Marina’s Unsubtlety: A Beginning
3. A Walking Cathedral
4. A Beautiful Cursed Doll
5. Jota’s Misplaced Ladybug Theme
6. C’mon Chinstrap
7. Sharonne Came To Fight
8. A Sad Bottle of Tio Pepe
9. Pebbles Flintstone: The Teen Years
10. Marisa Prisa’s Padron Peppers
11. Marisa Prisa’s Reveal
12. Confused Pamela Anderson at a Bike Rally
13. Diamante’s Undead Legs

Take It To The Runway

There were two runways this episode, the first being inspired by someone from your hometown and the second to be an outfit that symbolises your hometown – they’re two very similar categories and with the references being so specific, I was a little apprehensive about recapping it, which is kind of why this is all very delayed. I have tried my best to understand their references, but I also want to talk about the looks as “fashion” because at the end of the day, this is a runway.

Reina de tu Ciudad / Queen of Your Hometown

Venedita von Dash

Her runway look was inspired by the Lady of Elche, which is a limestone bust that was potentially once upon a time a funerary urn. I love the opulence of this look and it’s pretty much a spot on reconstruction of it – although her head wheels are a lot larger, which does slightly make her head look like it’s about to mown down by an 8 wheel lorry, but it’s drag so you’ve kind of got to go bigger and better.
There was also something about the way she did her her makeup that really reminded me of Bimini from Drag Race UK

but it might just be the enviable bone structure.

Jota Carajota

The singer Rocio Jurado was her inspiration and I can’t tell if this is a recreation of an outfit she wore, but it’s very cute in its 60s music video safely-sexy style and I really love the photoshoot she did with the look that she’s posted on Instagram. I don’t know if I’m as wild about it as the judges were – I think they were just a little amazed that an 18 year old knows anything happened before 2002.

Samantha Ballentines

See what I mean about “from the tits up”? Because this is really quite elaborate until you get to below the nipples and it becomes a leotard worn by the New Zealand Olympic swimming team and then you get to the ankles and it’s A WORLD OF NO, BURN THE SHOES. Given that she was doing Miss Mara, a trapeze artist, she could have really gone all out on the campy glitz and glamour of a circus.

Ariel Rec

I found it quite fun that Ariel was doing Alaska, who was a guest judge on the last season

and I really liked her look – or at least I loved the punk hair and the jacket, but given her confessional look, I full believe she owned this jacket prior to the season and wears it out of drag more so than in drag

we love a resourceful queen.

Marina

I can’t say I’m familiar with Jose Ocana who Marina was referencing but judging by the reactions from the judges, as well Marta Mama on YouTube who was reduced to tears by and it was very cute, she nailed this look as a reference point – and apparently they aired the full uncensored dick-flash on Spanish TV? And Ana Locking was certainly having a great time

Good for her. Good for Spain.

But besides it being a very well done reference point, it was just a great look and I loved the way her hat cast half her face into deep shadow

it gives it such a 50s noir vibe – it really all worked very well.

Diamante Merybrown

I appreciate what she was trying to do with this look – I’m not sure it really worked though and not least of all because of the very disappointing cannon fire

it’s all a little bit Aisa O’Hara desperately trying to blow a very drowsy butterfly out of a box. If you’re going to do something like the cannon fire, it’s got to be very noticeable, or else we end up with Miz Cracker spilling salt out of her boobs again

maybe we just stop firing projectiles out of our tits? It’s clearly not working girls.

As for the rest of Diamante’s look – the skirt was a little too flimsy and kind of flopped around all over the place, but I did like the idea of the whole tartan-cum-punk aesthetic she was aiming for, it just needed a little more roughing up and exaggeration – a sort of tartan version of Denali’s civil war ghost bride look would’ve been amazing

but with Diamante, she seems much more performance focused with the fashion coming second, which is fine but I worry about how that’ll go down over the course of the season.

Juriji Der Klee

ok, let’s state the obvious: she looks beautiful. This look did cause some minor controversy in that this was kind of similar to a look worn by a very conservative politician (or something to that effect) and while I think Juriji’s aim may have been to sort of “reclaim” it, it was a bit weird that she never mentioned her and instead focused on the designer of the dress.
It was a little unfortunate that the stars all began sort of falling off – my best guess is that she was initially going to do a sort of burlesque performance and tear them off herself, but they started falling off before she got to that point of the presentation – because the rest of the dress was so impeccably made and fitted that I can’t quite imagine they would have just single stitched the stars on like that without there being a reason for it?

Marisa Prisa

before we get to the look, I have to say that nothing in this episode made me laugh harder than the speed at which Marisa careened onto the runway

Why was she moving so fast? Did she have somewhere else to be? And it took Supreme by as much surprise as me apparently

and if you hadn’t spotted Marisa as the first boot based on her entrance look, you surely did when they cut to THISshot of Supremme

despite the fact Marisa was doing a very worthy look

and as much as I love the fact that she looks weirdly like Jennifer Coolidge, it doesn’t really help that the outfit does look like something you regularly see people running a half marathon in.

Sharonne

Sharonne’s look was kind of everything I hate about these hometown look categories – something about wearing a caftan with the skyline on it just doesn’t feel particularly inspired – but the rest of the look inspired by Montserrat Caballé and her performance was fun – she NAILED the makeup and the Freddie Mercury T-posing on the back of her head did make my laugh unnecessarily hard

it’s delightfully stupid.

Estrella Xtravaganza

After this look I may have fallen down a rabbit hole just reading everything I could find about Monica del Ravel and I think Estrella did this really well – I like that she presented a much more glamorous version of Monica and I thought her eye makeup was really quite stunning (and a dead match for Ana Locking’s)

and I really like the dress – sure it looks a little bit like a prolapse but I think Monica would’ve kind of loved that.

Drag Sethlas

Ok, I said nothing made me harder than Marisa Prisa careening around the corner like she was playing Mario Kart, but I lied because I FUCKING LOST IT when Drag Sethlas emerged onto the runway balancing a really bad Halloween mask on her face like that scene in The Office when Dwight has the CPR dummy’s face over his face

and then somehow it got weirder because suddenly she ripped off her old lady costume to reveal Mr. Mistoffelees drag that was somehow weirder than anything that happened in CATS (2019)

I fully get that she was doing Lolita Pluma who is famous for feeding the cats in a park – but I am 100% sure there were better ways of conveying that than ANY of this.

Onyx

Apparently there are layers to this look that I, as someone who has never experienced the taste of Madrid tap water, will never understand. So I shall merely appreciate it as a very cool look – it’s hard to convey water with fabric and I think Onyx did it extremely well with the mix of frothy tulle and the really cool molded perspex bodice – that reminded me a lot of Prabal Gurung’s first collection. My only qualm is the makeup, which felt like a little bit of an afterthought and reads a bit like child’s facepaint – I just know Onyx can do really cool makeup so perhaps my expectations there are a little higher.

A Queen of Your Hometown Look Ranking

1. Venedita von Leche
2. Censored Marina
3. Estrella’s Glam Monica
4. The Madrid Tap Water Tastes: Good/Bad (Delete as Necessary)
5. Juriji’s Star Spangled Discourse
6. Jota Gone 60s
7. Sharonne’s Cityscape Caftan
8. Ariel as Alaska (not that one)
9. Samantha’s Tits Up Trapeze
10. Diamante Party Popper Tits
11. Drag Sethlas’s One Woman Production of CATS
12. Marisa Prisa’s Half Marathon Fundraiser

Simbolo de tu Ciudad / Symbol of Your Hometown

Venedita von Dash

I thought this was a really clever combination of two very disparate ideas – the obvious palm tree silhouette is a reference to the date orchards of Elche, and then the whole thing is made out of parts of shoes as a nod to the prominent shoe-making industry. I genuinely think it’s one of the most successful hometown looks we’ve seen – I really love it – and I have to admire someone who is wearing an entire species of tropical bird on her head. I really can’t quite fathom how she wasn’t in the top three. If I did have to offer a critique, it’s that I wish she would go a little harder with her makeup because she’s kind of just doing regular beauty makeup and her face in drag is basically the same as her face out of drag

and I think if she wants to get further in the competition, she’s going to need to give us more of a transformation.

Jota Carajota

Jota had A LOT of ideas going on for this outfit and really she only needed one of them – I honestly think she shouldn’t have bothered with the reveal and she most certainly shouldn’t have bothered with weird chain system on her back

which I am assuming is what messed up the reveal

but I think she should have just come out holding the cape because she looked so snappy and sharp in the trousers

I think it would have had far more impact just coming out looking like that right from the jump.

Samantha Ballentines

When Samantha first emerged shrouded in a massive amount of tulle, I was VERY excited because I thought she might have finally realised that she has a torso

and then…

DAMMIT GIRL! I’m so mad, because I genuinely think this could have been really cute had she just made it a full skirt! I really liked the bodice – especially the shells cascading over her shoulder

but alas, she is allergic to her own legs.

Ariel Rec

I think there’s a very cool look in here somewhere, I’m just not sure this really came together very well – not least of all because she’s wearing a pair of PE shorts the likes of which we haven’t seen on the runway since Cynthia Lee Fontaine’s DryFit incident

obviously they make a little more sense given that she was going for the Atletico Madrid kit – but if she was going to do that I think the rest of the outfit needed to be a little more drag – had that corset actually been cinching her in and not just kind of stuck to her torso, this would have read a lot better. I did really like the wig though

the makeup didn’t really work – she was obviously trying to do a sort of blue-grey toned makeup to fit with the Neptune inspiration but those tones clashed really badly with the vivid reds and she just looks a little sickly. Great shoes though – I’m always here for a heeled trainer.

Marina

I really love Marina but this was so absurdly literal and yet still somehow required a full 3 page essay on what it actually was – it was like the perfect intersection of Sasha Velour’s high concept psychosis princess look and Etcetera Etcetera’s hometown look in which she had to explain the that the lines of her corset were like the streets of Canberra

(it was just an outfit she owned prior to the show and she had to make it fit something somehow)

But I really like the actual look, the explanation of it was all just a little goofy and eyeroll inducing – especially when she opened her palm to reveal the little papier-mache Agbar Tower that looked like it was Alien-ing out of her palm

it’s also a little… buttpluggy.

Diamante Merybrown

As far as the sports looks go – I think this was the better of them because it read a little more draggy and it was a lot more cheeky with the baseball-esque jacket, the fuck-off long braid and I have to admire anyone that bedazzles an entire baseball bat. And she gave it a lot of energy on the runway – it was genuinely hard to get a screenshot that wasn’t blurry because she moves SO MUCH.

Juriji Der Klee

I really like this – it’s easy to say “she’s just wearing a bodysuit and holding a giant mussel – it’s not a look!” but sometimes, it’s the statement that matters more and having a transwoman walk out with something so vaginally symbolic honestly warms my heart. And she had thought about the styling with the mussel earrings and matching ring

and you really can’t be mad it at because it gave us these screenshots that now occupy at least 75% of my mental brain power at any one time

hang them in The Louvre.

Marisa Prisa

I think this is an easily salvageable look – I really love the latex swing dress and the red boots – but she REALLY needed a more significant braid, especially after Diamante came out with her 3 metres of hair. But what I think would have been cooler is if she had had the thurible she was swinging be the braid – and also, why was it not smoking? And significantly bigger – everything about the look was a little too small but that was particularly baffling to me.

Sharonne

Much like her Montserrat Caballé look, this just didn’t wow me, which is quite something considering she revealed from her hotel lobby rug of a coat (Dior my arse) into a flock of pigeons

I just think the final look is all a little cumbersome and clunky

and that wig belongs in the Disastah Pile, I will not allow its existence to continue unpunished.

Estrella Xtravaganza

I really wish she had just kept the horse mask on the entire time, I think it made the look a lot more interesting because once she took it off, it just became a little more pedestrian

but I like this as a not-too-literal nod to the Andalusian flag.

Drag Sethlas

I think you almost set yourself up for disappointment when you come out swaddled in a cloak that is so blatantly a reveal, and sure enough it was and given the opulence and ornateness of her entrance look and the fact she was wearing a crown, I was expecting something MAJOR and then it was… just the emblem of Las Palmas glued to her chest

it’s the exact sort of obviousness that I don’t particularly enjoy in these runway challenges.

Onyx

Oh, they did everyone SO MANY favours by making Onyx go last on the runway because this was EVERYTHING and I love that it literally just silenced all of the judges as Supremme had the realisation that this season was going to be A Moment

the only thing I didn’t love about it were the shoes, but I’m not sure what I think she should have done instead because she couldn’t exactly go out barefoot.

A Hometown Symbol Runway Ranking

1. Onyx’s Nippleless Angel
2. Juriji’s Very Subtle Vaginal Symbolism
3. Venedita’s Exeggutor Cosplay
4. Marina Being Very Subtle
5. Estrella’s Diverted PonyPlay
6. Jota’s Overworked Bullfighter
7. Sharonne’s Coatful of Pigeons
8. Diamante’s Big Swinger
9. She Sells Seashell on the Seashore
10. Drag Sethlas’s Superglue Budget
11. Ariel’s PE Kit
12. Marisa Prisa Templar Kinkster

Based on my HIGHLY scientific scoring system, my top three would have been Venedita, Marina and Onyx (Venedita actually scored highest but my God Onyx deserved the win for that fallen Angel look). As for my bottom three, it would have been Drag Sethlas, Ariel and Marisa in the bottom 3 – with Sethlas and Marisa facing off in the lipsync – but I can see why they put Samantha in the bottom 2, if only for the car crash of a lipsync.

And if you’ve enjoyed this (delayed) recap of Drag Race Espana’s fashion and would like to support the blog you can donate to my Ko-fi account HERE!