Vitor is a reserved man, while Victoria is an extroverted woman. And yet somehow they’re the same person.
Victoria oozes confidence as she poses in front of the camera in a transparent dress. The nude-coloured fabric hugs her figure and the black patent boots elongate her already slender legs. She’s playing innocently with her blonde hair while she lets her faux fur jacket slide off her left shoulder. For a moment I forget that there’s actually a man hiding beneath this dress and all the elaborate make-up.
Meet Vitor Hugo Souza, drag queen and creator of the fictional character Victoria Shakespears – his female alter ego, as he calls it. Today he’s letting me and photographer Thomas Kunz go behind the scenes and witness his transformation process.
Teenage dreams
I look down at my feet and am met with a pair of pink, feathery slippers. «Here you go. These might fit you,» says Vitor, while also handing Thomas a pair. Size 42. There’s a smell of baking in the air. «I hope you’re hungry,» Vitor remarks, explaining he’s made something especially for us. He seems shy. Shy and yet at the same time warm and welcoming.
That’s why he dresses up as a woman in his spare time and appears on stage as Victoria Shakespears. The dainty 25 year old’s stage name is a slight modification of his own name. Shakespeare paired with a bit of Britney sass ensures just the right amount of drama, romance and acting. These are aspects that fit with his appetite for Brazilian soap operas. «My drag alter ego is a pop princess with a touch of Latina,» he goes on to explain.
«At school most of the boys had their favourite superhero. I, on the other hand, had a soft spot for pop divas, such as Britney Spears and Mariah Carey. I wanted to be like them. And adopting the Victoria Shakespears persona finally let me act out this fantasy.»
But acting out fantasies doesn’t seem to be so easy for everyone. It has been two months since Vitor’s debut performance at «Bar Rouge» in Basel. «Since then I keep getting messages on Instagram from men who tell me how much they want to perform as drag queens but don’t because they’re scared of how their family and friends might react.» That’s not a problem Vitor can relate to.
«My social circle has been supportive, especially my fiancé. He works in the theatre in London so the concept of men in fancy dress is pretty normal to him.»
Becoming Victoria
It’s clear that there’s no place for negative vibes in his pink one-bedroom realm. Double doors open onto the living room and give a view of the bedroom and the vast wall of mirrors. This is Vitor’s dressing table, where his transformation takes place. On the floor next to his bed sits an oversized teddy, as though it also wants to see how Vitor turns into Victoria.
Not a boy, not yet a woman
The curtain drops
«Drag is all about individuality. Each queen has their own style, talent and personality. Pitting yourself against others doesn’t make any sense.»
It’s now time for Vitor to put on his wig and concentration takes over from conversation. Quiet and pensive, Vitor presses the wig onto his skin with the pointy end of his comb to get it to stick. If you look closer at the wig, you can see welds of extensions – in the style of Britney Manier. While Vitor is fully focussed on his hairpiece, Thomas and I use the time to glance into Vitor’s wardrobe.
Back in the room, Vitor’s wig is on but he’s not there any more. Victoria has taken his place.
Do I know you?
«Drag outfits aren’t comfortable. Sitting down is especially unpleasant because practically the whole weight of your body is pressing on your privates.»
Showtime
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As a massive Disney fan, I see the world through rose-tinted glasses. I worship series from the 90s and consider mermaids a religion. When I’m not dancing in glitter rain, I’m either hanging out at pyjama parties or sitting at my make-up table. P.S. I love you, bacon, garlic and onions.
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We follow him into the living room. There’s a framed photo on the side table next to the sofa. «That’s me when I was little with my great gran and a few chickens. That was when we still lived in Brazil,» Vitor tells us. When he was 13, he and his mother left for Switzerland. «It wasn’t easy to leave my friends. And I had to start from scratch in Switzerland, including learning a new language. That’s why I was very lonely in my teens. That was hard. With hindsight, I know I needed that time to develop and grow as a person.» At the time, he found himself through various pop artists’ music. «They gave me the strength to never give up and to be myself.» And that certainly sums up today’s Vitor more than ever: being himself.
That being said, Vitor is also subject to public social media comments that are more negative. «These people have an idea of how I should be as a man. Paradoxically, the same people then write to me privately and send me naked selfies. It’s usually men with suppressed anger who come from cultures that have no time for my way of life. Outwardly, they act as if they’re upholders of moral standards, while in private they really just want to live life to the full.» In spite of that, Vitor emphasises he has had an overwhelmingly positive experience and gets a lot of encouragement. «Unfortunately, the media mostly report the negative incidents.»
Before a show, Vitor knows exactly how he wants to do his make-up and which outfit he wants to wear. Today he’s experimenting. And by that I mean quite calmly running a glue stick back and forth across his eyebrows. Then he meticulously combs the dark, sticky hairs with a brush before powdering them. It’s called «brow blocking». «It means it’s easier to apply make-up to them afterwards and give them the illusion of disappearing.» This lets him paint on his eyebrows in a different shape and colour and even in a different place.
«I find putting on make-up quite relaxing. It’s kind of like therapy. That’s why I like to spend a lot of time on it,» he explains, with obvious enthusiasm. His eye make-up is what takes the longest. He uses different shades of lilac to add more intensity to his look with each brushstroke, while white kohl makes his blue-green eyes appear bigger. And he doesn’t stop at just one set of false lashes; a second set is swiftly added. You can’t deny that every movement is precise. Meanwhile, the room itself is getting more and more chaotic. Brightly coloured eyeshadow palettes and used brushes are piling up on his bed. Unperturbed, Vitor seems all the more focussed.
«Even as a child, I locked myself in the bathroom and played with my mum’s make-up bag.» What started as just being fun turned into a real passion project. And so it made sense for him to follow up his training as hotel front desk staff with a course at a make-up school. It was time for him to turn his hobby into a career. He then worked as a make-up artist and counter manager for a big make-up brand for five years before he decided to start a new chapter in his life and become a lash and brow stylist at his mum’s beauty salon. As he’s telling me about his career path, I notice something change but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Vitor can: «Once I’ve done my eye make-up, I start to look more like Victoria than Vitor.»
«When you give it your all on stage and have the spotlights on you, your work has to hold up,» he tells me, while working sweat-resistant theatre make-up into his skin. He uses a dark cream colour and light powder to contour and give his face more dimension with each layer. It makes his soft features even more feminine. «This is what sets it apart from standard make-up. When you’re doing drag, everything can be more exaggerated. For instance, your skin doesn’t have to look like skin when you see it close up. What’s important is that the look makes an impact from afar.»
On stage, Vitor does playback singing, also known as «lip-syncing». It’s a kind of performance art that’s cemented into drag culture. «There are, of course, artists who can also sing live or do comedy. What's key is entertaining the audience.» In terms of role models, Vitor has several people he looks up to: «When I was a kid – I must have been about five – one of my main influences was comedy drag queen Vera Verao. She was almost two metres tall, unusual in not wearing a wig and she was authentic. I liked that. But at that time I didn’t know what drag was. I just thought she was funny and looked forward to watching her on TV every Saturday afternoon.» In spite of his obvious admiration for his idols, Vitor doesn't compare himself to them.
We take a brief detour into term territory as Vitor explains that the former expression du jour «transvestite» is no longer politically correct as it has negative connotations. That’s why a distinction is made these days between drag and transgender. «A drag queen is a man who likes to dress up in women’s clothes for a short space of time and uses cross dressing to effectively switch genders. Trans people, on the other hand, have been allocated the wrong gender at birth and want to reassign their gender.»
We come across a pile of magazines in a black sports bag. What they all have in common is they’re all emblazoned with Britney. Another bag is full to the brim with Barbie dolls. We even find two toy changing rooms. «When I was little I wasn’t allowed to play with Barbie dolls. My dad wouldn’t allow it. That’s why I’d sometimes secretly play with my sister’s dolls. When I came out at 18, I bought my first Barbie,» he later tells us. Inside his built-in wardrobe is a Mariah Carey poster, which was from her collaboration with MAC Cosmetics. «The collection came out in December 2016.» As the day goes on, Vitor impresses me with the way he can reel off the month and year that things happened.
«Who are you?» Victoria asks her reflection, with a laugh. «I feel like I don’t know the person in the mirror,» she adds, in a slightly more serious tone. Vitor’s reserved nature has been replaced with Victoria’s self-confident aura. Her facial expression is controlled, her posture straight all of a sudden and her voice higher. And there’s something else that’s changed: the language I use. Without even thinking about it, I automatically switch to female pronouns when talking about Victoria.
All that’s missing now is the outfit. But before she can slip into that she needs to sculpt her body. She conjures up two padded, tight boxer shorts from the wardrobe to fill out her derrière. She puts on three pairs of nude tights on top of that to conceal the push-up briefs. Victoria follows this up with a pair of bejeweled fishnet stockings. «There’s also padding for your hips. They’re pads you wear under your clothes that mimic a curvaceous waist. But I personally like the androgynous look.» She then covers her nipples with glitter because her first outfit is transparent and she doesn’t feel like wearing a bra underneath.
But how do you mask the «manliest bit»? Victoria shows us how she uses two small, round powder compacts and a brush along with hair bobbles and sticky tape to get her bits and pieces out of the way for her shows. It’s a technique known as «tucking». And it’s essential when she’s wearing tight bodysuits. «It’s important to shave well before you stick your crown jewels out of the way. Otherwise removing the sticky tape turns into an involuntary waxing session. You can also get extra tight underwear if you want to forgo the whole sticky tape experience. But I can only wear them if my outfit isn’t too tight-fitting and if I don’t spread my legs as part of my performance.» The pained look on Thomas’s face isn’t lost on Victoria and so she voices what we both already guessed:
Five hours have now gone by while we’ve been chatting and Victoria has emerged. She reaches into her shoe bag for the right heels. «Too basic» is her verdict after looking in the mirror at herself in a pair of nude Calvin Kleins. Instead she opts for patent black over-the-knee boots. These are shoes I couldn’t even take one step in. Victoria, meanwhile, is happily dancing about in them across the parquet floor. It then suddenly occurs to her that she’s forgotten something and she scurries off. «You’re not dressed without perfume. It completes my transformation,» she calls through to us from the bathroom.
Victoria now looks somewhat daunting. Her platform shoes place her a good 30 centimetres above me. She stands tall, looks tough and aloof. Almost unapproachable. While Thomas snaps photos of her, I sit on the sofa and watch on spellbound to see how she blossoms. Her poses come quick and fast like they’ve been shot out of a gun. Victoria doesn’t need any camera breaks. She’s not short of a creative idea or two either. One moment she’s messing around with her teddy, the next she’s nibbling provocatively on a piece of chocolate.
Then it’s time for an outfit and wig change. In her red gown, white faux fur over her shoulders, the flowing mane and bedecked in bling, Victoria reminds me of a fresher, younger Mariah Carey. While we’re talking about Victoria’s transformation, we can’t forget to mention her décolleté. She painted it on quickly herself with some artful shading. From a few metres away, it looks deceptively real. But things move fast and now we’re onto outfit change number two. This time Victoria is fashioning a revealing glitter dress. Pose after pose follows. The longer the shooting, the more energy Victoria seems to have. Once we’ve got all the photos we need, Victoria turns up the drag volume and is on top form. She sings, dances to teen pop music in the background, performs and laughs while we pack away our things.
We’re about to leave for the station but Victoria insists on accompanying us. This gives us the chance to see how the general public react to her. Before heading out, she slips into a pair of rhinestone show trousers she sewed herself and combines them with a bling-tastic bra and denim jacket. Despite having already spent a few hours with Victoria, I can’t take my eyes off her. And she has the same effect on people in the street. They stare fixedly at the female apparition at our side. While their faces are filled with curiosity, Victoria is one big contented smile.
