Drag Race season 15 queen sparks furious debate after spending $100,000 on looks: ‘Genuinely scary’
Mistress Isabelle Brooks. (Getty/Chelsea Guglielmino)
It’s common knowledge that many of the RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants break the bank when it comes to their runway looks, but one queen has taken the expense to a new extreme.
Season 15 queen Mistress Isabelle Brooks, who reached the final four, before the crown inevitably went to trans icon Sasha Colby, has revealed that she spent an astonishing $100,000 on her Drag Race journey.
That equates to approximately £80,000.
Speaking to Drag Race season nine alumni Nina BoNina Brown on Instagram Live, Mistress revealed that she spent $40,000 on her finale looks alone, and $60,000 in preparation for the competition itself.
“On the finale, I literally spent $40,000. I’m not rich, b***h. Y’all love to say all the girls are rich, we’re not f**king rich,” she declared.
“When I went to actually [do] Drag Race [on] my season, I spent $60,000. That means I’ve invested $100,000 this year, that I had to scramble, scrape coins [together].”
Season 15 had 16 queens in total, more than any other season in Drag Race history, which meant more runway challenges for the queens to complete.
The queens had to bring 14 runway looks, as well as numerous performance looks, and promotional looks.
When season 15 first aired, a number of the contestants spoke out against the reduced airtime their looks received, due to the show’s episodes being cut down to just 40 minutes.
Queens from previous seasons across the franchise have also called for contestants to be given a set budget to spend, to prevent those with more money from automatically having better runways.
Many former contestants have since revealed how much they spent on their Drag Race season, too.
Icesis Couture, who won Canada’s Drag Race season two, revealed that she spent $70,000 for her comeback stint on Canada’s Drag Race vs The World last year.
Drag Race UK vs The World winner Blu Hydrangea explained in an Instagram video that she spent around £23,000 on her comeback season, while Gottmik shared that she spent $20,000 on season 13.
Following Mistress’s suggestion that she spent $100,000 on the show, half of the amount the eventual winner received, fans are airing their concerns about queens potentially getting into debt.
One fan called it “baffling” and “lowkey worrying”, questioning the “direction Drag Race is heading”.
Another said: “This is part of why I would support the producers providing stipends and setting limits on what can be spent. Give each queen a set amount of cash pre-season and let’s see what kind of magic they put together.”
“Where would you even get 100K from,” questioned another. “It must be loans right? If so, that’s genuinely scary for the girls.”
