RuPaul Spices Up Fashion Week With DragCon, Featuring Whoopi Goldberg, Elizabeth Warren, and Wigs Galore

Over the weekend, just as New York Fashion Week was kicking into high gear, royalty was descending upon the Javits Center. RuPaul’s DragCon, a drag queen convention of sorts now in its third year, kicked off Friday. Thousands of fabulous people—some fans, some queens, some aspiring creatives⁠—gathered for three days of events that included a performance by Drag Race All Stars winner Trixie Mattel, panel discussions with Whoopi Goldberg and Diane von Furstenburg, and a special video appearance by presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren. There were also wigs: lots and lots of wigs, not to mention tulle ballerina skirts and sequins galore. The outrageously glamorous ensembles, many DIY-style, were a delicious counterpoint to the regularly scheduled fashion week collections.

DragCon is a place to be completely and totally free. It’s a safe space for rejecting monotony and negativity and letting your fashion freak flag fly high. Somewhere on the other end of town, away from the runways, the buyers, and the usual clique of well-heeled influencers, the queens came out to play.

Below, here’s a look inside the convention center where style is a purely individual, crystal-bedecked thing.