Dusty Childers is the first subject of Clothes Whores who has also been a Jezebel contributor—a performer in New York, he helped us liveblog RuPaul’s Drag Race under the name Dusty Shoulders—which is where we first fell head over heels with his style. Last time he was in the Jezebel office, for the Drag Race finale, he was wearing a beautiful muumuu and a necklace he made himself out of spare plastic parts.
When we visited his closet in Brooklyn, Childers gave us the background on important pieces in his style story: the outfit in which he met his husband, his go-to cocktail dress, his Pride turban. Even from a young age, he would “put on my mother’s costume jewelry and pretend I was Elizabeth Taylor,” a thing anyone who grew up playing dress-up, and still is, can appreciate. As an educator and entertainer who gravitates to the artistic side of the profession, Childers’s fashion is full of colorful excess and playful patterns, and he can appreciate the importance of texture to a look. Best of all, he uses his creativity to fully immerse himself in his own unique style, and it doesn’t matter to him if anyone else appreciates it. “I was once on the website Poorly Dressed People of the World and found my photo,” he said. “I looked really great, actually.”