Toronto-based drag star Perla lit up the runway on Canada’s Drag Race Season 5 (on Crave), but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to get her to the finale. Despite the elimination just before the finale, Perla still has a lot to be proud of from her time in the competition.
“They’re calling me the People’s Princess,” Perla told Yahoo Canada. “So I will take my Diana title with absolute stride.”
In her final episode, Perla faced some criticism from Brooke Lynn Hytes about her runway look and judge Brad Goreski said there was room for her to reveal more about herself in the talk show challenge.
“I think I was disassociating and staring at the wall,” Perla said about hearing her critiques. “I really did take everything there as one day at a time and I wanted it to be like that, I wanted to really live in each moment as much as I could, and regardless of the outcome, I still had an amazing time.”
“I was so happy that I just got to live an experience that so many people never get the chance to have and I’m so grateful that I got to have it.”
But reflecting back on all her stunning fashion on the show, her Alien Superstar and Time and Place looks are particularly special to Perla.
“They both hold such special places in my heart, especially Alien, that look alone took three and a half weeks of hand beading, and my partner did that, and it was a collaboration and a love letter to us, is how I really looked at it,” Perla said. “Then Time and Place was a look created literally by using Shein and Value Village, and my best friend and I got to tear it up and mess around with it to create the look.”
In addition to some of her looks being a connection to loved ones, in last week’s episode we saw the Canada’s Drag Race competitors get messages from home, with Perla getting a video message from her partner and dog.
“At that point in the competition we haven’t seen our loved ones, we haven’t spoken to them, and we are just kind of left to our own thoughts,” Perla said. “And getting the chance to see my partner and see my dog was just so amazing, and I was so homesick at that point.”
Get ready for a Perla ‘fashion takeover’
But now that Perla has taken on a Drag Race competition, she realizes just how many misconceptions there are about the show.
“The internet is wild and full of angry people who feel like they know exactly what’s going on at all times, but it’s a pressure cooker,” Perla said.
“You think you will succeed at something, you think you will excel at it, and you do it and you realize, oh, absolutely not. This looks 1,000 times easier than it actually is. And when you do it, you pray and hope that you don’t falter.”
Looking forward in her career beyond Drag Race, Perla is ready for a “fashion takeover.”
“Get me on those at those fashion shows, get me on the red carpets, throw me at the Met Gala,” Perla said. “Who wants to dress me and have me sit at your table at the Met Gala? Because I will absolutely say yes, I will pay for my own flight to get there if I can. … They wouldn’t even need to put me in a full chair, just high chair beside the table.”