It takes a stellar costume-maker to weave the fiercest fantasies out of fabric and rhinestones – a creator like Lizzie Biscuits. From a studio in Sheffield, Lizzie crafts lavish costumes to grace the stages of drag shows, conventions, and the RuPaul’s Drag Race runway.
Lizzie’s costumes go beyond female impersonation – or male impersonation, as performed by drag kings. Some provide a drag persona with their signature look, bringing a character and a creative vision to life. Others sparkle just long enough to create an iconic moment.
“It’s like performance art, in that these people put so much effort and thought into something that might only last for five minutes.” says costume maker, Lizzie Biscuits. “You spend hours preparing to do this one act, and you might never do it again.”
Of dolls and queens
Lizzie Biscuits’ costume portfolio is a banquet for the eyes. Period regal gowns, finished with feathers and studded with jewels. Personalised leisure suits in animal print. Bespoke outfits referencing myths, matadors and pop culture. It’s a patchwork of unfettered creativity, threaded together with an eye for detail and dedication to quality.
“When I was little I used to make clothes for my dolls, and I always loved sewing, creating, drawing and designing – but I never really saw it as something I could do as a career,” says Lizzie.
That perception began to change when Lizzie, already a passionate amateur costume maker, discovered the Manchester drag scene.
“I realised that in drag, there’s beauty and there’s punk, and there’s fashion. It’s just another form of artistic expression and it spoke to me on a creative level,” she says.
Lizzie began crafting costumes for her own DJ performances at drag nights, and soon started dressing her drag performer friends, too. Today, several of drag’s leading lights wear Lizzie Biscuits costumes, including RuPaul’s Drag Race stars Cheddar Gorgeous, Choriza May and Anna Phylactic.
Drenched in detail
Opulence. In the art form of drag, it’s everything.
“What I’m known for is detail, so I’ve accepted that the work I do doesn’t always translate to RuPaul’s Drag Race, for example, because the detail in the garments is lost on that platform,” says Lizzie.
“Where my work is appreciated is when people see it in real life. I want to make something for the client that will amaze them and make them so happy. All the seams are hand-finished, and I take pride in what I do,” she says.
Lizzie supports her costume making career via a day job in accountancy, which allows her to lavish attention on her own creative concepts, as well as realising her clients’ visions. Lizzie’s payoff is the satisfaction of making something exceptional.
“If you go into a museum and you see classic costume pieces up close – the tiny stitches that’ve been done by hand and all the individual sequins and embellishments – you can appreciate the labour that’s gone into it,” says Lizzie.
“I believe in quality, so the fact people are still regularly wearing costumes I’ve made for them, 10 years later is a good sign.”
Dressing diversity
A good drag costume isn’t simply plucked off the clothes rail. The best-admired looks are made bespoke to a performer and their performance – whether they’re dressed as a death-dropping diva or a haughty hostess.
“I work best on the body, in three dimensions, so I always do a fitting,” says Lizzie.
“And because I work with drag queens, a lot of the time their body isn’t their real body – some of them pad, and cinch their waists. A lot of the foam pads are made of upholstery foam, which gets squashed over time just as it would in a sofa. So it’s a challenge to make sure everything fits.”
In-person fittings take Lizzie far beyond Sheffield, to meet clients throughout the continent. These trips abroad can be a journey through drag sensibilities, with fashions varying wildly from one place to the next.
“Somewhere like France, drag is a lot more ‘fashion’. It’s not as OTT as drag in the UK, the look is more important, and the humour is drier.” says Lizzie.
“German drag seems very camp, fun-loving and silly in comparison, while in Belgium there’s this big dose of surrealism that’s sort of Magritte-influenced, or Dalíesque. And then you’ve got Spanish drag, which is super-dramatic in a voluptuous, glamorous way.”
The craftsperson behind the curtain
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the fun and fantasy of a Lizzie Biscuits costume – but each look is underpinned with serious craftspersonship.
“If someone comes to me with an idea that involves a lot of fiddliness and it’s not a quick job, then I’m more likely to be interested,” says Lizzie.
“I love doing detailed work like hand-sewing, and I don’t skimp on that – which I think a lot of people do.”
We’re proud to say that Lizzie uses Ernest Wright 10-inch Dressmaker Shears to help craft her costumes, as well as some vintage pairs used to cut different grades of fabric.
“The Ernest Wright scissors I tend to use for lighter, thinner and finer fabrics, because they’re so sharp and so light,” she says.
“When it comes to scissors-making, Sheffield’s the best place in the world.”
And thanks to Lizzie Biscuits, we might now say the same for drag costume-making.
You can follow Lizzie Biscuits’ work via Instagram or at her website.
Queens: Anna Phylactic Narcissa Nightshade , Liquorice Black, Choriza May, Ella Vaday, Dross
Photography: Neil Kendall, Chris Saunders, Hayden Brown, Getty Images
