Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

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October 4, 2022
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Austin Fashion Week’s fLAWLESS Surrealist Ball is the sur-real deal

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Lex Rojas

Offstage, the man’s name is Brady Faucett. Onstage, it’s CupCake – winner of Austin’s Next Drag Superstar season one and Miss Austin Pride 2013 and the poster girl for the fLAWLESS Surrealist Ball.

This is CupCake’s second year performing in the fLAWLESS Surrealist Ball, in which drag queens pair up with local Austin designers to create custom gowns and perform. The event is an official showcase for Austin Fashion Week and will be held in the Scottish Rite Theater at 9 p.m. Thursday.

“I am beyond excited for the fLAWLESS fashion show,” CupCake said. “Last year’s club-kid-themed show was a huge success and the opportunity to work with professional designers is always exciting.”


The fLAWLESS Ball will feature drag performances, classical piano music played by Russell Reed, and aerial dancers from Sky Candy. Sym Coronado-Prole of the Austin drag-collective Poo Poo Platter and Valeri “Jinxy” Abrego, founder of Jinxedaposed Clothing, created the event to push the boundaries of runway by combining drag performances with fashion and art.

“Even working with the drag queens as performers to have something that’s more conceptualized gets things out of the box by letting creativity take precedence over the process,” Coronado-Prole said.

Coronado-Prole said the show celebrates fashion and expression without restraint. They stylized the name fLAWLESS to accentuate that idea of freedom.

“We’re going with fLAWLESS because it’s the term of being flawless but we emphasize being lawless,” Cornado-Prole said. “It’s thwe concept of focusing on the queer community and how it correlates with fashion and art and expression.”

Last year’s event celebrated the history of the club kids, a glam-punk movement in 1980s and 1990s New York City.

“We wanted to have a drag show that focused more on art as fashion and focus on people who didn’t really play by the rules and took fashion to new levels by doing so,” Coronado-Prole said.

Abrego said this year’s event aims to recreate the Rothschild Surrealist Ball, a famous party thrown by an elite Parisian family in 1972 where attendees wore long dresses with animal-head masks. The creators encourage guests to channel the ball’s bizarre attire.

Coronado-Prole said the creators wanted to use their position as an official Austin Fashion Week showcase to bring something different to the fashion week’s scheduled events. The queens are going to perform in their outfits, meaning they will lip sync and dance to songs of their choice.

The show is the Austin drag community’s chance to represent itself during fashion week. CupCake, who has been performing in drag in Austin for four years, said the drag scene in Austin is “incredible.”

“When I started four years ago, there was such a stagnation in the drag scene,” CupCake said. “It was very ‘out of the coffin and onto the stage.’ Now it is a beautiful, open scene that provides access and opportunities to anyone who expresses interest.”

Abrego said the show is more than a fun event — a chance to represent the often-overlooked queer community.

“Some veer away because it is too controversial, or they’re worried that they will be categorized in a negative way,” Abrego said. “But this is not the day or age that such ignorance should exist. I prefer to be on the right side of history.”

What: fLAWLESS Surrealist Ball

When: 9 p.m. Thursday

Where: Scottish Rite Theater

Admission: Free

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Austin Fashion Week’s fLAWLESS Surrealist Ball is the sur-real deal