Raja Talks 10 Years of ‘Fashion Photo RuView,’ Best and Worst Dressed From ‘Drag Race’ and Walking During Paris Fashion Week

Another cycle of “Fashion Photo RuView” ends on Tuesday with drag queens Raja and Raven giving their verdict about the looks from the final runway of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 16, which aired on April 19 with Nymphia Wind being crowned America’s Next Drag Superstar. The WOW Presents Plus original series, which was created as a parody of Joan Rivers’ “Fashion Police” to recapitulate the best and worst fashion moments from the “Drag Race” franchise, completed 10 years in 2024.

Raja, a former head makeup artist on Tyra Banks’ “America’s Next Top Model,” whose been doing drag since 1990, rose to fame as the winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season three in 2011. Since then, she has returned to the competition for “All Stars” season seven and hosted a total of 28 seasons of “Fashion Photo RuView,” where she chooses the “toots” and “boots” from the “RPDR” runway, also known as the best and worst looks.

“Honestly, 10 years ago, Raven and I barely took it anywhere near seriously. YouTube was still a thing to navigate that we didn’t really quite understand and we were just like, ‘OK, whatever you guys want’,” Raja told WWD, adding that a decade later, she is “very proud” and “very shocked” to be part of a project like “Fashion Photo RuView.” “We are only doing the same thing that any viewer would and we’re just putting out our unsolicited but fun opinions,” she said. 

Over the years, her opinions on the contestants’ outfits have encountered some resistance from heated fan bases online. “The internet has changed. People have serious opinions and comments that they’re taking it far more seriously than they really need to because it is a show that’s just meant for fun,” she said. 

But that doesn’t stop Raja from being passionate about her reviews. 

In a 2016 episode of “Fashion Photo RuView,” she expressed her disappointment with the looks on “RPDR” season eight’s “Night of 1,000 Madonnas” runway. “I was so severely insulted that no one could use one of her 1,000s references, and instead they all just used one kimono [a reference to Madonna’s Jean Paul Gaultier kimono on ‘Nothing Really Matters’ music video],” she said. 

For Raja, Sasha Velour, Violet Chachki, Crystal Methyd, Utica and Willow Pill are some of the best dressed queens of all time in “RPDR” history. “I’m always going to be the big fan and champion for the queens who can make something out of nothing,” she said. On the other side, LaLa Ri, who famously crafted a bodysuit out of paper bags in season 13, takes the title for the worst look. “But it’s also one of my favorites because that s–tty look has made her so iconic in a sense, the hilarity of all of it.” 

Considered the first fashion queen of the RuPaul Charles-created franchise, Raja has also starred in a Diesel campaign directed by David LaChapelle, toured the world with her drag shows and recently walked the runway for Louis Gabriel Nouchi’s menswear fall 2024 show during Paris Fashion Week. 

“I was absolutely honored and I felt like I was in a place that I should have been in a long, long time ago,” Raja commented about her runway moment. “And I really hope that you know that I get to do more of it.”

“Fashion Photo RuView” is available to stream on the WOW Present YouTube channel.