She didn’t come to play… but her season nine promo look did get played with!
Shea Couleé is one of the biggest superstars in RuPaul’s Drag Race herstory. After winning the most maxi challenges in season nine, winning All Stars 5, and being a finalist once again in the all-winners edition of All Stars 7, Couleé has established herself as a force to be reckoned with.
Unfortunately, it seems like one of the fiercest parts of Couleé’s Drag Race legacy – her stunning promo look for season nine, which absolutely stood out at the time among the new cast of queens – was completely ruined during filming.
Couleé wrote in an X post:
“This actually just reminded me of how my season 9 look that I spent 40 hours making got completely ruined by production for a shot that they NEVER used in the promo at all.”
— (@)
For context, Couleé revealed over the course of Drag Race season nine that she had personally spent between 30 and 40 hours making that promo look. The gorgeous outfit and its embellished headpiece were made prior to her rise to superstardom, which meant that Couleé herself made the whole thing.
According to this new X post, after capturing her iconic promo look picture, producers asked Couleé to do another shot that was meant to be used in the promo. As it turns out, that other shot ended up ruining the entire outfit, and it was never used in the final edit of the promo.
It must suck to work so hard on an outfit – one that you probably wanted to keep forever as the very first impression you made on Drag Race – and have it completely destroyed for a shot that wasn’t even utilized.