Strutting proudly amongst the Hollywood stars at the Emmys—who’d shown off their glamorous floor-length gowns, sequins, and rosettes on the red carpet last night—was a bright green goblin.
The stylish creature in question was actually RuPaul’s Drag Race star Princess Poppy, who wore a strapless green halterneck dress by Bryn Costume, which was pulled up at the front to reveal her green-painted legs and matching strappy kitten-heel sandals. The gown had a long, dramatic, wrinkled train, which paired perfectly with Poppy’s mossy-green box bag, which was embellished with tiny, creepy doll heads and other bizarre artifacts. She completed the look with a light green beaded necklace with leaf-shaped charms, and matching leaf earrings. But the real gem of the look was the glam: a very lifelike prosthetic goblin face and crinkled long gray goblin hair.
Poppy, who appeared in last year’s season 15 of the show, walked the red carpet at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles in her green goblin ensemble and later joined fellow Drag Race cast members at the ceremony. She was among the stars who got up on the stage with RuPaul as he accepted the award for Outstanding Reality Competition Program.
“I wanted to do the exact opposite of what is expected of you when you go to an event like this,” Poppy told Entertainment Weekly. “I wanted to take decorum and turn it on its head.
“Mainly I wanted to be a troll-slash-hag. I wanted to be so shocking that you just have to turn and look at me—in the worst way possible,” she added.
In his acceptance speech, surrounded by his friends and Drag Race contestants, RuPaul stood up for bold, brave drag queens everywhere. “If a drag queen wants to read you a story at a library, listen to her,” he said, referencing the recent news about a small library in upstate New York that was shut down after announcing plans for a drag queen story hour, as well as other similar stories from the last few years. At that, Poppy cheered.
