STAR of RuPaul's Drag Race UK Ginny Lemon has donated an iconic costume to the city's museum.

Fans will now be able to see Ginny's Queen of their Hometown costume in all of its glory at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum.

Ginny donated the costume to Museums Worcestershire which celebrates two of Worcester’s most famous exports – music hall star Vesta Tilley and Worcestershire Sauce.

Ginny Lemon said: “I am delighted to have my Vesta costume on display at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum.

"As a queer artist who lives and works in the county, I feel it is a great honour to highlight and represent the historic queerness of Worcestershire and the West Midlands.”

Worcester born-and-bred, Ginny found fame after their appearance on Season two of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Ginny caused a stir when they walked off in the middle of the lip sync against Sister Sister.

 

A singer-songwriter, character actor and comedian, Ginny’s work explores their working-class identity, queerness and disability.

Born in Worcester in 1864, Vesta Tilley was a male impersonator, performing in a masculine persona, her songs making fun of various male stereotypes such as the soldier, policeman, man-about-town, the dandy.

By the 1890s she was England’s highest-earning woman.

Vesta was a trailblazer, playing with ideas of gender at a time when it was thought dangerous to question them, and is now an inspiration to a new generation of LGBTQ+ performers.

Deborah Fox, senior curator at Museums Worcestershire said: “We first made contact with Ginny via Twitter when our curator saw their Vesta Tilley inspired costume on RuPaul’s Drag Race and suggested that it enter the Museums Worcestershire collection – we are over the moon that this dream has now become a reality.

"Ginny Lemon, Vesta Tilley and Lea & Perrins are three of Worcester’s finest cultural exports and so to have them brought together into this one iconic costume is an important addition to the museum’s collection.”

Ginny Lemon’s Queen of their Hometown costume is on display at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum until January 2022.

Afterwards it will move to the new exhibition ‘Captivating Costume: Three Centuries of Fashion’ at Worcestershire County Museum at Hartlebury Castle.

The display of Ginny Lemon’s Queen of their Hometown costume has been made possible with support from Arts Council England’s Culture Recovery Fund.