Drag RaceStar Who Wore Viral Banana Outfit to Emmys Reveals Kim Kardashian Inspired Look (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Nymphia Wind attends the 76th Emmy Awards on Sept. 15.Photo:Disney/Stewart Cook

Disney/Stewart Cook

RuPaul’s Drag Racestar Nymphia Wind turned plenty of heads at Sunday’s 2024Emmy Awards, even though no one could see her face!

ThereigningDrag Racechampionhit the red carpet at the Peacock Theater in a full florescent bodycon dress complete with facekini. The look included hand-drawn and glued-on features and two giant detachable “leaves.”

“The inspiration was fromKim Kardashian’sMet Gala look with Balenciaga, the all-black one,” Nymphia told PEOPLE exclusively on Monday, Sept. 16. “And also Gareth Pugh’s 2016 runway, where they did face cover-up with and then painted makeup on top of that face cover up.”

“For this version, I wanted to do like a bold color and bold structure and shape, and that was the main focus,” the drag artist added. “I thought it would be good to just cover up my identity because I found what Kim did at the Met interesting where she covered up her identity and was just left with a physical form.”

Kim Kardashian at the 2021 Met Gala.Mike Coppola/Getty

And just like on the reality competition, Nymphia found herself adding last-minute touches to her outfit right before showtime, sharing a clip of Shio furiously adding sequins to the dress in the car ride over.

“I used the wrong glue that had needed more time to dry,” Nymphia said of the embellishments. “So I went back to the normal fast-drying e6000 [glue] while I was in the car, because some of the stones fell off. Shio, my partner in crime, who helps make me a lot of my outfits, was stoning it while we were on the car rushing into the venue.”

Upon arriving at the Peacock Theater, it was mask-on and leaves-up. Nymphia didn’t have makeup under the look — “a little break from drag,” as she put it. However, there were still challenges.

“It was very torturous, because [the mask] compressed my actual lashes. It felt like my lash was poking my eyeball. So it was very uncomfortable,” she said, admitting she had to partially remove the mask at points due to the irritation. The mask also made her very sweaty.

Nymphia Wind takes a breather from her facekini at the 76th Emmy Awards.NYMPHIA WIND/Instagram

NYMPHIA WIND/Instagram

" ‘Oh, we love you!’ " Nymphia recalls theModern Familyactor responding. “It’s crazy to meet these people … a lot of them actually watchDrag Race.”

“Matt Bomerwas like, ‘Congratulations!’ Matt Bomer does not come across as someone to me that watchesDrag Race!” she added.

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Nymphia Wind at the 76th Emmy Awards.Amy Sussman/Getty

Amy Sussman/Getty

Nymphia will have plenty of time to cool off after the sweaty Emmys night; she’s planning a holiday to Antarctica with her mother. Then she’ll be guest-starring inDrag Race Vegas Livefor a week in November.

source: people.com