Fashion Students Collaborate with Drag Queen Performer on Tour Project

Drag queen performer Jamie Campbell has been working with Rotherham College Fashion students to create a variety of outfits for his new UK drag tour, ‘Why Isn’t Everybody Talking About Fifi?’

In 2011 Jamie Campbell was subject to the BBC documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16. The documentary followed Campbell as he discovered his alter-ego Fifi la True and eventually unveiled her at his end of school prom. At first his teachers refused him entry, but his peers and their parents defended Jamie’s right to attend in a dress and eventually Fifi la True was allowed to attend the ball.

By chance, theatre director Jonathan Butterell caught the documentary channel and decided that he had to turn it into a stage show. In February 2017 the musical, called Everybody’s Talking About Jamie first showed at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. It received rave reviews from audiences and critics alike and sold out it’s three week run by word-of-mouth alone.

Now Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is being turned into a feature length movie by Warp Films, the production company responsible for This Is England and Four Lions.

Jamie is about to embark on a solo venture, his first ever UK drag tour called ‘Why Isn’t Everybody Talking About Fifi?’. The show is loose narrative following Fifi’s journey after the documentary. It is a fun drag show with choreography, dancers and quick-change costumes, with fashion pieces created by Rotherham College Fashion students.

Jamie has worn these fashion pieces throughout his tour of the UK, and the students involved recently had the chance to see the garments in action at the Yellow Arch Studios in Sheffield.

Jamie also plans to collaborate with Media students on new radio station Rockingham Radio, a station that will be broadcast at Rotherham College and will focus on topics such as mental health and the LGBT community.

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