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Gigi Goode: The Naked Truth

The model, artist, and drag race alum shares her plans for the future.

Cover Story
Gigi Goode for Coveteur

When Gigi Goode is offered a robe on set, she declines. In regard to nudity, she doesn’t bat a deftly-curled eyelash. It’s an overcast spring morning in Koreatown, Los Angeles, where Goode’s front yard is host to our cover shoot. The conveniently untamed shrubbery censors the scene from the prying eyes of pedestrians. Between clothes-pinned sheets of billowing fabric, Goode stands in effortless contrapposto, giving Botticelli’s Venus a run for her money. In a sense, this is Goode’s autobiographical Birth of Venus. After hitting the mainstream as a finalist in Season 12 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, she’s reintroducing herself on the media stage in this next chapter of her life. No wig, natural hair, sans drag, just Gigi—oh, and the hundred thousand dollars worth of diamonds they pulled for the shoot. “They feel good on the chest,” Goode tells me. I ask if they’re insured. “No, but I am,” she grins.

Gigi Goode for Coveteur

Hat: Amorphose; Gloves: Handsome Stockholm; Shoes:3Juin

Although it’s the first time she’s posed fully nude–and for a cover no less–she denies any nervousness on set. “I was just excited to be naked,” she shares. “It was also the first time getting to come out of my compression garment from surgery and show the girls off a little bit.” She punctuates her point with a shimmy. Goode’s tone is congenial, but with a deadpan aversion to self-seriousness. She has an ability to approach intense, personal conversations with ease and a puckish sense of humor. This rare disposition is a quality she inherited from her mother, Kristi Geggie, who is nearby on set. “I'm very lucky to have the mom that I have. She's not only comfortable with me being trans, but she's comfortable with me being butt-ass naked and shooting for all of Koreatown to see,” Goode tells me.

As Goode’s chief collaborator and seamstress of all her daughter’s designs, Geggie has been on this journey since Goode’s first steps into the oversized heels of drag at age 14. Now de-glammed from the first shots of the day, Goode and Geggie have abandoned camp for a grounded portrait. Kristi, styled in a crisp white shirt, embraces a still-nude Gigi in a sparse and striking tableau. As the first shots were taken, the bustling rowdy atmosphere quieted with church-like reverence. The Pietà-style pose inspired a collective well of emotion. “It's a representation of a rebirth, and it really boils down to something as simple as a mother embracing her newborn baby,” Goode says, illuminating the concept behind the shot. “It felt so comfortable being in that embrace and completely bare. It was really special. I think it's going to send the message that it's okay to embrace your trans children. It's not only okay, but it's going to let them know that you're on their side."

It’s a timely message. In the midst of our fourth consecutive year of record-breaking anti-trans bills, this portrait carries some added emotional weight. Republican lawmakers have continued their crusade of anti-trans and anti-drag legislation, often weaponizing the argument that they are protecting children. “The biggest misconception about drag is that we're trying to groom your children. We don't want your children at our shows, believe it or not. Would I read a book to a child if the booking fee was there? Sure. Would I wear a bikini doing it? Probably not. There's no difference between us and a Disney princess at Disneyland to a child.” As both a drag performer and a trans woman, these bills have put Goode in the crossfire of a contentious cultural debate. The multi-hyphenate creative has often referred to herself as a peacemaker, and not even the vitriol from the far right can provoke an angry response from her. “Killing with kindness is one of my golden rules. I'd rather be nice to them in a way that's going to give them a sense of humiliation for what they just said. I don't think there's any harm in being kind 100% of the time. In fact, I think it takes more effort to be nasty to somebody.” She adds with a laugh, “And I'm a very minimal effort kind of gal.”

Gigi Goode for Coveteur

Hat: Amorphose; Gloves: Handsome Stockholm

Gigi Goode for Coveteur

Something about the phrase “minimal effort” gives me pause. In some senses it feels apt: Her mother tells me Goode’s check engine light has been on for months. Her friends laugh at the clothes-pinned sheets set up for the shoot (“The idea of Gigi hanging laundry… are you kidding?”). Goode shares these facts with a flippant amusement, and yet “minimal effort” feels uncharacteristic. At only 25, Goode has already accomplished what few manage to achieve in an entire career. Her creative output is unmatched, and her career requires not only the discipline of live performance, but a kaleidoscopic set of skills from modeling to dancing to clothing design. She tells me, “I don't have any limits to what I want to do in this world, and I want to do everything.” With unbridled ambition and a creative flow she describes as “ideas to fingertips,” the output is far from minimal. But to someone like Goode, maybe this isn’t effort; her creativity is compulsive. “I can see the finished product in my head and it's just something that I have to do. If I don't get it out of my head and into real life, I'm going to go insane. It's a necessity and a form of therapy.”

According to her mother, these gifts were manifesting from the very beginning. “Ever since she was an infant, she has always been completely herself. She really did not give a crap about what anybody thought.” Growing up in Woodstock, Illinois, Goode describes the Midwestern suburb as “quaint,” “safe,” and surprisingly open-minded. “I did drag for the first time near the end of the eighth grade, and I think at that point I’d really come into myself. Prior to that, middle school was not a great experience for me; I was bullied a lot.” Thankfully, Goode has always moved through the world with a tactful combination of intuition, strategy, and kindness. “Moving into high school, I was in theater and music. I bounced around between the cliques and friend groups. I could braid your hair and do your makeup. The cheerleaders loved me. It was a way for me to connect with people. These people who would traditionally make fun of me, like football players, couldn't because they knew their girlfriends would yell at them.”

Gigi Goode for Coveteur

When it comes to self-possessed visionaries, dropping out of college to pursue dreams is par for the course; Goode was no exception. Irritated by critiques and bolstered by a growing personal following online, Goode realized it was much easier (and less expensive) to be her own Barbie and take her talents to Los Angeles. The rest is serendipity: hope sprung from a chance Tinder date with the owner of Mickey’s (a drag club in Hollywood). The relationship was dead on arrival, but she was offered a job as a go-go dancer. It was there that she met the other members of the House of Avalon—an LA-based drag house and art collective. Goode was cast on season 12 of RuPaul’s Drag Race at age 21—the youngest in the show’s history at that time—and the rest is well-documented drag history. “I would challenge you to ask me a question I haven’t been asked about Drag Race.” I tell her I don’t need to. Frankly, I’m far more interested in what Goode has been up to since then.

Gigi Goode for Coveteur

Shoes: GCDS; Gloves: Peggy Hartanto; Earrings: Lilou

“My journey with drag is very specific and it's certainly not over, but also—when it comes to the world of fashion and magazines—I really want to separate drag from trans model Gigi Goode.” With an online audience of over a million followers, Goode has been tactfully navigating the line between her personal and private life during these transformative years. “When I got my facial feminization surgery, I got it before even telling anybody that I am trans. And up until that point, I had come out as non-binary on Drag Race. It was important for me to go through that entire process of healing and hormone replacement therapy for half a year without the voices of other people on the internet.” She elaborates on her Instagram post where she first discussed her surgery, saying, “I was not expecting the reaction that that video got when I first came out, but it did kind of flip the script for me. [Social media] isn’t necessarily about posting like, ‘I'm trans now, I just got cracked and spackled.’” She laughs, and continues, “To see somebody living how they've been feeling and put it into words is really important. On the other hand, I am trans, but it's not my personality.”

So what’s next for Gigi Goode? Since she was a kid she has had one primary role model: Barbie. Yes, she was obviously the blueprint for Goode’s relationship with beauty, makeup, and fashion, but she was also the inspiration for her career. Similar to Barbie, Goode plans to do it all. “I would love to design a collection that shows in Paris Fashion Week. I would love to be on Broadway for a week—although I can’t imagine a national tour because I become severely depressed and uninspired if I have to do the same thing over and over. I would love to become a business mogul and start a company that helps people that have been going through what I'm going through.” Both Geggie and Goode allude to a top secret project in the works, but when I ask them to elaborate, they keep their cards close to the chest.

Gigi Goode for Coveteur

Jewelry:Shay; Shoes:Le Silla

With her experience on Drag Race and an episode of the upcoming Hulu show Drag Me To Dinner, Goode is ready to expand her portfolio from reality television into acting. “I want to challenge myself in the sense of playing somebody who's not me.” When I ask what actors she admires, she cites Euphoria heavy hitters Sydney Sweeney and Hunter Schafer. “Hunter Schafer to me is inspirational in the sense that not only is she a good actress, she's also an amazing artist and illustrator. But she's also the current muse of Mugler, and she's sitting front row and wearing her Prada.” With a penchant for camp, Goode is unsurprisingly fond of an on-screen breakdown. She cites Tyra Banks’ "I have never in my life yelled at a girl like this!” tantrum and of course, Sydney Sweeney’s “I have never, ever been happier!” as favorites.

In sharing her plans for the future, there is a fearless edge in her ambition. “My lack of taking anything seriously is my secret weapon. And I think it's saved me a lot of times.” There is undeniable grace in the way she takes on the world. “If someone is against you, then they're not a part of your team and you don't need to focus on them.” I ask her if she has always been this wise. She politely corrects me, “I don’t know if it’s wisdom. It might just be childlike wonder. Children are the most honest people on the planet. I think it’s so important to keep that sense of discovery and creativity because, at the root of it, children aren’t tainted by society’s expectations. In that sense I never really want to grow up.” While Goode continues to transform and evolve every year, her strength remains rooted in a deep reverence for childlike fantasy. While many actively sever any connection with their inner child in pursuit of adult success, Goode’s contrary approach has catapulted her to intimidating levels of accomplishment in her mid-twenties. Wisdom or not, there’s an important lesson in there for all of us. Reflecting on her younger self, she smiles, “It would be so insane for my little younger self to see me now. Because I am exactly who I had always wanted to be.”

Gigi Goode for Coveteur's Summer 2023 Cover: The Naked Truth

Gilda Thigh High Boot

Le Silla  Gilda Thigh High Boot
Le Silla
$3714 $3,714

Rider Pump

GCDS Rider Pump
GCDS
$610 $366

Scalloped Opera Gloves

Peggy Hartanto Scalloped Opera Gloves
Peggy Hartanto
$139

Photographer: Myles Loftin
Creative Director: Talun Zeitoun
Stylist: Marko Monroe
Stylist: Grant Vanderbilt
Hair: Gigi Goode
Makeup: Gigi Goode
DP: Yong Kim
Photo Assistant: Evadne Gonzalez
"Gigi Goode” CGI Treatment: Partners in Crime / B&A
Associate Producer: Claire Flanagan
On-Site Producer: Alyssa Sonn
Video Editor: Sarah Lou Kiernan

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