Kristi Geggie watches from the front steps as Gigi tosses her hair back, poised for the first shot of the day. She cradles a cup of coffee in one hand and her iPhone is positioned for photos in the other like a proud parent at her kid’s dance recital. Gigi poses nude, artfully draped in hanging sheets in the front yard of her home as Kristi snaps photos discreetly censored by the surrounding greenery. “I’m sending this one to my mom,” Kristi smiles, showing me the shot. She does, and Gigi’s grandmother’s response is loaded with exclamation points. I haven’t seen this much multi-generational excitement for a nude photoshoot since Kim K’s Playboy cover. Kristi, far from being a mom-ager, simply has an unconditional excitement for her daughter’s achievements. Amidst the camera flashes, booming EDM remixes, and on-set bustle, Kristi remains unphased. As Gigi’s mother, she is no stranger to this particular brand of glamorous chaos. Kristi herself has her hair set in curlers and a full beat of makeup–courtesy of Gigi, of course–since she is on deck for the next set of photos. “Funny to me that you want me in the shoot. Really not sure why, but I’ll do anything for Gigi.” But, it is no mystery to us why she is here. Kristi is Gigi’s chief collaborator. As an interior designer and costume designer, she is the tour de force behind her daughter’s on-stage ensembles. Gigi designs and Kristi creates the garment. In telling the full story of Gigi, it would simply be bad journalism to leave her mother on the sidelines.
When it comes time for the first shot of mother and daughter together, Kristi dons one of the two matching Peggy Hartanto capes. Topless underneath the red, almost papal-looking bib, she shrugs, repeating, “Anything for Gigi.” The two of them hold on to a blowdryer—a kitschy, hand-held accessory that unfortunately does not produce the hair-tossing wind we needed for the photo. With wind supplemented from below by two people fanning giant pieces of cardboard, Gigi and Kristi flip their hair around with the fanfare of an 80s music video. Gigi instructs her mother, “The best smile you can get on camera is if you say ‘shiiit.’” Kristi parrots her daughter, saying “shiiiit” repeatedly through her teeth as she grins through each pose. “You only need to say it once, mom,” Gigi ribbed. No matter the situation, it’s impossible to avoid the playful needling between mother and daughter, especially when it comes to family photos.
After de-glamming to their natural, everyday looks, it’s time for the portrait. As they adjust in their seats against the white backdrop, Kristi laughs, “I feel like we’re getting our portraits taken at the mall.” Settling into their pose, Kristi—hair back in a crisp white shirt—holds a nude Gigi in her arms in an almost La Pieta-style embrace. As the camera shutter clicks away, a stillness falls over the room. Far from a portrait at JCPenny, the tableau is striking. I can sense a collective welling of emotion from everyone on set. “I feel like I’m going to cry,” someone whispers to me. I was relieved it isn’t just my own penchant for sappiness that has me tearing up. In that moment, we’re all feeling a collective ache for the maternal—some for their mothers, others for their children, maybe even both. At some point the music stopped playing but no one seemed to notice. We’re too busy bearing witness to something both universally sought after but surprisingly rare: unconditional love. Words can’t do it justice, but thankfully a photo is worth a thousand of them (and we have several).
After the shoot wraps, I have the privilege of interviewing Gigi and Kristi together for a conversation on their collaborative relationship, their feelings on set, and of course, the embarrassing anecdotes that only a mother can share.
AE: How did it feel being photographed together yesterday? What were your emotions on set?
KG: Seeing Gigi outside naked in front of everybody, I thought it would really be weird but it really wasn’t. She just feels so comfortable. When we finally sat down together, and I was holding her in front of me, it almost made me want to cry. When my kids were babies, I used to hold them and look in the mirror and think, “I’m a mom.” When they’re babies, you can hold them in a way that you don't when they're older, because it's weird. I felt lucky having the opportunity to do something we wouldn’t have if there hadn't been a photoshoot.
GG: I think it should be the cover, but that’s just me.
AE: You two have a unique, close relationship that carried well into adulthood. Have you always been this close?
KG: We’ve always had good vibes. I was just talking to Gigi and trying to think back to when I felt like she was not a little boy. Really, from the minute she was born, she was not a little boy. There wasn’t an exact moment in time, she’s just always been exactly who she was. I remember at two or three years old, we were driving to preschool and we were singing "Leaving On A Jet Plane" together and she said, "Mom, why did God make me a boy? I should have been a girl." That was at three years old, so we’ve been on this journey forever.
"Our kids don't ask to be born, we actively bring them into the world, and it’s our job to love and accept them for who they are."
AE: This is the fourth consecutive year in a row of record-breaking anti-trans legislation. A lot of this fear mongering is towards parents, specifically. Kristi, what do you want to tell parents right now, since that is usually the most weaponized part of the conversation?
KG: I think people look at me like I'm some sort of great person because I accept her. To me, I don't feel like that's that amazing. Our kids don't ask to be born, we actively bring them into the world, and it’s our job to love and accept them for who they are. It seems crazy to have a child then disown them or criticize them for being the person that we gave birth to. It just seems like a non-issue to me. All of my kids are very different, but I think they all feel happy with who they are. I mean, gosh, it's so much easier just to accept them for who they are and have a good time than to fight all the time. I just think it's just natural to me anyway. I wish it was natural to other people. It should be.
AE: That’s beautiful. I wish more parents were like that. A lot of the time parents are putting their own expectations on kids and building a lot of resentment.
KG: I think some people have a child because it's somebody who can give them unconditional love instead of the other way around. I thought I was going to have all girls and we would dress like the Von Trapps and sing together, then I had two boys. Then, when my second son was six months old, I found out I was pregnant. I said, "Well, if it's a girl, it'll be worth it." And lo and behold.
AE: The term mother has taken on a new meaning in the last couple years. What does the term “mother” mean just both in the colloquial and the literal sense?
GG: Ten years ago “mother” really just meant somebody who gave birth to you. In the mindset of a “chosen family,” a lot of people give the term mother to people who have had a big influence on them. To a lot of people, Britney Spears is mother, RuPaul is mother—either subliminally or overtly, they’ve changed you and made you grow. “Mother” takes on a lot of different meanings to me, because I know I have a very different relationship to my mother than a lot of people. RuPaul is mother to me too; she kind of raised the “stage Gigi Goode” as well.
AE: What do you most admire about each other?
GG: I mean, I just admire how simple your parenting technique is—
KG: If you want to call it a technique [laughs]
GG: That's exactly what I mean, it’s not even something you have to think about. It's just a natural thing, and as you said, it should just be natural to other parents. I admire your openness to so many things. [To Kristi] You’ve seen and experienced a lot since I've moved to LA. You’ve met a lot of people who have lived lives that you would have never crossed paths with, and along the way you're just happy with a glass of Chardonnay in your hands. You're open to anything, and that's really admirable.
KG: Thank you. What I admire about Gigi—and this is very different from me—ever since she was an infant, she has always been completely herself. A free spirit. I mean, she really did not give a crap about what anybody thought. She was out there doing her own thing from babyhood on. She was a good-natured troublemaker, a provocateur in a very non-mean way. She was just completely herself, which is something that I'm envious of.
AE: Is there a project that you've both been wanting to do? Is there a white whale project that's like, it just hasn't happened yet, but it’s on the horizon?
KG: I mean…we’re working on something right now that is, and it's a challenge, but hopefully it will come to fruition. Not hopefully, it will come. It will work out.
GG: I’m teaching Kristi about manifestation. But yeah, we're working on something right now that has been on my mind for a very long time, and I know has been on a lot of other people's minds for a long time. It doesn't exist yet, but I think we'll change a lot of lives.
KG: I would love to see Gigi do her own clothing line, and I'd be happy to make any of those prototypes. But working on something together, I am sort of the support. She's the idea person, and I'm the support staff.
"After meeting all these people around here, I can see nobody fits into a box. Everybody is just a unit of human and you meet them where they are and it just doesn't matter."
AE: So you’re teaching Kristi about manifesting?
GG: That was never a part of my life until I met my really close friend Harriet, who is a psychic. She's taught [that] it's all about intention. And if you're approaching a situation in a negative way, odds are the universe is listening and it's not going to give you the outcome that you are hoping for. It's going to give you the outcome that you're projecting out loud. You have to say, "This is already happening. I already have this. I am doing this right now." And just those daily affirmations can, I don't know, they just turn into something.
KG: I think to me it's not something I ever really thought about. I'm trying it. But I think it's easy to say you're manifesting stuff when you have money and privilege. I think it works a lot better when you already have some advantages in life. What do you think?
GG: Okay, read me. [Laughs]
AE: Kristi, do you have any favorite Gigi anecdotes you’d like to share?
KG: Oh my God. There’s just so much, like going to grade school on crutches. Telling her teacher your uncle died, or just dumb stuff like that.
GG: Oh my god, I would say or do just about anything to get attention.
KG: You were doing that yellow glove series with Lisa, this teacher in high school was having her go into these abandoned buildings in drag and take pictures. I don't know how they got away with this, but I went along once. We would literally break into abandoned houses, there were dead animals, I mean it was gross. And she would do anything to get these pictures.
GG: To this day, I will do anything for a photograph.
AE: What is the best advice or lesson you’ve learned from one another?
GG: I learned a lot from the way you've parented me—I take that into a lot of situations with me. Also your openness. There's no point in putting limits to things, because, I don’t know, we’re all going to die.
KG: I appreciate that I’ve learned so much about people through you. I mean, you come from a small town and you're like, “people are either gay or straight,” I mean, it's so binary no matter what the category is. After meeting all these people around here, I can see nobody fits into a box. Everybody is just a unit of human and you meet them where they are and it just doesn't matter. I never would have discovered that if it hadn't been for Gigi.
Photographer: Myles Loftin
Creative Director: Talun Zeitoun
Stylists: Marko Monroe & Grant Vanderbilt
Hair & Makeup: Gigi Goode
DP: Yong Kim
Photo Assistant: Evadne Gonzalez
Associate Producer: Claire Flanagan
On-Site Producer: Alyssa Sonn
Want more stories like this?
This is What Gigi Goode Smells Like
Gigi Goode: The Naked Truth
Gigi Goode Never Gets Rid of A Drag Look