I am:

Tess Tickle (Anthony Hotere). I've been performing drag for close to 30 plus years. My drag persona is elegant, quite camp, fun loving, ice breaking, a bit of everything with a dash of sloppiness on the side.

My fashion sense has been shaped by:

Pop music and culture started out as a big influence. Mary J. Blige. Janet Jackson, Whitney, Aretha Franklin. Cool, soulful black female singers. And then, of course it was the supermodels of the 90s. We all thought we were like Naomi Campbell.

Nowadays, I kind of tend to gravitate towards RuPaul's look because that's kind of my aesthetic and my age group and those clean gowns that she wears and that hair. It's kind of the aesthetic.

The first time I put on a complete look I got the connection between fashion. I had a friend make an outfit for me. A friend do my makeup, and a friend do my hair. I thought, I'll just put all these nice things on and I'll see what happens. The minute you put all of that on, it's like an armour. It's like a security blanket. It brings out another personality in you that you never knew you had. And for me, that gave me confidence.

I was a very shy Māori boy, didn't even want to talk to people. But drag helped me open up a little bit more, and also to connect with people and realise that there's a whole new world out there of cross-dressers, drag queens, performers, and people who love to be creative.

That whole fashion transformation changed my world. Once that happened and I realised that it was something I could achieve and keep going with, and people loved it. I just went with that ride and it carried me all around the world back here to New Zealand, doing what I love doing today.

My relationship with fashion is:

Is like a love affair, we have an on and off romance. It's all going well. And then it's a divorce.

Moving back to New Zealand from Australia I decided my drag aesthetic needed to be comfortable. I ditched the corset, lowered the heels, and went for more of a glamorous old Hollywood style of drag queen. I love that beauty, elegant side with a touch of sluttiness. I mean, hello, we do love to flirt! So describing my relationship with fashion and how someone looks at you in drag and the story you're trying to tell; it all depends on the mood I'm in or the theme of the event that I'm going to.

Putting together an outfit / inspiration:

When it comes to design and constructing looks it’s collaborating with designers or creating from my own existing pieces.

Obviously, back in our day, when there was no internet, we would get inspiration from magazines but now there is Instagram, TikTok, all those places where drag can thrive.

I'm a visual person. If I see something that I love, I’ll try to create it either by collaborating with a designer, or seeing what’s available online that is similar and then altering that look to suit me. You want to do it in an aesthetic that fits your body, your personality, and the event that you're going to be wearing it at, and you want to feel fabulous.

And I would say kudos to all the designers that do make our outfits for us. Because we aren’t easy people. We aren’t easy customers. We’re a little bit demanding at times. But they love it. We love it. It's creativity. It's part of who we are. I think it's really important that you have ownership over every detail of your style, because you want to represent yourself in the best light. You want to also feel comfortable in that look. And when you feel that comfortable in that look, you perform a lot better.

I don't think audiences quite appreciate how much effort we do put into these outfits. I think with RuPaul's Drag Race now being mainstream on television everyone expects the calibre of live drag to be at that level, and they expect you to have a different look every time you walk out the door. Well, that's just not possible. Not all of us have budgets like that. But people will tell when you've invested in your look. They'll come up to you and they'll always want a photo. The minute they want a photo, you know that you've nailed that.

When I’m not in drag:

I’m completely a boy's boy. Anthony understands mental health is a big thing when not in drag. You really need to balance out the ying and the yang…Anthony brings me back to reality to centre myself. And it's not so much about the outside of Anthony, it's more about the inside. It can't just all be drag dresses, fashion, hair, wigs. You obviously need something outside just to balance yourself and bring yourself back down to reality.

Portrait by Denise Baynham, 2025.

Audio engineering by Finn Hopley.
Video by Rochelle Ivanson.

Last published January 2026.

This exhibition was created for the New Zealand Fashion Museum for Pride 2026 with support from Britomart Group, Foundation North and The Rule Foundation.