Lamé: What is your name and title?

 

Antonio: My name is Antonio Gigliotta. I come from Sicily. I perform with my born name because I can bring creativity to my family’s name.

I don’t have an artistic name- I always say to people “I express myself, I don’t mask myself”. I don’t have a drag queen alter ego. This is a part of me which isn’t hiding anything else.

 

What do you refer to yourself as?

 

Ideally, I see myself as an art director. But during the day I work for luxury fashion brands.

 

Do you consider yourself a drag queen?

 

I’m not trying to be a woman, it’s art. I’m a free person to do what I want- some people back home are really complimentary. Some guy even came up to me in Italy last summer to say he admired me and envied my freedom.

 

The first time I bought any heels was while I was in Scotland, I lived in Scotland for eight years while I was studying, and it made me quite uncomfortable to imagine myself as a woman. I loved what they did for my posture though. A friend of mine suggested we go see the Rocky Horror Picture Show and dress up. I showed up in a full costume but no corset, no drag- just art. I didn’t realise you had to look like the characters! That doesn’t appeal to me, trying to look like something that’s already been done. I want to create new things.

 

Men often don’t know how to look at me or get me- I’m not exactly in drag but I’ve got heels on and my ass is out. When someone refers to me as an artist, that’s incredible.

 

What was your first experience clubbing in London like?

 

When I moved to London I lived really close to Beach Blanket Babylon, a kind-of homage to Studio 54 hosted by Daniel Lismore, and I started going every Saturday because I got so much attention from day one. A lot of people came up to me, trying to sell me drugs but I was riding on pure enthusiasm. I love putting so much effort into a look and having that documentation of my growing up through the snaps of club photographers.

 

What keeps you coming back for more each night?

 

For me, dancing is natural. I don’t drink or do drugs, I’m literally there just to experience other people and the music and have fun. The joy for me in a club is the look I’ve created.

 

 

Who/What is your greatest inspiration for your looks?

 

I’m a sponge, I absorb all the things I see around me. I’m inspired by things I find in the street. Even in Primark. I don’t have anything in mind when I create a look, it’s all about what comes to you. I have a different way of seeing things. I laugh at myself before I leave the house, you have to be able to have fun.

 

 

How important is your image to who you are?

 

I hate boring or average. People dress in a lot of different ways, some I like and some I don’t but at least they’re doing something. People who dress ‘normal’ are never going to stand out to me in a crowd. People save all their salary for an £8,000 handbag that takes £200 to make. I don’t see any point in that, life isn’t for saving it’s for living. I want to be remembered for being different and having fun and my image is one of the ways in which I apply that.

 

What do your friends and family think about your looks?

 

At first, my family was shocked. Now, with Facebook, they can see it’s not just a gay thing. I have two Facebooks- one more personal, Italian one for family and one for performance. I don’t want to embarrass my closed-minded brothers. I never hide though, it’s not a sexual thing that I’m doing. I put things together that shouldn’t work, I somehow manage to make them meld and it works. It’s the greatest compliment when people say I’m witty- that my look is both funny and clever. I’m a funny boy! I’m not trying to be sexual!

 

What’s the best thing anyone has ever said to you?

 

A woman from my village who I don’t know very well came up to me, she had seen my outfits on facebook and she quoted Victor Hugo “a dash of colour on a grey canvas”. I was so astounded that someone I haven’t even talked to, from such a conservative place, could get me like she obviously did.