Inside Drag Me Up: The Drag Experience Helping Everyday People Discover Their Inner Queen
Image: All photos: Supplied.
For Pete Lord, the idea for Drag Me Up began with something simple: the joy of dressing up. It’s a feeling many queer people know instinctively — the thrill of transformation, the moment a swipe of lipstick or dab o’ glitter suddenly unlocks ~An Icon~.
For Lord, that spark began in childhood.
“I’ve always loved dressing up, even as a child,” he says. “But from around age five, I was told that young boys on the northern beaches don’t play dress-up with their sisters – we play rugby with our mates. So I stopped playing dress-up and started playing rugby.”
“But something was missing. My soul knew it, even if I didn’t have words for it yet.”
These days, Lord is the founder of Drag Me Up, a Sydney-based drag makeover experience helping people from all walks of life step into their most fabulous selves. From curious first-timers and RuPaul’s Drag Race superfans to corporate groups, couples and even straight men exploring a side of themselves they’ve never felt safe to express, Drag Me Up is built around a simple idea: drag should be for everyone.
Founded in 2023, the company offers full drag transformations — makeup, styling, outfits and coaching — creating a space where everyday people can try on glamour, confidence and a little glitter along the way.
How Drag Me Up turns everyday people into their most fabulous selves
The inspiration struck in a particularly Sydney setting: drinks with friends at Erskineville’s Imperial Hotel (you may know it as the pub they set off from in The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert).
“I was having drinks with some mates, talking Drag Race, and the idea just hit me,” Lord recalls. “I wanted that experience, and I thought other superfans would too. So let’s make it happen. Let’s Drag Me Up.”
Not long after, Lord teamed up with legendary Sydney performer Portia Turbo and pulled together the first makeover — borrowing outfits from the iconic House of Priscilla. What began as a fun experiment quickly grew into a full-fledged business.
Today, Drag Me Up has transformed more than 100 clients, each with their own reason for stepping into heels.
One of the most memorable? Their first client, a backpacker from Switzerland who booked the experience while travelling Australia.
“We didn’t know he was straight until halfway through the makeover,” Lord laughs. “He said he could have spent the money jumping out of a plane — or he could do something like this. He wisely chose drag.”
And that choice, Lord believes, goes deeper than a night of fabulous photos.
“Drag pulls out the magnificence we all have inside,” he says. “We wear masks all day — masks we use to hide from our true selves. But with drag we wear a mask of fabulousness and joy. Not to hide, but to uncover the fabulousness that’s already there.”
The long, glittering history of Australian drag
That transformative power is part of a long lineage in Australia. Drag has existed here in various forms for centuries — from cross-dressed stage performers in early colonial theatre to the glittering cabaret shows of Kings Cross and icons like Carlotta at Les Girls.
Later came the theatrical brilliance of Reg Livermore’s Betty Blockbuster and global pop culture moments like Priscilla, which helped cement Australian drag as bold, irreverent and completely unique.
Drag Me Up sits firmly in that evolving tradition — less stage performance, more personal transformation.
Lord says the experience resonates especially strongly with men who have long felt pressure to suppress their feminine side.
“We have so many men — straight men — who are dying to explore this part of themselves but are terrified to take the first step,” he says. “We need to let go of the shame around this. Life is about remembering who you truly are, not the labels society places on us.”
And the future of Drag Me Up may go even deeper than glitter and lashes.
Lord is currently developing a new offering called Choose Joy, combining the drag experience with guided reflection and counselling sessions before and after the transformation.
“The package is more than a makeover,” he explains. “It’s a homecoming.”
For Lord, drag isn’t about becoming someone else. It’s about remembering who you’ve always been.
“Life is supposed to be joyous,” he says. “Drag allows us to tap into the joy, love and fabulousness that’s already there, waiting.”
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