From Runway to Runway: Ethan Mundt’s Journey from ‘Drag Race’ to ‘Project Runway’

Can a drag queen also become a breakout fashion designer?

Since 2009, “RuPaul’s Drag Race”has grown to be an illustrious calling for professional drag artists seeking career success and stardom. With over 17 seasons, as well as copious spin-offs and international franchises, the trajectory of a drag queen in 2025 has crystalized into one specific track: get cast on “Drag Race,” come back for “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” snag a role on an “RPDR” live tour or Vegas show and … that’s it.

While many queens have parleyed their success on the show into new ventures — like Season 5 and All Stars 7 Winner Jinkx Monsoon’s multi-show stint on Broadway, or All Stars 3 Winner Trixie Mattel’s makeup and YouTube empire — finding long-term career success beyond the RuPaul’s Drag sphere is a journey into unusual territory. Recent years have put drag artists in the crosshairs of several targeted political disinformation campaigns rooted in homophobia and transphobia, and putting a drag queen on American television is a political statement of its own.

For Ethan Mundt, the artist behind Utica Queen (named after his hometown in Winona County, Minn.), life after Season 13 of “Drag Race” has included making a name for himself as both drag performer and drag designer, and if you watched Season 13, you wouldn’t be surprised. On top of sharing his unique and bubbly personality as an artist in the Werk Room, Mundt’s career on the show was arguably defined by his imaginative style and breathtaking garments, especially those he designed on set.

Since his departure from the reality competition, Mundt has continued to catch the eyes of fans with stunning, elevated fashions appearing on both Utica Queen herself and her sisters in the drag scene, on and off the “RPDR” stages. Mundt’s drag designs stand out with dramatic silhouettes and a refined point of view, becoming works of art of their own. Lavender Magazine even covered a costume installation featuring and curated by Mundt at the Rochester Art Center in 2021.

Rather than making his inevitable return to the world’s biggest drag reality competition series, Mundt has instead set his sights on the world’s biggest fashion design competition, “Project Runway.”

“I thought to myself, ‘Okay, if fashion is my M.O., and I’m doing this every day … What is The Fashion Show of the World?” Mundt says. “And that was ‘Project Runway.’”

Many budding designers might feel apprehensive about creating high fashion under the watchful eye of a reality camera crew, but Mundt has the benefit of previous experience. Season 13 of Drag Race was filmed during the height of the pandemic, and a particularly taxing filming schedule became a crash course in How to Succeed in Reality Television.

“We got some of the toughest, but most put-together, energy from [“Drag Race”] that taught us how to efficiently get our storylines across,” Mundt says.

Additionally, while “Drag Race” is a multifaceted competition of acting, improv, comedy, design and more, with challenges pulled directly out of other competition shows like “Project Runway,” the latter is solely focused on garment-making. For a drag queen designer used to doing everything at once, Mundt felt he had more time than ever to creatively let loose.

“All I had to do was go sew. It was everything,” Mundt remarks.

For many, the intersection of drag and fashion may seem obvious from the outside. Both require technique, an eye for style and no small degree of labor to do successfully. Now, having begun his foray into the world of fashion, Mundt sees both drag and fashion as two different expressions of creativity. The greatest difference between the two is audience and intention.

“Drag is very present,” Mundt explained, “Fashion is just a different kind of present — immediately present, behind the scenes, making every detail. And the other is literally under a spotlight.”

Since the filming of “Project Runway,” Mundt thinks carefully about the philosophies behind designing for drag versus fashion. As a drag creator, Mundt aims to create highly structural and show-stopping pieces that may only be worn for one weekend or one performance. As a designer, he’s challenging himself to channel those same vibrant and sculptural impulses into fashion accessible to the masses.

Presently, fans can look forward to watching Mundt tackle the challenge of translating drag into mainstream fashion, a predicament he felt privileged to be in. In many creative pursuits, it’s easier to tone things down than it is to add more. Going into the show, Mundt felt confident that the worst critiques he’d get were “too much” or “too drag,” which, for a drag designer, isn’t necessarily a negative.

Outside of the show, Mundt continues to pack his schedule with sewing, and fellow drag queens remain a core facet of his client base.

“I want to make sure that drag is one of the pillars of [my fashion], the core,” Mundt says. “There is such power in the drag community, and it’s what inspired this whole journey to begin with.”

When asked about what excites him most about bridging the gap between “Drag Race” and “Project Runway,” Mundt gushes with excitement for his drag designer colleagues and hopes that his time on-screen will inspire them to make a similar leap into mainstream fashion. The goal, at the end of the day, is to pave a new career path for drag artists around the world.

“As amazing an opportunity this is for me, this is for ‘the girls,’ you know?”