Dazzling 'Fancy Boy' exhibition shows how far Harry has travelled

“This exhibition feels a bit crazy because it’s taking my life growing up in Shetland and my life in London over the past ten years and bringing it together,” says Harry Whitham, whose glittering drag queen costume designs have been beamed into the homes of millions of TV viewers.

The myriad riches of Shetland’s cultural history are well-documented, but the islands have not traditionally been recognised as a hotbed for producing high-end costume creators for flamboyant queens of the small screen.

It is of no little significance that Lerwick-born, Whiteness-raised designer Harry has been afforded the entirety of arts venue Mareel’s main auditorium for the month of July – coinciding with Shetland’s first ever Pride event – to show off some of his creations of the past five years.

The diverse array of glitzy costumes, the fulcrum being a trio of red, green and gold pieces representing the “core beginnings” of Harry’s Fancy Boy moniker and brand, form an exhibition quite unlike anything previously seen in the islands.

Borrowed from their glamorous owners for the exhibition, several of the outfits have been worn by participants on the UK version of reality TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race.

That signifies how far Harry’s career has travelled since trading Shetland, aged 17, for London in the late noughties. Newly turned 30, he comes across as thoughtful and highly articulate – and, while a decade in the UK capital may have bred a healthy streetwise confidence, he remains remarkably modest and unassuming.

It is notable that most namedropping during our 90-minute conversation harks back to his formative years with Maddrim Media and Shetland Youth Theatre – regularly referring to the encouragement of individuals including Kathy Hubbard, John Haswell and Izzy Swanson, as well as his peers from that era.

Returning to his native islands with a high-profile exhibition of drag queen outfits did come with a degree of trepidation: “What’s the community of Whiteness going to think when they come and look at my dresses?”

But such feelings quickly dissipated thanks to the warmth of the reception that greeted him at the exhibition’s opening – and the friendly response very much continues when we catch up with Harry at Mareel the following morning.

He is eagerly congratulated by a woman who used to work at Whiteness Primary School, where he was a pupil for seven years, and by the parent of a former classmate.

“Everyone is just saying lovely things, so that feels amazing,” he beams. “It makes me feel like I am accepted.”

The costumes’ intricate artistry, vivid colours and sparkles make for an exhibition that is highly accessible to a wide audience – from dazzled babies and toddlers to the octogenarian family friend who delightedly told Harry she had “never seen anything like it before”.

The two golden lamé costumes spinning slowly around on the auditorium stage were designed while his best friend Jack Baxter, aka Hollie Would, was “trying to figure out how to break onto London's queer nightlife scene” having emigrated from Australia.

Neither of them had a budget to speak of: “All our money was going on rent in Whitechapel. We would buy fabric as cheaply as possible and make the most expensive-looking, glamorous things. The aim was to make Jack the best-looking person in the nightclub, which oftentimes he was!”

Among the most eye-catching pieces on display is another of Harry’s designs for Hollie Would, a spectacular red number containing some 50 metres of tulle fabric, a hand-draped bodice and a skirt hand-ruffled on a machine. It was made for the 2018 Party of Life Ball, a charity AIDS event held regularly in Vienna.

Another of Harry’s favourites is a piece for cabaret star Peter Groom, who performs a Marlene Dietrich act, where “all the references are specific gowns that she wore and trying to get as close to them as possible”.

The task was to emulate those dresses without the luxury of a £30,000 budget, with every silver crystal on the dress handsewn. Harry is at the stage where “I now get assistants to do it – I love doing it, but I never have the time.”

Growing up in Whiteness, a small settlement around 10 miles from Shetland’s main town of Lerwick, having the time to explore his initial creative impulses is something Harry is now profoundly grateful for.

“Shetland was a very encouraging place for me growing up in terms of creativity,” he says.

His family encouraged him to further his artistic imagination – whether playing with Barbie dolls alongside his two sisters, taking advantage of free music tuition, or indulging his interest in vintage Disney films such as Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.

“From the age I could hold a pencil, I was just always drawing,” Harry recalls. “All I ever drew were female characters. They were all these different fantasy-type things, basically drag queens before I knew what drag queens were, or opera divas, starlets in films…”

During his teens he became involved with the Maddrim Media film group, despite “not being that interested in making films”, as it sated his desire to be involved with a collective and taught him how to “be creative in social environments and have a lot of fun with it.”

He effusively praises the countless individuals and organisations that helped cultivate the scene. It was only a few years later, speaking to those who had moved to London from other remote parts, that Harry realised it had been “such a privilege to have been supported so much”.

“It’s a bit mad when you’re meeting people from other rural communities who haven’t been given these opportunities, and haven’t had something like Shetland Arts, Open Door Drama or Islesburgh Drama Group.

“They don’t have these things available to them, or if they do it’s very niche, and you think ‘I’ve had a really lucky time of it’ being able to try out different things when I was younger.”

Harry’s display has been lovingly put together by Shetland Arts' exhibitions manager Jane Matthews. During conversations with her he has identified "such as a resourcefulness " to the community, reflecting on how the arts agency's technical team has to be more adaptable due to a lack of specialists.

“Because there’s a water border to Shetland, the people who are in these positions have to know how to do so many varied things.”

Growing up surrounded by striking landscapes and colour palates also left an indelible mark: “I have a friend, Tora from Norway, whose aesthetic is very informed by the hillsides of Bergen and the changing colours of autumn, and is very leafy and green.

“Whereas mine is all part of the sea, part of the mist coming in… if you’re a creative person you get to develop your visual aesthetic language just by being somewhere so beautiful”.

Harry initially went to London to study fashion (“I was going to be the next Alexander McQueen or John Galliano”) only to discover a scene that felt money-oriented and “quite cold”, whereas he craved the sort of creative enthusiasm he experienced with Maddrim.

He switched to theatre set and costume design and, after graduating, began working as a wardrobe assistant, doing alterations and sewing. Jack was working as a drag queen by this time and Harry learned his trade by designing and making his costumes.

“That subsequently led to me working with the queens who go on RuPaul’s Drag Race, so I’ve got quite a bit of television exposure from that,” Harry tells us. “It’s amazing to think that’s where I’ve come from, and that was the journey.”

For her part, Kathy recalls that from his “earliest participation” growing up, Harry’s “capacity for dazzling, daring and authentic creativity has never been in doubt. I can’t wait to see what he does next!”

A busy schedule, including a new commission for drag queen Kitty Scott-Claus, meant he was only able to take a few days out to oversee the exhibition’s installation, launch and opening weekend.

But he relished a brief opportunity to connect with and hear stories from young people growing up in Shetland today.

“Now it’s so ingrained and you can watch things like RuPaul’s Drag Race, and you can watch the drag queens directly. It’s not only okay to be queer and not fit the status quo, it’s actually celebrated. And it’s financially viable, and you can have a really fulfilling, creative job that’ll pay your bills.”

Turning to the islands’ resoundingly successful first ever Pride weekend, Harry was delighted to “celebrate my queerness with people I’ve grown up with in my community, and also people who are queer in Shetland and hopefully feel a bit more like they’ve got another layer of community that they can rely on”.

And what does he want others to take away from his exhibition? “I just hope people take what they can from it, and leave feeling great and inspired, really.

“It’s different and it’s new and I want people to realise that, yes, he’s a little boy from Whiteness, but he’s been able to go away and do something so different, and anyone else can too.”

• Harry Whitham's 'The World of Fancy Boy' exhibition in Mareel's main auditorium is open to the public, with free entry, between 10am-6pm Tuesday-Sunday for most of July.