Flawless Shade is the

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

of Tajh Jordan (sometimes Tajh Patterson), an American

drag Drag or The Drag may refer to: Places * Drag, Norway, a village in Tysfjord municipality, Nordland, Norway * ''Drág'', the Hungarian name for Dragu Commune in Sălaj County, Romania * Drag (Austin, Texas), the portion of Guadalupe Street a ...

performer and

make-up artist A make-up artist, also called a makeup artist, and often shortened to MUA, is an artist whose medium is the human body, applying makeup and Prosthetic makeup, prosthetics on others for theatre, television, film, fashion, magazines and other simil ...

based in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. A former Miss Gay Oregon, Flawless Shade has been featured in campaigns by

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the ...

GLAAD GLAAD () is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization. Originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals in the media and entertainment industries, it has since ...

, and

Top Level Design Top Level Design is a company in the United States and parent company of the domain name registrar Porkbun. The company was also a former domain name registry for several generic top-level domains, including .wiki, .ink, and .gay, until they wer ...

. Jordan competed under their real name on the subscription-based streaming service

WOW Presents Plus WOW Presents Plus (also called World of Wonder Presents Plus or WOWPresents+) is a subscription-based streaming service owned by production company, World of Wonder. The subscription service was founded in November 2017, by Randy Barbato and ...

's competition series ''

Painted with Raven ''Painted with Raven'' is a makeup competition television series hosted by Raven, which premiered on WOW Presents Plus on November 25, 2021. RuPaul serves as co-executive producer alongside Randy Barbato, Fenton Bailey, and Tom Campbell of Worl ...

''. They also appeared in and co-produced the

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for "Fear", the

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

Logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

's 2024 album ''

Ultra 85 ''Ultra 85'' is the ninth studio album by American rapper and record producer Logic. It was released through BobbyBoy Records, Three Oh One Productions, and BMG Rights Management on August 9, 2024. The album features guest appearances from Adé, ...

''.

Career

Tajh Jordan is a

based in

, who performs in

as Flawless Shade. Jordan began developing the drag persona in 2014. In 2016, Flawless Shade was the first drag competitor in the Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic, an annual bartending contest featuring fifteen

LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...

bartenders from North America, in which she placed third. As of 2017–2018, at Portland's Century Bar, Flawless Shade hosted a twice-weekly

bingo Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers ** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland ** B ...

event "Flawless Bingo", which served as a fundraiser for organizations including

Cascade AIDS Project Cascade AIDS Project (CAP) is a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. Its mission is to prevent HIV infections, to "support and empower" people affected and by HIV/AIDS, and to eliminate stigma associated with the ...

. Flawless Shade hosted drag shows at

CC Slaughters CC Slaughters is a gay bar and nightclub located in Portland, Oregon, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The Portland bar is located in the Old Town Chinatown, Portland, Oregon, Old Town Chinatown neighborhood, and the Puerto Vallarta bar is located in ...

, karaoke at Capitol Bar, and trivia at

Victoria Bar Victoria Bar is a bar and restaurant in Portland, Oregon. Description Named after cocktailer Lisa Hare (middle name), Victoria Bar is a 5,000 square foot bar in the north Portland part of the Humboldt neighborhood. The interior has backlit shel ...

as of 2019. She also hosted bingo at "Thursgays", a monthly

meetup at the arcade-game and pinball venue Quarterworld. She is one of six young queer influencers who featured in

's 2019

gay pride In the context of LGBTQ culture, pride (also known as LGBTQ pride, LGBTQIA pride, LGBT pride, queer pride, gay pride, or gay and lesbian pride) is the promotion of the rights, self-affirmation, dignity, Social equality, equality, and increas ...

advertising campaign and was named Miss Gay Oregon 2020, one of few Black winners of that pageant title to date. During her reign, Flawless Shade felt discriminated against, resulting in her resignation and reinstatement. According to Andrew Jankowski of ''

Portland Mercury ''Portland Mercury'' is an alternative bi-weekly newspaper and media company founded in 2000 in Portland, Oregon. It has a sibling publication in Seattle, Washington, called '' The Stranger''. History A prior version of ''The Mercury'' was ...

'', complaints from her and others prompted the International Sovereign Rose Court "to examine its own inclusivity efforts". In 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Flawless Shade curated the

Portland Pride The Portland Pride were an American indoor soccer team based in Portland, Oregon, that played in the Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) from 1993 to 1997. History In 1993, a new league, the Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) began its ...

event "Support Your Queer Black Entertainers", a series of video testimonials featuring local Black queer performers that raised $2,000 for the featured entertainers. She also participated in Portland Pride's event "Introvert: Digital Drag Show", which was described as a "night of socially distant drag". Flawless Shade was featured in ''The Library'', a web series featuring queer Portlanders that was presented by

Logan Lynn Logan Dennis Lynn (born October 15, 1979) is an American musician, writer, producer, filmmaker, television personality, mental health advocate, and LGBT activist. Since 1998 he has released eleven studio albums, and he is the former host of Logo ...

and

for the

top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domain name, domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the DNS root zone, root zone of the nam ...

name .gay. She represented Oregon in

's video, which featured

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses Drag (entertainment), drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate Femininity, female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have ...

s from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and sought to mobilize voters in the

2020 U.S. presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala Harris defeated the incumbent Republican president Donald Trump and vi ...

. Flawless Shade hosted and performed at Botanist House's drag show as of 2021. She also co-hosted a

tea dance __NOTOC__ A tea dance, also called a ''thé dansant'' (French for "dancing tea"), was a dance held in the summer or autumn from 4 to 7 p.m. In the England , English countryside, a garden party sometimes preceded the dance.''Party-giving on E ...

for Portland Pride and performed at Seattle's PrideFest in 2021. She performed at the defunct

Sissy Bar Sissy Bar is an American indie pop band. They formed in Los Angeles, California in 1994 after founding members Joy Ray and Courtney Holt became obsessed with Snoop Dogg's then-hit Gin and Juice and recorded their own version on a friend's 6-tra ...

in 2023. Under their real name, Jordan competed on the first season of ''

'', subscription-based streaming service

's cosmetics competition series featuring

Raven A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are assigne ...

that debuted in late 2021. Jordan was a runner-up, and said they received death threats when the show aired. In 2024, Jordan appeared in and out of drag in the

for "Fear", the

's studio album ''

''. Jordan co-produced the video, the final shot of which shows them "reclining on a chair, staring out a nighttime window after a high-energy show".

Personal life

Jordan is Black and queer. They live in Portland and have described themself as a "Black gay genderfluid person who is a drag queen". In 2017, Jordan called police and filmed a man who was harassing patrons at

Scandals A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way a ...

, a gay bar in Portland. As of 2021, Flawless Shade is a member of House of Shade.

Filmography

Television

* ''

'' (

season 1 Season One may refer to: Albums * ''Season One'' (Suburban Legends album), 2004 * ''Season One'' (All Sons & Daughters album), 2012 * ''Season One'' (Saukrates album), 2012 See also * * * Season 2 (disambiguation) Season 2 may refer to: ...

; 2021–2022)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Flawless Shade Year of birth missing (living people) Living people African-American drag queens African-American history of Oregon African-American LGBTQ people American drag queens American gay artists American gay entertainers American make-up artists American non-binary artists American non-binary entertainers Drag performers from Portland, Oregon Genderfluid drag performers LGBTQ people from Oregon Non-binary drag performers Non-binary gay people Painted with Raven