What A Drag!, part of this year's Midsumma festival, hones in on Melbourne's drag scene from the 1960s to today.

Curated by theatre producer Ricky Beirao – himself a drag performer who goes by the name of Rhubarb Rouge – the exhibition features archival photographs and articles, and, of course, a slew of outrageous costumes, designed by local drag queens with equally outrageous names (Rita La Coqueater for starters).

Beirao, who was born in Brazil, moved to New Zealand when he was 14 and began experimenting with drag at 20. When he moved to Australia four years ago he immersed himself in the local scene and was inspired by the stories he heard about local legends to put What A Drag! together.

"People started telling me about Kerry La Gore, who was a big thing at Pokeys,  the place to be in the '80s, on Sunday nights at the Prince of Wales in St Kilda, and about other icons of the scene like Paris and Art Simone, who recently performed at the Jean Paul Gaultier opening at NGV," he says.

"I started doing my research and I thought, this is our history and some day soon people will die and it's not going to be recorded."

Beirao sought out some of the performers who blazed the sequined trail in the 1960s and '70s, and, with the help of the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives and loans from personal collections, has managed, on an incredibly small budget, to curate a survey of the scene from its underground roots in the 1950s and '60s to today.

As well as ephemera and recorded video interviewers with local performers, Beirao has also incorporated elements of social history from each decade, from the 1960s when homosexuality and even cross-dressing were illegal, and had to the take place at private parties – often raided by the cops; Aboriginal actor and director Noel Tovey was famously arrested at one such party at drag queen Maxine Du Barry's house in 1951 – through the scene's "golden days" of the '90s, to today.

Even once homosexuality was legalised in 1981 – yes, 1981! – Melbourne's drag scene was still largely underground, and Beirao says today's drag queens might not realise how different the subculture is today.

"I think a lot of people, especially the younger drag queens, have no idea how hard it was. I want them to learn and pay respect! There were no YouTube tutorials for them to learn how to do make-up back then, no eBay to buy wigs – it all had to be done secretly or through female friends, or wives," he says. "Even things like  shoes – they used to buy the biggest size they could get, cut them in half and put a plank of wood in the middle and glue them up! There was a real craft then."

The subculture gained wider acceptance with the opening of the Melbourne version of Sydney's Les Girls troupe, whose advertising material was clearly aimed at a broader audience – "You won't believe they're boys!" exclaims one of the posters featured in the exhibition – and by the mid-1990s Stephan Elliott's hit film Priscilla, Queen of the Desert took drag squarely into the mainstream.

The scene in Melbourne, Beirao says, was at its height in the 1990s, when you could catch a drag show at venues from the famous Pokeys to a number of clubs along Commercial Road in Prahran, and Fitzroy, Richmond and beyond.

"But now, drag has had a huge decline. People wonder if it's because of technology ... in the '70s, '80s and '90s, there was no internet – if you wanted to meet other gay people you had to go out, get a drink and make friends, and you got to know the performers. It's not the same today."

Drag has to a certain extent, he says, lost its shock value.

"It's nice to be more accepted but ... sometimes I catch the tram in drag and people just go 'Hi, how are you?"'

What A Drag! is at Chapel Off Chapel until February 8.