'RuPaul's Drag Race' Star Sasha Colby on Her Historic Win and How Hawaii Influences Her Style (Exclusive)

When Sasha Colby said she was your favorite drag queen's favorite drag queen, not only was she telling the truth, but she showed the world exactly why that is on season 15 of MTV's RuPaul's Drag Race.

The Hawaii-born 37-year-old drag star went into the season with the most prestigious title in drag, Miss Continental, a title she won 11 years prior this year's show. But on April 14, Colby was crowned America's Next Drag Superstar and walked away with $200,000, a crown and scepter and the admiration of RuPaul. The host of the show praised Colby, saying, "I'm the motherf---in' queen of drag. I'm amazed by you."

Despite her stacked well-known reputation, adoration by RuPaul and fellow competitors and fans saying the entire season was just a "Sasha Colby meet and greet," Colby humbly admits to PEOPLE that she "never really thought about [winning] until it happened" and until she was accepting the crown nearly naked in nothing but bedazzled pasties and pink panties.

The coronation look, which was revealed underneath a dramatic black fur coat and a sculpting purple pageant gown, was completely "intentional" and part of a larger message Colby hopes her win brings to the world.

"While I was preparing to film the finale, thinking about wanting to be completely burlesque naked with just a few strategically placed rhinestones, I felt that it was necessary because people are trying to control others' bodies, whether it's through female reproductive care or medicine for trans youth or just any sort of thing that they could take control," Colby tells PEOPLE exclusively after her win.

"So we have to make sure to just keep this talk going and just to show them that we're not just a fluke. We're not just some random pandemic that's just happening to sweep the world. This is who we have always been."

Colby winning marks the first time an openly trans woman of color has won the biggest drag competition in the world, something she hasn't even wrapped her head around, saying the achievement is "a lot."

The win also comes amongst a "wave" of trans representation in the show that includes her drag daughter, Kerri Colby; her former roommate and the first-ever trans winner of an American season of the show, Kylie Sonique Love; and the first-ever trans man to compete on the show, Gottmik.

This "wave," as Colby puts it, was something she noticed when Gottmik walked into the werkroom on season 13, which she thought pushed a barrier allowing America to see "a trans man doing hyper-fem drag."

All of this representation is important to Colby in an era when trans rights and the right to perform in drag are under attack across the United States.

"I think it's vital that we are shown being successful, being happy, dominating the drag scene, while really trying to protect who's really at harm, which is the trans kids and trans people of color that don't have the outlets to perform or do the drag or even walk out of their house," she says.

"It's a really scary time right now. I think it's important for someone like me and for the show to be on such a big platform because if you're so scared at home — which I remember being as a kid — and you turn on the TV and see something that resonates with you or someone that speaks your language and understands your energy, it can be a lifesaver."

Growing up, Colby didn't have something like RuPaul's Drag Race to learn about the nuances and experiences of the trans and queer communities; she found her place in the world through the familial relationships of her Māhū culture — her Hawaiian queer culture.

"The trans men and women and the LGBT community in general in Hawaii are so family-oriented," Colby says, adding that they focused on togetherness with celebrations at home, on the beach or anywhere else. They truly value hospitality, she says, and a "space of creativity and openness."

The basis of dance and creativity these get-togethers opened up for Colby only continued to grow as she moved to cities like Chicago, Orlando and Los Angeles, where trans drag is "very prevalent."

But looking back on her years as a child, she recognizes she couldn't have found success as the drag queen she is today without Hawaii. "I think being from Hawaii has informed me on the power of trans drag, the power of my divine goddess, this hyper-feminine siren, which is this local girl on the beach," she says.

That divine goddess, girl on the beach energy is something she brings to everything she does in drag, especially her fashion.

She takes most of her inspiration from '90s fashion and the supermodels of that era, like Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell. She says it's a love she picked up while in the drag pageant world.

"I love anything sparkly," she shares. "So I definitely love the idea of playing dress-up, and that's where my love for fashion is, putting on a different armor at any chosen time and being a different girl, a different form of Sasha Colby."

"Fashion is half of the thing with drag. There's the performance aspect and then there is this literal artifice that you're putting on," Colby says. "Everyone has this armor, I like to call it, or this way that they like to present themselves. Fashion is just that. It allows you to choose whatever person you want to be and even kind of put on the confidence that maybe you don't have without it."

Some of those pieces of armor she wore on the show include a Barbarella-inspired latex look, an outfit made entirely out of ripped denim, a dress made to look like a bag of marijuana, the gown she won Miss Continental in and a look with tattoos inspired by her native Hawaiian culture.

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Colby says her ideas come from her brain, imagination and her Pinterest board because, after all, she's a "millennial kid."

Now with the two biggest titles in drag under her belt, Colby is looking towards the future with aspirations of breaking into acting, even hoping for an EGOT.

"I've always wanted to be in the entertainment business, whether it was dancing or choreographing," she says. "I knew if I ever had the opportunity to get on Drag Race, I was going to use that in order to pursue the entertainment business. And let's manifest and get an EGOT. Let's go."