BEFORE noon today, the world will already have a new Miss Universe.
The road to Miss Universe 2014 has been long and tension-filled because it is already 2015 and Donald Trump’s Miss Universe organization is just crowning their new queen for 2014 in Doral, Florida, today.
Aiming for the third Miss Universe crown for the country, the representative this year is Mary Jean Lastimosa. The first title was courtesy of Gloria Diaz in 1969, and it has been 40 years since Margarita Moran brought home the second crown for the country.
In the Miss Universe web site, Lastimosa is described as a beauty queen with an unwavering passion for charity and public service. Born in a province (North Cotabato) torn by armed conflict, she learned the value of courage and became determined to excel in academics. Her surroundings did not stop her from pursuing her passion for dance, music and the performance arts.
Our local girl graduated with a degree in Computer Engineering by way of three academic grants. “I fought for my education. I believe that I had to finish so I could make my parents proud.
I knew I wanted to take up engineering because I love the arts, I love to draw, I love math. All the men thought that I wouldn’t be able to survive it because there were just a few women inside the classroom. I’m a fighter and I was able to do it. I think it’s one of the best gifts that I could and did give to my parents,” she said in the official interview video.
Lastimosa, at 27, might hold the record as the oldest Philippine candidate ever sent to the Miss Universe pageant, but this doesn’t seem to be a problem, especially with the rousing feedback she got during the preliminary competition held a few days ago.
The scores from the swimsuit and long gown segments of the preliminaries will be added to her score from personal interview sessions with the judges to determine the 15 semifinalists, to be announced during the early part of the pageant, telecast live via satellite on some local cable channel this morning.
Bad gowns, good showing
It was evident from the preliminaries that Lastimosa is very competitive. Each of the 88 candidates wore their national costumes, sashayed in their swimsuits, and showcased their evening gowns.
Through live streaming, pageant fans from all over the world were able to catch how each candidate figured. Lastimosa nailed the swimsuit segment without much effort since she had the vavavoom vitals that many women envy. Prior to her flight to Florida, one of her close beauty queen friends told us that Lastimosa’s waistline was a svelte 23.
However, her national costume was so ugly and tacky, and it quickly earned the ire of netizens who watched the so-called Parade of Nations. Her white ensemble for the evening gown competition, created by Colombian designer Alfredo Barraza, was not outrageously ugly but it wasn’t anywhere near exceptional either. In fact, the gown was not flattering at all and in no way showed her curves. The color white was also not a very good choice.
Filipino designer, please
The comments of pageant aficionados on social media were interesting. To say that her gowns got flak may be an understatement. People were blunt and compared her national costume to the local cake called sapin-sapin. From the head dress down, Lastimosa’s yellow-pink-red-purple flower-adorned national costume was lambasted the most.
If we are not mistaken, since 2004 Stella Marquez de Araneta, chairman of the Binibining Pilipinas pageant, has been commissioning her Colombian good friend Barraza to create the evening gowns for the Philippine representatives. And every year, Araneta gets crucified in print and in private conversations, but she doesn’t seem to mind—or even care for that matter.
Acclaimed Filipino fashion designer Cary Santiago posted this on his social-media account recently: “Anyone sent for global competition wearing a Philippine sash should also wear a Filipino designer. Where is our pride when what we see onstage is totally not a Filipino costume? I know that my gowns are not even pageant-fit because that’s not my forte, but we have a lot of insanely talented Filipino designers who can do way better than what Barraza can do. Madame Stella [Araneta] should at least try and check on the local creations that we have in the country, because after all the contestant is representing the Philippines and not [her native] Colombia.”
Perhaps Araneta will only listen if highly placed individuals and lawmakers weigh in on this matter. We suggest that a member of the House of Representatives can sponsor a bill that beauty queens representing the Philippines in international pageants should wear only creations by practicing Filipino designers based here or abroad. Even designers who have Filipino bloodlines can qualify. Calling the attention of Lucy Torres-Gomez, Imelda Marcos and Nancy Catamco, all distinguished congresswomen who are advocates of the true, the good, the original and the beautiful. Who knows, this move might just give us more hope to bring home more beauty titles in the future.