Tag Archives: Miss Philippines

STELLA MARQUEZ ARANETA NAMES NEW COSTUME DESIGNER FOR MISS PHILIPPINES

February 14, 2015 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

Newly-crowned Mr. International, Neil Perez from the Philippines

QUEZON CITY, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – By now, everybody knows about the controversy involving the Colombian designer responsible for the much-maligned national costume of Miss Philippines MJ Lastimosa at last month’s Miss Universe Pageant held in Florida.

Many believe that Lastimosa’s wedding cake-like national costume cost her the crown. Binibining Pilipinas Charities head Stella Marquez Araneta, a former Colombian beauty queen who married a Filipino, received flak for choosing a Colombian designer. The Charities is the franchise holder of several Philippine beauty pageants.

Today, Araneta announced that she has chosen a new Filipino designer for the succeeding Miss Philippines title holders who will represent the country in international beauty pageants.

Although unnamed, this new designer is the same individual who designed the national costume of Mr. Philippines Neil Perez, the Manila hot cop who was just named Mr. International in a male beauty pageant held this weekend in Korea.

Araneta was very impressed with Perez’s national costume at the pageant which scored him lots of points to eventually win the crown, the first ever for the Philippines.

Perez dedicated his victory to his colleagues, the Fallen 44 — members of the Philippine National Police who were killed in a recent encounter with rebel forces in southern island of Mindanao.

Human Interest, Tourism, Travel

YET ANOTHER (NEW) PHILIPPINES BEAUTY PAGEANT: MISS MRT

February 10, 2015 Pol Pinoy 5 Comments

Miss Aviation and her royal court (Photo credit: adventuresofabeautyqueen.com

MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – The Philippines holds the distinction of being in an elite circle of nations that have won all of the major international beauty pageants — from Miss Universe to Miss International to Miss World. And then some.

Beauty contests are a national preoccupation in the Philippines. Every Barangay (neighborhood political unit), town fiesta, school or university, government agency and private company in the country has its own beauty queen. Not to mention each Rotary Club, Lions Club, and Jaycees Club. Even the Catholic Church has its own queen, Reyna Elena, during the annual May cultural-religious festival pageant — the Santacruzan.

Last night, yet another beauty queen was crowned — Miss Aviation, 17-year-old Cleo Margaret Brown — whose first job is to represent the Aviation community at this week’s Hot Air Balloon Festival in what used to be the U.S. Clark Air Force Base north of Manila.

Today, Ramon Buenafe, the new general manager for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT), Metro Manila’s controversial and problem-plagued mass transport system, announced yet a new beauty pageant.

The search is on for Miss MRT whose primary responsibility is to flash a beautiful smile and wave to the hordes of MRT passengers who have to fall in (long) lines to get to the crowded trains, especially during heavy commute hours.

Buenafe hopes that his novel idea will help ease the anger and frustration coming from passengers who were slapped with a fare hike early this year despite escalating concerns of overcrowding and safety within the train system.

Arts, Fashion, International

FILIPINO FASHION DESIGNERS TO BOYCOTT ALL FUTURE MISS PHILIPPINES PAGEANTS

January 23, 2015 Pol Pinoy 2 Comments

Barraza, left, and Lastimosa iin her 'national costume' — Barraza, left, and Lastimosa in her ‘national costume’

MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – The Association of Filipino Fashion Designers (AFFD) has announced that its members will boycott all future pageants of the Bb. Pilipinas Charities, franchise holder of Miss Philippines Universe and Miss Philippines International.

The boycott stemmed from what the designers are calling a ‘national disgrace’ following the appearance of Miss Philippines Mary Jean Lastimosa in the National Costume segment of the Miss Universe Pageant in Doral, Florida.

Lastimosa wore a butterfly sleeve gown tattered with red, yellow and purple artificial flowers and a headdress with more of the same. It was designed by Alfredo Barraza of Colombia.Many critics described the gown as a towering wedding cake and a fruity meringue pie filling.

The AFFD accused Barraza of sabotaging the chances of Lastimosa and other past Miss Philippines contestants in winning the pageant crown. It also demanded that the Bb. Pilipinas Charities stop using Barraza and other non-Filipino designers from designing the official wardrobe of Filiipina beauty queens. “We have so many top and talented local designers and yet we keep on having foreigners design the gowns of our beauty queens,” AFFD said in a statement.

Stella Marquez Araneta, founder and head of the Charities could not be immediately reached for comment on the announced boycott.

If the boycott is not resolved, future Miss Philippines contestants may have to source their pageant gowns from local bargain clothing retail stores in Divisoria, a famous flea market district in Manila.