This weekend I watched the Miss Universe competition with my family as I do every year, and as always it was amazing. It was held in Mexico City this year,  its 73rd competition. This year the pageant made history with the most participants, at 125 entrants. I loved seeing all the women proudly represent their countries, so I thought I would share some of my thoughts about the competition this year.

National Costume Show

The 72nd and 71st Miss Universe Winners opened the show, Sheynnis Palacios and R’Bonney Gabriel. They came out wearing beautiful gowns and had upbeat attitudes, but I couldn’t help but notice how awkward they were. Miss Palacios’ accent was evident, but the most obvious thing to me was that they were reading from a teleprompter. No shade to these beautiful queens, but the awkward pauses and frozen smiles made for a certainly interesting opening to the show.

One thing I have to say almost drove me crazy was the corny puns Miss Gabriel used to introduce each country. I swear I nearly burst a blood vessel when Miss Laos came out and she said “Let her cook in this vibrant look.” Maybe next year someone else should be in charge of the introductions?

Unpractical Costumes

Right off the bat, Miss Albania came out with her cultural outfit. Perhaps tangling out with her costume would be a better choice of words. I noticed throughout the show that a lot of the delegates had costumes that were beyond impractical. With Miss Albania, although her costume was simple, the skirt was super long and in the way of her walk. Many other delegates like Miss Canada had beautiful costumes but were clearly struggling to walk with them. I think the tripping and stumbling definitely took away the attention from their outfits. 

On the topic of impracticality, I think we should definitely give our respect to the queens who had to carry 10 lb + of props and costumes. While a lot of them made it work, some costumes were just too big and bulky for the contestants to even try to walk in. One of these was Miss Ecuador, who I actually think had one of the best costumes, but you could tell she was struggling to walk in it. One costume that everyone could see was completely impractical was poor Miss Guinea’s. I kid you not when I say she came out in a literal shower curtain that was meant to be a tiki. Throughout her entire walk she was focused on trying, fighting, and failing to open the curtain fully, along with switching between showing off her other props and costume. Maybe next year, Miss Guinea.

Boring Costumes

I think there were 3 main factors that resulted in a “boring” cultural costume:

1. Simple Looks

This was one of the major things that really bothered me throughout the show. One thing I’ve realized throughout my many years of watching Miss Universe is that one of the many things it is known for is its flamboyancy. Big, bright, and often shiny costumes have become its staple and one of the things I can confidently say many people look forward to. With this in mind, its beyond noticeable when we go from a country with a costume that takes up space and color, to one that looks like something my mom made. We saw this in countries like Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Croatia, etc.

2.Cheap Materials

With the effort to be flamboyant, we also risk being tacky. And that was something I unfortunately saw in a lot of the candidates. Candidates like Jamaica used bright and bold colors, but its materials made it look cheap and tacky. Others like Japan I think were on the line of tacky, but were enjoyable enough to not be considered so.

3.Unknown themes

Since there are so many contestants, I can’t help but feel like we all look out for well known countries. I personally find it a bit disappointing when these countries choose to theme their outfits on certain things that are only known by residents. Some countries like Italy and the United Kingdom did this, and I hoped to see more out of their costumes. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing the contestants proudly represent every aspect of their culture, but I think when you are on the Miss Universe stage, you may want to take advantage of what everyone knows you for. I think that if you’re going to do this, you’re going to want to be extra with it. For example, Guatemala chose to theme their costume on their vital wildlife. While most of us wouldn’t correlate the two, you couldn’t help but feel impressed when you saw the costume. It was gorgeous, with gems dangling from her costume.

My Favorite Costumes

Simplistic Favorites

I thoroughly believe in the difference between simple and boring. Here are some of the countries I think truly understood how to express beauty through simplicity.

1. Puerto Rico
2. Spain
3. Egypt
4. Bahrain
5. Cambodia
6. Fiji
7. British Virgin Island
8. Belarus
9. DR Congo
10. Indonesia

Extravagant Favorites

These costumes were absolutely amazing and won my heart. They perfectly represented flamboyance without being tacky or obnoxious.

1. Ecuador
2. Mexico
3. Cuba
4. Venezuela
5. Argentina
6. Denmark
7. Nigeria
8. Turks and Caicos
9. Trinidad and Tobago
10. Peru

Other Thoughts On This Year’s Pageant

Some of the countries I was disappointed to see with underwhelming costumes included Australia, Greece and Korea. Some costumes I think were underrated were the Philippines, Cuba, Ecuador, Samoa and Switzerland. Other countries that surprised me were Myanmar, Guyana, Estonia, Somalia and Sri Lanka. I think Japan and Jamaica had really beautiful costumes but came off as tacky and obnoxious. I personally wasn’t a fan of the Dominican Republic, Paraguay and Thailand.