Mary Jean Lastimosa parades her national costume, designed by Colombian Alfredo Berraza, during the Miss Universe preliminaries on Wednesday in Doral, Florida. (Photo courtesy of Miss Universe)
“The designs that were given to us were no good for our candidates.”
That’s the explanation given by Stella Marquez Araneta why she continues to tap Colombian designer Alfredo Barraza instead of using the designs sent by Filipino designers for the Binibining Pilipinas winners competing in international pageants.
In an interview with “TV Patrol” on Saturday — the controversial Binibining Pilipinas Charities founding madam who won Miss Colombia in 1959 and Miss International in 1960 — further defended her compatriot’s latest national costume creation for Miss Universe Philippines Mary Jean Lastimosa.
Marquez Araneta pointed out that the Miss Universe’s national costume competition is not about authenticity but “attention-grabbing artistic interpretation”.
Barraza’s national costume design certainly got a lot of attention but mostly not due to its artistry. Pageant fans online did not hesitate in expressing their almost unanimous disdain for the flower-festooned dress and, to a lesser extent, the white evening gown that MJ also wore in the Miss Universe preliminaries on Wednesday.
In the same interview, Marquez Araneta said she was impressed with Barraza when she got him to design the national costume of Miriam Quiambao in the 1999 Miss Universe pageant where the latter placed first runner-up to Botswana’s Mpule Kwelagobe. She claimed Quiambao won “Best National Dress” then, but a check with the records of Miss Universe revealed that the National Costume winner that year was, in fact, Nicole Simone Dyer from host country Trinidad and Tobago.
In all the years Barraza has been designing the national costume for Miss Philippines, there was only one time when he managed to score a hit. This was in 2001 when his similarly floral-accentuated version of the terno for Miss Philippine candidate Zorayda Ruth Andam was a runner-up to Miss Korea Kim Sa-rang in the Miss Universe National Costume competition.
Even as she has committed to having Barraza outfit Miss Philippines in this year’s Miss Universe — a job he seems to have cornered since 2001 — Marquez Araneta said she remains open to having Filipino designers create the national costume and evening gowns of competing Binibining Pilipinas winners for international pageants in the future.
Meanwhile, in a separate interview with ABS-CBN as posted on the website of Balitang America, MJ herself downplayed the national costume brouhaha.
“It doesn’t matter. Kahit ano naman ang suot mo, if it’s your destiny and if you give your all, hindi lang naman yun sa suot mo pero sa puso mo, sa personality na ipapakita mo sa gabing yun. And I think if it’s for me, it’s going to be for me, for our country,” she rationalized.
MJ is considered a frontrunner for the 2014 Miss Universe beauty pageant scheduled this January 25 (January 26, Manila time) in Doral, Florida.
Stella Marquez Araneta says local designs ‘no good’ for Miss Universe PH candidates
Source: InterAksyon.com (January 25, 2015 at 03:06PM)
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