The Evolution of the Crown

“Eighty nine girls competes for the most coveted crown of …….”

This is the statement we oftentimes hear in a beauty pageant.

The crown itself is the symbol that the candidate is the winner of the pageant.

Thus the crown should speak something about what the pageant is all about.

Miss International has been using the same crown since 1999.

The Miss International crown is pearl studded with a blue gem at the center. That blue gem based on its sparkle could either be a sapphire or a blue peridot. The base of the crown has a white fur which serves as a cushion to the head. The inside interior of the crown has a red cap which serves as a background to the external façade of the crown. It has two horses facing one another with feet up thus the crown is appearing more of a “coat of arms.” It is the only crown that has a knot that was being tied below the chin of the winner. All the gems of the crown is encrusted on an 18k gold. Prior to 1999, the Miss International is using the “Fleur–de–lis” crown which was first used in 1970 by Aurora Pijuan. 

Left: Lia Borrero at Miss International 1998 with the Fleur-de-lis crown
Right: Paulina Galvez at Miss International 1999 wearing the new crown

The Miss Universe crown was changed three times. The first crown was plain diamond crown. The second crown was composed of pearls and diamonds and the third was composed of diamonds and ruby.

The first crown used by Miss Universe has a silhouette of a lady at the center with three cascading outer ring around it. It was the perfect crown that symbolizes universality and feminity. Those cascading rings would symbolize the orbits of the earth and the diamonds in between it are the planet. The lady is on top of a round diamond studded silhouette which symbolizes that she is on top of the world. For strange reason it was then changed. Why fix something that is not broken?

It was then changed to the “Phoenix Crown.” The crown is composed of diamonds and pearls assembled to appear like a phoenix feather. The irony behind is the concept of eternity. Phoenix is a fire bird that dies into an ashes and resurrects itself from the ashes as well. I wonder if they have been inspired by Harry Potter that is why they changed it to that crown. The crown nevertheless is more like a tiara.

The latest crown symbolizes unity. There’s just one flaw. They put a red stone (which I believe is a ruby) at the center. Red symbolizes war. Blue symbolizes peace. They should have used sapphire instead, after all, sapphire is the second hardest precious stone after diamond. The crown anyway is made of 18k white gold.

If I were Donald Trump, I will revert it back to the old crown. That old crown should only be modified with its stone component. The silhouette of the lady should be enhanced to appear like a woman. The stones should then be changed, they may want to try citrulline or topaz. There a lot of royal colors available. I colored this blog with maroon, navy blue and violet because those are the royal colors. In precious stones, they could either be variants of sapphire, amethyst or garnet. The crown that was used in the 70’s has more distinction than the one used in the 90’s.

Another thing that Donald Trump has to consider is the size of the crown. Watch this video of the 1993 Miss Universe, Dayanarra is shouting “My crown! My crown!” Because it is falling from her head. Not because it was not properly positioned but rather because the diameter of the crown is too big. Why is it that the Miss World crown is “one size fits all” and others not?

Miss World has been using the same crown since 1979.

The Miss World crown is compose of (based on sparkle) sapphire (tiffany cut), lapis lazuli (baguette cut), diamond (round cut) and aurora borealis (tiffany cut). The gems are assembled to be flower–like diagonally constructed at the perimeter of the crown. The largest stone is the suspended tiffany cut aurora borealis. The interior base of the crown has blue velvet which serves as a cushion to the head. It is embedded on an 18k gold as in any other crown otherwise the precious stones will be weakly held by the crown. Unlike other crowns by which the design is concentrated in front, the Miss World crown is symmetrical thus it can be put on the head in any direction. This crown was first used by Gina Swainson in 1979. 

Unlike the other two pageants, Miss Earth runners up also wears a crown instead of just bouquet. The main crown speaks out about the advocacy behind the pageant. I don’t believe that the stones embedded on the crown are donated by candidates. The crown was very symmetrical. If you will divide the crown into half such that both sides will mirror each other between left and right, the stones are symmetrical to one another. You means to say that one candidate donated two emerald stones to be part of the crown. There were a pair of peridot stones on the crown as well.

There is also a black pearl on that crown. Black pearl is the most difficult type of pearl to cultivate because pearls usually comes as white unless the one on that crown is a synthetic one. Black pearl is very expensive also to be donated. There is also turquoise and amethyst on the crown. The pear shaped stone on top of the crown which symbolizes fire is either a topaz or citrulline. There is also a variant of orange topaz on the crown. Carousel production says that the crown is made of recycled silver but based on the luster and finishing of the crown, it looks like it is made of 18k white gold. It is near perfect except that the diameter of the crown doesn’t conform to “one size fits all” the way the Miss World crown fits to all winners. Honestly, I like this crown very much. It was very well studied and crafted. 

All of these crowns should always come in three pieces where two will be original and the third will be the replica. One of the original crown will be worn by the outgoing winner on her final walk while the other will be the one which will be worn by the soon to be winner. The replica will then serve as a souvenir for the current winner as a remembrance that she once been a holder of that title.

With one crown being handed from one winner to the other, hopefully, the success of the previous winner will then be handed over to the next.