Weird and wacky Miss Universe national costumes from Asia
Ahead of the Miss Universe 2018 finals to be held in Bangkok on Dec 17, the 94 beauty queens treated us to the annual spectacle of the national costume parade last week. JEANMARIE TAN picks apart the weird and wacky offerings from the rest of Asia that make Miss Universe Singapore's meme-worthy Trump-Kim summit dress look like amateur hour.
MISS VIETNAM
You have probably never met a streetside banh mi vendor looking as tasty and enthusiastic as her. Judging from her pose, the sales pitch seems to be: "Bet you can't wait to sink your teeth into this sandwich."
MISS THAILAND
Talk about the elephant in the room. On paper, it is a no-brainer. But that is one grotesque towel art pachyderm head (supposedly Chang, the icon of Siam) and collapsible trunk that she feels compelled to stroke in some pictures.
MISS LAOS
No, you are not seeing double - or triple. Miss Laos is simply carrying the weight of her clones on her dainty shoulders. Just making it onto the stage is workout.
MISS MYANMAR
The cosmetic paste that the local women slather on their faces has literally made it to Miss Universe. Miss Myanmar is going around as the tree that the paste is made from and the circular slate slab it is made on. You really can't buy this sort of publicity.
MISS INDIA
As the recent lavish weddings of actress Priyanka Chopra and Ms Isha Ambani, the daughter of India's richest man, have shown, nothing less than extravagant will do for India . Actually, this looks pretty cool. It is dual function too, coming with its own portable bench.
MISS JAPAN
Did they run out of ways to interpret kimonos and samurai garb? Surely she can do better than basic Sailor Moon cosplay. For otakus only.
MISS PHILIPPINES
She is fastidious about representing the three major island groups all over, but there is really no need to be so anatomically correct as to include "nipples" on the bodysuit. Add a chastity belt to the whole thing and it is sending out mixed signals.
AND... MISS SINGAPORE
There's hardly anything left to say for a costume that has already been trolled to death, except that the bunching around the bodice got a little worse than the last time we saw it.
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