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| ( Miss Geri Love, Alternative Miss London 2016) |
She was elegantly fierce in her lion inspired outfit... She was magnificently radiant in her embroidered royal blue gown... She now epitomises and wears the crown of this year's Alternative Miss London!
There were 11 fabulous contestants who competed on stage with determination and 4 fair-minded members of the jury who assessed their performances, for this year's Alternative Miss London.
When I entered the man-made bricked venue of The Minories, it was simple but all set and ready for the pageant to commence. There was an inconspicuous display of partial giveaways for the winners; sat on a round table and just in front of the admission area. Such as, the colourful flowers in paper bags; violet sashes in silvery white prints; chilled champagne in coolers and glasses as well as the stature mini Trophies.
The audience were enthusiastically mingling while most of the eagle eyed admirers were sauntering around with drinks in their hands and looking for ideal spots. On the other hand, the energetic supporters were enjoying the loud music on the dance floor while wiggling their bumpy booties as well as their softish bodies. Others were outside and simply enjoying the reviving beer garden's fresh air.
On the dance floor's wall, a projector was displaying people's images especially the women who were involved in the past years Alternative Miss London. There was also a distressed dark walnut table with 5 matching chairs on the side of the dance floor for the jury and a tabulator to take over. Moreover, a 12-foot long platform was laid and accentuated with blue LED lights for the candidates to walk on during the competition.
It was already past midnight when Miss Vicky Lee took over the DJ's booth to welcome us all and acknowledge the appearances of relevant people. She was very dazzling in her A line above-the-knee emerald green sequence dress. It was a powerful welcome which was also an indication that the beauty pageant would commence soon. Apart from her, this was also the opening appearance of her co-hostess, Alexandra Marie Diaz, who was wearing a halter neck backless flowery bodycon dress.
The cheerful Alexandra took over the stage and especially thanked the sponsors and warmly introduced the night's members of the jury as well as the tabulator. Namely, Geyzhel Sparks , The WayOut's superstar supporter, photographer and singer; the reigning Alternative Miss London 2015 Alessandra Mae; the supportive Mark Danaher; the Alternative Miss London 2015's Miss Congeniality Lorenna Danaher and Lesly as the recorder of scores. I have to say they all looked serious yet very comfortable with their pencils and papers.
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| (L to R: MissGeyzhel Sparks, Alessandra Mae, Mark Danaher, Lorenna Danaher and Lesly) |
Before the pageant began proper, we were all asked to gather up closer to the stage and sing wholeheartedly to the tune of Happy Birthday. This was for the inspirational Miss Vicky Lee. Yes, it was also Miss Vicky Lee's natal day. She has been tirelessly supporting the LGBTQI+ community and continuously uplifting/safeguarding The WayOut Club's reputation.
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| (With Miss Vicky Lee) |
The overflowing greetings continued while the candidates were back stage anxiously waiting for their appearances on stage. When all of a sudden, the headlights were on which glorified the path of the stage. One by one, the candidates emerged and awed us all in their Fantasy Creative Wear. Their outfits were indeed combined products of imaginative and visionary minds. Actually, I adored all of the creations especially from Fabiola of Australia and Samantha of Brazil. I loved their creativity, courage and determination while on stage. We should not forget that their appearances on stage was made dramatic by the ingenious DJ Titch (Jay Mac) who manipulated the catwalk music and DJ Gary Baldi who looked after the colourful headlights.
(Cassandra Concepcion and Bernadette)
(Geri Love and Akiko)
(Fabiola and Nicci Take)
(Jade Chloe and Sophia)
(Samantha Foxer and Tiana)
Their creations earned standing ovations and loud applause from the audience. They headed back to the dressing room to prepare for the next round. Our energy levels were kept high spirited when Miss Katt Kitten sang 2 dynamic songs. She made most of us sing and dance with her peppy voice and her own rendition of Jesse J's song.
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| (Miss Katt Kitten) |
The hostess, Alexandra Marie Diaz, was back on stage to introduce the candidates to flaunt their provocatively hot figures. This was the Sexy Outfit round in which the artistic two-piece with armoured and shawl adornments as well as fetish clothing were worn individually and invitingly.
Quite sexy and hot however we calmed down a bit when they went back in the dressing room for retouching and coaching. The stage was taken over once again by Alexandra but with the special appearance of her co-hostess, Miss Vicky Lee. We engaged with them but were more engaged when Miss Huggy McGuire and Miss Geyzhel Sparks sang 2 songs and performed Donna Summer's 1980 Hot Stuff.
(Miss Huggy McGuire and Miss Geyzhel Sparks)
They, Miss Huggy McGuire and Miss Geyzhel Sparks, exhilarated us and kept our anticipation calm for the candidate's final round. The attentive hostesses held the microphones once again for the vibrant, flowy and silhouette sequence Long Gown competition to lead off.
Each candidate had their grandstand appearance on stage with their long gowns on. A few minutes after the appearance of the last candidate, they were all called and embraced closely with one another on stage. This was when they were asked to recompose their selves before doing the traditional 360 degree turn around; by facing the jury at 180 degree and then facing back the audience. After this they all headed back to the dressing room. While the audience's focus and attention was handed over to Miss Huggy McGuire who delivered her own shining version of Rihanna's Diamonds.
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| (L to R: Cassandra Concepcion, Bernadette, Geri Love, Akiko, Fabiola and Nicci Take) |
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| (L to R: Chloe, Sophia, Samantha Foxer, Tiana and Cheska) |
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| (Miss Huggy McGuire) |
It is a common practice in every beauty pageant that the last year's queen will have her own farewell walk and speech. This is when her beauty will be seen once again by admirers and her composure on stage to be appreciated by supporters. That is why the Alternative Miss London 2015, Alessandra Mae, made her final walk and blew us all away in her floor-length 'very' see through glistening backless gown.
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| (Alternative Miss London 2015, Alessandra Mae) |
After the unhindered farewell walk of Alessandra Mae, the special awardee; runners-up and the Alternative Miss London 2016 were revealed and declared:
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Miss Congeniality, Cassandra Concepcion
2nd Runner-up, Jade Chloe
1st Runner-up, Akiko Mae Obillo
Alternative Miss London 2016, Geri Love
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Beauty queens are trained to compete and made to win, but they were once ordinary women who have striven to be who they are now. On the other hand, some women are still metamorphosing. When we greatly value their courage and determination we are helping them to mould themselves as beauty queens. We should all not forget humility and understanding even though we may be more beautiful and even more feminine than others. It is because, we were once like them?
