Soviet era military costume, remember the border guards? Khaki uniforms, white leather sam brown belts?
Cant find white sam brownes, here isblack =)
That’s the best explanation for the dress.
What is Switzerland? What does the feather symbolize in Romania? Is it to have at least one, just like half of the Caribbean/tropical countries? Is Slovenia the iron curtain?
Well, the dress itself has Canadian West Coast Native designs on it, so it sort of works. I don’t get that she’s wearing a Sioux war bonnet, though. Not at all.
It’s from prince Vlad Tepes’ coronet. Goes with the cape, the bat and the bloodstains on her nightie. Shout-out to the sex appeal of old-school non-sparkly vampires.
I didn’t realize that El Salvador was located on a plantation in Atlanta, Georgia in 1775.
The American South did not have a monopoly on plantations nor plantation life. It was a common feature of colonialism.
And they all wore that exact same dress? My point was that the outfit was very much something you would get in a plastic bag at Party City labeled “southern belle” and did not seem to indicate anything about El Salvador in particular.
The 19th century world was globalized, perhaps more than we are today. Wealthy plantation owners were a global market whose demands were met by global trade in goods and information about goods and fashion.
In El Salvador perhaps that era of fashion has taken on a national meaning; whereas, it hasn’t over here.
Yeah, that totally didn’t work. As a non-native, I am embarrassed. As a native. I would be appalled.
It’s a generic dress to harken back to Spanish colonial times, which is shared by most of Latin America. And yea, the dresses of the era are similar. The colors of the dress, though, are based on the Salvadorean flag. I gues that is what is particular about it.
And hey, it’s at least calling to a point in their history, while I don’t remember Honduras being blessed with almost naked featherless birds, going by their model.
Excellent point and one that I had not considered. The look of fear on Miss Great Britain’s face, though, isn’t one I remember seeing in the pictures of traveler weddings I’m come across.
This page seems to be showing all the cosumtes on one page (but you have to click on each photo to see it “real size”)
I think what you really mean are Native Americans, and yes there are many many in Canada.
Something just seems off about the Singapore outfit. Her position plays with the eyes. It looks like her head’s screwed on backwards or something.
For the most part there’s only one word I can think of, Va Va Voom! 
I watched a few beauty pageants with my mom when I was a kid. I know I watched at least one Miss Universe, because I remember wondering if it was okay to think Miss Germany (a redhead) was beautiful.
I asked my mom once what happened to all the girls that didn’t get picked, as they winnowed them down to semi-finalists, then finalists. She said, “They go backstage and they cry.”
:eek:
She may have been pulling my leg, or maybe she was absolutely sincere, but that kind of took away the fun for me. Suddenly it was sad: these gorgeous girls just aren’t gorgeous enough. 
Well, yeah, but what’s even less fun is watching the Miss Universe Pagent on “everybody gets a trophy” day. Those awards ceremonies take forever!
Poland’s was a beautiful example of Polish embroidery although I guess that doesn’t pop out like a full on Quetzalcoatl outfit (I know you did praise Poland’s, just saying).
Of course, Latin America has all the colorful deities. Who wants to see Miss [Slavic] dressed as Baba Yaga or Marzanna?
I am not usually into an fashion type of stuff, but Zsofia’s right, most of these are the awesome. Or at least interesting. Any that sucked, esp sprinkled in with the others, made me stop and say “what were they thinking?” or “wow, imagine being forced to wear that costume amongst the others, that woman will be dealing with the feelings of inadequacy for the rest of her life”. 
True, some of the costumes were definitely gaudy; but many were either outright funny - or outright fun - festive, and party oriented. And what occasion could be more suitable for a little extra showy than a top beauty pageant? (and I esp liked the idea of the deeelicious Miss Colombia not wearing any underwear underneath her flamboyant costume. ;))
Well, 3.8% of the population. But for some reason when it comes to displaying Canada’s national identity to the world, it is front and centre. I’m tired of it. It happened in the ceremonies to the Vancouver Olympics too.
The dress was a wigwam, topped by a totem pole, capped by the test pattern Indian. Just awful.