| Subject: Beauty pageant neophyte faces steep learning curve |
Author:
 Tommy
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 20:32:52 05/22/10 Sat
BY CARYS MILLS, THE WINDSOR STAR MAY 22, 2010
Summer Ross is freaking out.
A blue gown the aspiring beauty queen eyed recently in Michigan has been snapped up by someone else.
Having the right dress is critical. The gown she wears when she competes in the Miss Universe Canada pageant in June will be worth one-third of her total score.
And one contestant has a $10,000 dress.
"I was freaking out, like waking up freaking out about my evening gown," Ross said.
The making of a beauty queen is a multi-faceted affair. After the gown, there's the task of finding sponsors, learning how apply makeup and how to walk gracefully.
"I don't know if I realized how much work goes into pageants," Ross said.
Even though she was named after 1975's Miss USA, Summer Bartholomew, Ross clearly has a lot to learn about the beauty business.
Unlike many of her competitors, it will be her first pageant. At 26 - the pageant's age limit - the pressure's on for her to get it right in one shot. The University of Windsor biology student found out only two months ago, months after other contestants, that she had a spot in the pageant after applying for it as a lark.
"One day I was literally just bored and thought I'd look up beauty pageants," Ross said.
She practises her walk whenever she can, whether it's Walmart, a mall or the laboratory where she works.
She was told to perfect her eyebrows, wear false eyelashes and get a French manicure.
She said the constructive criticism helps because she wants to know what it will take for her to win. "I'm not so good with my makeup techniques and stuff," Ross said.
"You want your lips to really pop for the camera," Deborah Dufault, a medical esthetician at Esteem Medical Esthetics, said while lining Ross's lips.
Dufault is teaching Ross how to create her own daytime and evening look and creating a personalized checklist of makeup to apply.
Last week Ross had semi-permanent eyelashes applied to avoid having to apply them every day. The procedure took about an hour and a half.
Donna Jezdic, founder of Esteem Medical Esthetics, has known Ross since she was 16.
"It's nice to have someone represent Belle River," Jezdic said. "She's young and motivated."
Ross said when she met with the director a second time he was pleased she'd been working on his suggestions.
But she said she still needs to work on her walk since other contestants have been working on theirs for years.
Olivia Gurun, a 2004 Miss Universe Canada delegate from Windsor, is Ross's walking instructor. "I think Windsor has a good chance at bringing the crown home this year," Gurun said
Ross has tried to cut out most cheese, chocolate and some carbs from her diet.
"Being involved has made me much more health conscious, I take lots more vitamins, I eat lots more green things and I stay away from pasta and breads," she said.
Ross, who stands 5-feet-11-inches, has rarely worn heels. Now she wears them everywhere -- including a pair of four-inch pumps with a zebra print -- to practise her walk.
Unlike most of the other contestants Ross didn't have glamour shots handy, so she recruited some friends -- Milica Moric and Alexsandra Wadas -- to help her with a photo shoot. In a dimly lit bathroom in the basement of the Boom Boom Room, a downtown nightclub, Moric and Wadas dressed and made up Ross.
A few hours before the club's dance floor filled up, Ross was posing in a booth while Wadas shot photos.
The photos are being used to promote Ross's fashion show fundraiser, "Vying for the Crown."
Ross and the selected models will be at Per Bacco Ristorante, 1199 Ottawa St., on Wednesday starting at 6 p.m., modelling clothes from Envy Boutique and His and Hers Wear and Bridal. Food is provided by Per Bacco and tickets are $30, available at the restaurant.
cmills@thestar.canwest.com or 519-255-5709
http://www.windsorstar.com/entertainment/Beauty+pageant+neophyte+faces+steep+learning+curve/3059518/story.html
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 