Clockwise from left:
- Olivia Carey, Miss Mauritius 2007
- Laetitia Sauzier (née Darche), Miss Mauritius 2010
- Anaïs Veerapatren, Miss Mauritius 2008
- Ameeksha Devi Dilchand, Miss Mauritius 2012
To write that national honour is at stake regarding the Miss Mauritius pageant may seem to be an overstatement, but hear me out.
For a country that is concerned as it appears to be with national image – the formidable payout given to our “Maurice, C’est un Plaisir” logo is a case in point – the Miss Mauritius pageant really is, for want of a better word, quite strange. No valid reason has been given to explain why, year after year, candidates are presented to us who obviously have had no preparation whatsoever to answer interview questions, whose grasp of language – whichever they choose – is appalling in most cases. An article does not give me the breadth required to criticize the finer points, and indeed, I don’t even have to – the press has done my job already, labelling year after year our dresses and costumes the worst of the lot. I can only despair at the wasted potential: Laetitia Sauzier, one of our most beautiful women, wearing what was described as “toilet paper”(by Time magazine, no less).
Ameeksha
Photographer: Zaheer Joosub (Wizardz)
We live in what Guy Debord has called la societé du spectacle. Kim Kardashian West published an entire book of her selfies recently. Why do I bring KKW into this? The woman is a marketing case study in herself. She embodies an American ideal: fit, toned, curvy, an entrepreneur, the American Dream. The informal Miss America. That she generates powerhouse-worthy revenue does not even need to be mentioned. The current Miss America, Kira Kazantsev, is another iteration of the American Dream: please visit the website if you don’t believe me. Key words are ambition and education. She will not mess up come question time. She will not utter the American version of “tomber en surcombe” (repeated at least three times if memory serves). If you think one can still take pageants lightly, remember that the woman in question is a reflection of the country as a whole. What image does it give of the country, when candidates are unable to give an educated, dignified reply to an interview question (and no-one can argue against the fact that those questions were in themselves tenuous at best)? What image does this show of us to the world? One may argue here that the winner is usually always someone of some stature. Yet social media has made sure that any competition, even held at national level, will impact a global audience.
What makes us Mauritian is our diversity: any community, any race could represent us as a nation. But train her to do it! Let her speak in the language she is most comfortable with – why is Creole, still today, considered inferior, when it is the tongue most Mauritians speak in? Why are these women in the latest video not able to stop fidgeting, why do they look so nervous?
Image is everything. Image sells. Image creates wealth. Image is power, image is honour, image is representation. Image comes with a voice, with poise, with attitude. Image is a product we should be selling correctly. You may think these phrases an exaggeration, but the following statements by Anaïs Veerapatren, Laetitia Sauzier, Olivia Carey and Ameeksha Dilchand show how much is at stake here:
- “The main highlight of participating in a beauty contest is that you do feel that you aren’t Ameeksha anymore, for everyone refers to you as ‘Mauritius’. What greater prestige can one feel, than being addressed by her country’s name? You do feel at that very moment that you were bestowed an immense opportunity to represent your country.” Ameeksha Dilchand, in her report on Miss International 2012.
- “A ‘Miss Mauritius’ is largely a representative of her country. As a 'Miss Mauritius', I was given the possibility to represent Mauritius, Mauritians and young women of my generation at various levels. Besides the enthralling and exciting international beauty pageants in which I took part (Miss East of Africa, Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss International, Miss Top Model of the World), I was invited as a representative of Mauritius for national and international conferences, TV/radio broadcasts and other public appearances. I was invited to speak about my experience and to give my opinion on various topics in schools, organizations and clubs. I was interviewed on various topics for public appearances. Still now or during my modeling experience in India, I have been invited many times to act as a representative of my country, as Anaïs and always as ‘Miss Mauritius’. I think this simple fact clearly proves that “people” see in me, to some extent at least, as a representative of Mauritius.” – Anaïs Veerapatren, interviewed by A.W-I.
- “During my time as Miss Mauritius I felt honoured to represent my country and demonstrate to the rest of the world what we have to offer. It is extremely difficult for one person to represent a country of such great cultural diversity. That said, I believe that during my time as Miss Mauritius, the cultural mix that exists within my own family along with my understanding of our history and strong values all aided in illustrating to the rest of the world the true flavour of Mauritius.” – Olivia Carey, interviewed by A.W-I
- "A Miss is the ambassador par excellence of her country on an international scale. She has to embody the values and the culture of her country. Intelligence and a refined elegance must lie alongside her physical beauty. It’s the image of the woman in the society she represents, her independence, her femininity, her level of comfort in her own skin" - Laetitia Sauzier, interviewed by A.W-I.
Olivia Carey
We were lucky enough to have representatives like the ex-Misses I have interviewed: women of great beauty, poise, and intelligence. Yet they had to teach themselves all the pageant skills and qualities: there was no guiding team to support them. According to Laetitia and Ameeksha, none of the women had any training whatsoever given to them by the pageant committee. This situation seems to stretch out as far back as 2007, when Olivia Carey won the crown: “Along with many parts of the experience, [such skills were] expected to be self taught.” Ameeksha and Laetitia claim that no coaching, no make-up and deportment classes were ever given to them: “If you wanted to polish your make-up skills, learn how to communicate properly, learn how to walk – your only resource was youtube and Missology forums”. It comes as no surprise, then, that the moment these women step on the international scene they feel alienated. Ameeksha says she “couldn’t understand what was happening. I was crying myself to sleep every night.” Laetitia agrees: “I learned everything on the spot, the moment I arrived at the Miss Universe competition. Miss France really helped me…”
We have some of the best make-up artists in the Indian Ocean on our island – why on earth are we not using them? These women in the video look like they have been stabbed with blush, and when has dull grey eyeshadow looked good on tanned skin? The candidates need to be trained to show themselves at optimum pageant levels. In an article for Voici, Camille Cerf (Miss France 2015) is depicted as having transformed her image to suit said level. She claims that “Avec mon maquilleur, Arnaud Sol Dourdin, j'ai fait une dizaine de séances afin d'être autonome.” (“With my make-up artist, Arnaud Sol Dourdin, I have had around ten make-up sessions in order to be autonomous). She has been trained to present the image that is Miss France, even when her make-up artist is not around. We should be doing the same with the local MUAs we have.
Laetitia Sauzier
The same point goes for designers, some trained abroad, some locally, all talented, some even award-winning. Why is there not an independent panel of textile experts, deciding on the chosen candidate’s wardrobe? Laetitia Sauzier got lucky with MaxMara. They, at least, recognized the power of a beautiful, well-educated woman, wearing their product. It is scandalous that one of the textile centres of the world cannot produce a Made in Mauritius wardrobe of worth to showcase our talent.
What is even more damning is that according to Laetitia and Ameeksha, the candidates have to pay for their own wardrobe – everything, from dresses, to shoes, to accessories. Sponsorship is a rare lucky star. Laetitia says “it was a huge investment for my parents at the time. Imagine: I had to build my three-week pageant wardrobe, with different outfits, that had to be differently themed, for each day I was there”. That the Miss Mauritius contract prevents its winners from working for a year other than for the pageant organization cannot help matters at all, financially-speaking.
To come back briefly to the national costume: The one worn by Ameeksha – the infamous dodo hat - was apparently recycled, to be worn by Nathalie Lesage a few years later. Ameeksha’s costume, incidentally, was created by using one of her own sarees! “I had to give the ‘designer’ an old saree of mine so that she could make the national costume…it seems that three metres of fabric was too expensive.”
Anaïs Veerapatren
2008, however, seems to be the year the committee got things right, with Anais Veerapatren elected Miss Mauritius: “I was 22 years old when I won the title and it was a wonderful journey. I would not change anything.” She states that she benefited from the support of the Miss Mauritius Committee “throughout the competition and its preliminaries. It would be a lie to say that I was not trained on make-up, poise and public speaking by the sponsors of the organization. I had free-make-up, make-up courses, dancing classes, free workshops, before and after the pageant.” It would be inappropriate, even wrong, to try and compare a local pageant to the ‘big sashes’ of this world, where pageantry is an industry (such as Venezuela), but even so, Anais claims that she was given more training then some of the other contestants in the global competitions. “I am grateful for what I had and always tried to make the best out of everything.”
To say that we cannot possibly do any better is as misleading as it is completely false. We have the resources necessary: both Laetitia and Ameeksha agree that there are competent people here in all the spheres necessary to coach the candidates, from make-up artists, to designers, to personal trainers. Dalysha Desvaux de Marigny, ex-Miss and now a professionally certified image coach, is an indispensable figure when it comes to local pageantry. Why are we not using her? In fact, why are the other Misses not being employed to help the candidates every year?
‘Help’ is supposedly given in terms of a report, as Ameeksha claims: “every year the national winner is asked to write a report after their international pageants. Fair enough, the purpose behind it is to understand the pageants through the eyes of a participant. I wrote both the negative and positive points of my experience, and to my surprise, the negatives are never told to the next local winner.” Her reports shed much needed light on why training these girls is so necessary. According to Ameeksha, competition is stringent in the Miss Universe pageant, with preferences clearly marked from the start: “I was absolutely disgusted with the treatment we received from some of the make-up artists and hairdressers. All the small countries taking part in the competition were ignored…I remember before a particular shoot I was having my hair done, but as soon as a Miss from one of the ‘bigger’ pageant countries arrived I was told to move aside.” The committee did seem to manage things better in the Miss International competition, however. Ameeksha arrived a day earlier, which gave her time to settle, welcome the other contestants, get used to her environment.
My interview with Anais was conducted over email, and even then I was struck by her intelligence, her vision for and of the pageant – again, pointing towards the fact that we are in almost desperate need for ex-Miss expertise. I’ve included most of her answer to my question (“What are the key aspects of the Miss Mauritius pageant that need to be changed?”) here, because if we needed a manifesto, this is it:
“If the ultimate goal of the Miss Mauritius Pageant is to elect a representative of the young women of Mauritius, in order for her to act as an ambassador of the island at both national and international level on various platforms, I believe the main priorities are to:
- Ensure she truly represents the core values of Mauritius: Feminity, Intelligence, Passion, Hard work, Friendliness, Kindness…the list goes on.
- Identify the main events in which she will participate during her office and ensure she is up for the challenge: if it’s for international beauty pageants, she should be a strong contender, if it’s for public appearances, she should be a good orator, if it’s to do associative work, she should be a hard worker, if it’s to participate in events, she should have certain skills… Again, the list can go on.
- Work on an agenda of activities in order to support the finalists and winner in their growth towards the goals of the pageant in order for them to have all the tools to become a better version of themselves and to act as true representatives.
I think that the pageant is not satisfactory today because all the priorities are not carefully looked after; maybe due to a lack of resources or ambition. I believe the Miss Mauritius Committee is doing the best it can, with its resources. Unfortunately, the world moves fast and the pageant is not moving quickly enough with it. To be able to get back in the race, I think the Committee needs support from stronger partners and most importantly, to open up its mind to other opportunities.”
Olivia’s opinions correlate to Anais’ statements above: “ The competition presents a great opportunity to represent our country overseas. This said, however, much can be improved to make the most out of this opportunity, in order to better reflect the qualities and positive culture Mauritius has to offer. I believe that improving the structure of the committee would be of the greatest value to the pageant. Implementing new management alongside the existing set-up would help to add greater professionalism, as well as creating a fairer environment.”
Such an implementation could have as starting point the very entry form that the pageant uses. Here is the local version, set against that of Miss France.
(To view the documents properly, right click on each image and select 'open in new window/tab', it'll give you the photos in their original, legible size).
We can already see that the standards are set much higher for the latter. There is no room here for blanks, mumbles, unnamed projects. The bar is rigorously set at ‘Excellent' from the very start.
A parting note, after the interviews above, isn't really necessary: yet one of the things the committee needs to rectify immediately, if it is to salve the national image and the image of its own organisation, are the rumours of its own disorganisation. Bring in new people, new ideas - one gets the impression that only a near-total overhaul would change things. Make each step of the Miss Mauritius process (more) transparent: explain and list out clearly the gifts given, the sponsors' precise roles, their future job status after the competition is over. Call out for help. I think I speak for all our industry when I say we stand ready to offer more than just a helping hand.
A parting note, after the interviews above, isn't really necessary: yet one of the things the committee needs to rectify immediately, if it is to salve the national image and the image of its own organisation, are the rumours of its own disorganisation. Bring in new people, new ideas - one gets the impression that only a near-total overhaul would change things. Make each step of the Miss Mauritius process (more) transparent: explain and list out clearly the gifts given, the sponsors' precise roles, their future job status after the competition is over. Call out for help. I think I speak for all our industry when I say we stand ready to offer more than just a helping hand.
This article could not have been written without the help of Khatleen Minerve and the Misses who agreed to be interviewed and bombarded with my questions. Thanks is also due to Emma Grigoryan, who helped me understand the mechanisms of pageantry in developing countries.
