THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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Miss Thailand Universe will be stopping traffic in this outfit

Miss Thailand Universe will be stopping traffic in this outfit

Thailand has a new national costume - well, at least Miss Thailand Universe Aniporn Chalermburanawong has one.

But you’d look terrific in it, too, and judging by the first images we’ve seen, it’s definitely an outfit to consider with Halloween coming up.
Hirunkrit Phatharaboriboonkul has won this year’s edition of the costume-design competition with a rig that looks like the front end of a tuk-tuk. The reaction on the social media has been mirthful.
Aniporn won’t be wearing hers for trick-or-treating but rather in an attempt to become Miss Universe, Queen of All the Cosmos, when the mother pageant takes place later this year, apparently somewhere in China.
It’s a stunner of an outfit, dark blue with gold trim and a nice set of headlights – no, not where you think, you dirty newspaper readers. Hirunkrit, 35, works for the Culture Ministry, so he’s got to show at least some measure of propriety. There’s one headlight right in the middle (like on a real tuk-tuk), just below the bust line (on a real woman) and two more to either side on a flat mock-up tuk-tuk “face” that Aniporn will wear like a superhero’s cape. 
In fact, she’ll look like a super-heroine in this outfit, shoulders bared and with a silver necklace, a short skirt and thigh-high stockings with a tyre-tread pattern. Hirunkrit might have been thinking about Wonder Woman of Marvel Comics fame, because the costume truly is a marvel to behold.
Not everyone is in a mood to marvel, though.
“I’m confused about our national costume,” one wag commented on Pantip.com.
“Better keep it for a cosplay party,” added another.
Such cynicism was quickly overruled by supporters of the Miss Thailand Universe Organisation’s choice, who pointed out that the “national costume” worn on global TV by our lovely representative doesn’t have to be “traditional”, in the sense of dressing up like an apsara nymph straight out of the Ramakien. There’s plenty of leeway for creativity. “Come on,” says a guy on Facebook’s Miss Thailand Universe Fan Page, “it’s not necessary to be classical. The costume designer can play around with national icons.”
This is true, so forget about filing a lawsuit against Miss Thailand Universe for wearing a tuk-tuk. In 2013 Miss USA appeared in a “Sexy Transformer” outfit and Miss Netherlands was done up like a map of Holland with huge encircling wings, tulips, an actual working windmill and a bicycle circumnavigating her torso. Last year Miss Indonesia won the costume segment of the pageant with another wild, winged gown that featured horns as well.
So what does Aniporn think? After all, she’s the one who has to wear the tuk-tuk in front of millions of TV viewers. “The costume is impressive and I like it,” she says. “It’s extraordinary in the way it uses Thailand’s iconic vehicle. When foreigners think of Thailand, they probably imagine visiting the temples and riding in a tuk-tuk.”
So there’s some consolation, at least: She’s not going to be dressed up like a temple. 
And there’s one other thing about Hirunkrit’s design – those headlights. They’ll actually light up, and he reckons that Aniporn is bound to get the judges’ attention when she points those babies straight at them. 
 
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