Miss World 2025: Of barefooted beauties, elaborate costumes and cultural clues

Hyderabad, May 10 (PTI) At the much-anticipated Miss World pageant, which opened with fanfare on Saturday, beauties in elaborate costumes from around the world – some even barefooted – threw in cultural symbols, clueing in the audience on the complex histories of their countries.

For instance, when Miss Guyana Zalika Samuels walked on stage with that striking Jaguar headdress, she was not just making a fashion statement. She was telling the world about the deep-rooted reverence Guyanese have for jaguars.

A simple Google search will tell anyone that for the indigenous people of Guyana, jaguar is a sacred guardian of the forest, revered as a spiritual protector and a symbol of strength.

Or when Miss Guatemala Jeimy Escobedo walked on stage, holding on to something that looked like a bamboo handicraft product, she was telling the world about a traditional Mesoamerican ceremony.

Reverse image search in Google identified the miniature version of the ‘Palo Volador’, or ‘flying pole' -- which even had miniature ‘flying figures’ -- that she was waving at the crowd. Apparently, it has deep roots in Guatemala and other parts of the region. It’s a ritual that dates back to the Mayan era. It involves a tall pole from which the participants descend from the top while being suspended by ropes.

The exaggerated replica of the crown that Miss Netherlands, Jane Knoester, sported may have pointed to the obvious -- the royals of her country. But the boldly represented XXX in her gown does not just allude to the uber-famous Red-Light District in Amsterdam. XXX is so ubiquitous in the red-light district -- can be spotted even on fire hydrants -- that people often think it a shorthand code for the district.

But when one digs deeper, one will find that the symbol goes all the way to 1505, when Amsterdam was nothing but a fishing hamlet. Legend has it that St Andrew was a fisherman martyred on an X-shaped cross in the 1st century AD and that Amsterdam chose to adorn its coat of arms with this symbol 500 years ago.

India’s Nandini Gupta played it safe by shining the spotlight on one of its textile treasures: Jamdani weaves famous in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. She chose a ‘lehenga’ over a saree, but draped it in a way that it resembled a half-saree -- a nod to Telangana, perhaps.

Incidentally, it was Nepal’s Srichchha Pradhan who paraded the six-yard splendour of a saree. PTI JR ROH