‘Beauty Ever After’: 400-plus pages of inspiration
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After the epic reunion of more than 100 of its past winners last month, the Binibining Pilipinas pageant continues to celebrate its 60th anniversary with the release of the coffee-table book, “Binibining Pilipinas: Beauty Ever After.”
Avid Filipino pageant fans are really having it good this year. They got to witness the assembly of the country’s most iconic queens at the 2024 Bb. Pilipinas grand coronation night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum July 7, where Miss Universe winners Gloria Diaz, Margie Moran, Pia Wurtzbach, and Catriona Gray also shared the same stage for the first time ever.
And on Aug. 15, the Bb. Pilipinas Charities Inc. (BPCI) unveiled the massive publication, boasting more than 400 pages chronicling six decades of pageantry, and how the country became an international pageant powerhouse, being the most successful Asian country in the Miss Universe and Miss International pageants.
Tapped to document the historic legacy of the longest-running national beauty pageant in the Philippines was veteran journalist Alya B. Honasan, who brought to the pages the remarkable stories of the finest Bb. Pilipinas queens.
“The book is a milestone… We interviewed 70 women, and they all had nice stories,” Honasan told Lifestyle at the book launch held at Novotel Manila Araneta City in Quezon City.
From a little girl who kept a scrapbook of the Philippines’ first hosting of the Miss Universe pageant in 1974, Honasan has come full circle with the publication of the coffee-table book. “It’s as if I had a flashback. It was so much fun!” she said.
Most inspiring
Honasan said the challenge in mounting such a massive undertaking was keeping the stories tight. BPCI trustee Veana Forés, she said, wanted it engaging and tight. “Our problem was, we had so much information. So, we had to choose the most inspiring parts,” Honasan said.
“For every write-up, the title is a quote by the lady. And we were able to work it out even if a few of the ladies were not in the Philippines. At that time, Pia Wurtzbach wasn’t here. Lara (Quigaman) was in Canada. But they responded,” Honasan continued.
She also noted how different the current crop of queens are from the more senior ones. “The younger ones are go-getters. Like, Ahtisa Manalo (2018 Miss International first runner-up) has her own businesses. But the older ladies, when they come in—and they’re past 60—they’re still gorgeous,” Honasan said.
“One of the first senior queens we photographed was Vida Doria. Our jaws dropped when she entered. Everybody—the makeup team, the stylist—we all watched her because she’s so gorgeous… And kinilig kami (we were giddy) to meet them,” she added.
But despite the diversity of the queens that the Bb. Pilipinas has produced, Honasan noted something that remains the same. “The nice thing about Binibini is, they’re consistent in terms of standards. Most of the time, the girls have something to say. Ang maganda (what is beautiful) about the new ones now is, they will choose a cause and they’ll stick to it,” Honasan said.
She said she hopes the readers will be proud of the Bb. Pilipinas queens after they have read the book. “These women, they’re not just beautiful, but also smart, and we have this really fabulous institution, a contest that has been running for so long. And they’re still coming up with winners. There’s a history. And all of them, the women, are really international-class,” Honasan said.
She said working on the book has just reinforced for her what she has believed in as a long-time pageant fan: “You realize that it’s really possible to be a beauty with brains…They can coexist. And there’s nothing wrong with showing it off.”
“Binibining Pilipinas: Beauty Ever After” is available for order online via Ticketnet.com.
