Miss U organizers unveil new crown

The Miss Universe Organization (MUO) presented last Friday the new crown that the next Miss Universe and her nine immediate successors will wear, a partial result of what will be a decade-long partnership between the Donald Trump-owned organization and Czech Republic-based jewelry company Diamonds International Corp. (DIC) that they entered into in July 2014.

In a simple ceremony, MUO President Paula Shugart, DIC Holding President Lubos Riha and Vice President Petr Matejcek unveiled the crown in the presence of the 88 contestants of the 63rd Miss Universe Pageant, who posed with it for photographers.

A statement on the Miss Universe website says, “The new crown was designed to blend the Czech roots of DIC with the beautiful skyline of New York City, home of the Miss Universe Organization and its titleholders.”

“Craftsmen spent over 3,000 hours to create this beautiful and timeless crown with a very unique infrastructure, inspired by design elements of various royal crowns throughout history. The crown symbolizes and expresses the beauty, stability, confidence and power of women around the world,” it adds.

MUO also says the crown weighs 411 grams and has an estimated value of $300,000. It has 33 natural, translucent and colorless Bohemian crystals that are cut, polished and metalized on the rear side to enhance light reflection.

The crown has five large light blue topaz stones—symbolizing strength and loyalty—that each weighs 18.6 karats. It also has 198 dark blue sapphire stones—symbolizing faith and wisdom—weighing a total of 29.7 kt, and is encrusted with 311 small polished diamonds that weigh a total of 10.37 kt. And the base consists of 18-karat white gold strip that is 2 centimeters tall, 0.5 millimeters thick, and weighs 220 g.

The new crown is the eighth used in the pageant. The first, worn by the first Miss Universe, Armi Kuusela of Finland, in 1952, was a crown studded with over 1,529 diamonds that once belonged to the Russian tsars.

The fifth crown (and its variations), made of rhinestones and distinguished by the longtime Miss Universe symbol—a woman standing and holding a scepter—is the most iconic in the pageant’s history. It was used from 1963 to 2001.

The most recent one—dubbed the “Peace” crown and made with gemstones, white gold, platinum and synthetic rubies (to symbolize the MUO’s advocacy of raising HIV/AIDS awareness)—was created by United States-based, eco-friendly jeweler Diamond Nexus Labs and used from 2009 to 2014. ALVIN I. DACANAY