The Miss Florida USA & Miss Florida Teen USA

Magazine of June 19, 2008

Dear Miss Florida USA Family:

Welcome to another edition of YOUR Miss Florida USA & Miss Florida Teen USA Magazine YOUR information source for everything pageantry in the Sunshine State. We are currently catching a second wind as pretape sessions continue Friday and Saturday in Hollywood. Morning and evening shoots await our final group of delegates as everyone gets to be involved in the statewide broadcast. Can you believe we are less then a month out from state?

World Pageant News will be focused on Vietnam as for the next month as the marathon that is Miss Universe has started. Florida USA News has more information on our August pageants in Boca Raton and Cypress Gardens. GenArt keeps us hip while Faces & Places returns from Holiday to report on recent fun in Florida USA land! Our Miss Florida USA Channel Movie of the Week has three entries from the past weekends tapings. All the pageant news that fits to print on Thursdays and Fridays only at YOUR Miss Florida USA Ezine, the only Ezine in the pageant world!

Grant H. Gravitt, Jr.

Executive Producer

Miss Florida USA & Teen

» 27 Days until Miss Florida USA!

PAGEANT NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

» Vietnam ready to welcome Miss Universe competitors

VietNamNet Bridge – Contestants of the Miss Universe 2008 pageant begin arriving in Vietnam as of today, June 16. Up to 40 beauties will arrive at the HCM City-based Tan Son Nhat International Airport on June 17, said the organizing board.

Two competitors came to Vietnam on June 16, Siera Robertson from Guam (18 years old, 1.75m) and Karol Castillo from Peru (18, 1.82m).

On June 17, 40 other competitors and Miss Universe Vietnam Nguyen Thuy Lam (20, 169m) will receive their rooms at the New World Hotel, HCM City.

Among 40 girls who will come to HCM City on June 17 will be the Miss Universes of France, Italy, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, the US, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Seventeen competitors, including those from Czech Republic, India, Australia, Venezuela, the UK, Greece, South Africa, Norway, will arrive in HCM City on June 18. On June 19, 17 others will come, including the Miss Universes of China, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.

The names of over 70 competitors have been announced. The remaining (around 10) will arrive in Vietnam in the following days. They will stay in HCM City till June 24, then go to Hoi An Town (June 25), Hanoi (June 26), Ha Long (June 27-28) and Nha Trang (June 29-July 15).

Besides participating in fashion shows, parades, on-the-beach and charity activities, competitors will go to some famous landscapes in Vietnam to make a 9-minute video advertising the host country’s tourism. This video began to be shot on May 5. It will be broadcast on the US’ NBC channel during the 2-hour contest on the morning of July 14 (Vietnam time)

Karol Castillo (Peru), one of the competitors

who came to Vietnam on June 16.

Crystle Stewart, Miss USA 2008, arrives at a hotel

in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh city June 17, 2008.

(L-R) Miss El Salvador 2008 Rebeca Moreno, Miss Indonesia 2007 Putri Raemawasti and Miss Thailand 2008 Gavintra Photijak pose for a photograph upon their arrival at a hotel in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh city June 17.

Thursday Update

VietNamNet Bridge – By June 17 in the afternoon, over 20 candidates of Miss Universe 2008 pageant had arrived in HCM City. Every hour, a group of cars escorts competitors from Tan Son Nhat International Airport to the New World Hotel.

At the hotel, competitors have their photos taken, have their measurements officially taken and fulfill registration requirements. Miss Vietnam Universe Thuy Lam has checked into the hotel as well. Some photos of competitors at Tan Son Nhat Airport and the New World Hotel:

Miss Albania and Miss Kosova

Miss Guam

Miss Vietnam

POOLSIDE PICTURES

Miss Vietnam 2008 Nguyen Thuy Lam poses in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh city in this undated handout photograph released on June 19, 2008.

Miss Albania 2008 Matilda Mcini

Miss Mexico Elisa Najera

MISS FL USA NEWS!

» SUPER SUMER MINI SEASON

MISS CYPRESS GARDENS USA 2010

We are very pleased to announce our newest title as we welcome this Central Florida legendary

location into our pageant family. With a date set for August 23^rd our newest pageant will be a

part of our “Super Summer Mini Season” that gives delegates the month of August to qualify for

our 2010 state pageant. This just in, they will now add a Miss Winter Haven USA title! For

information on our Central Florida stop in this mini season contact the Cypress Gardens Pageant

Staff at 863 595 2360 or via email to misscgusa@cypressgardens.com.

» MISS BOCA RATON USA & TEEN USA

We are very excited to announce that this years Miss Boca Raton USA & Teen USA Pageants will be a co-production with Barbara Ewald, The Miss West Broward USA Director. We are now looking at August 17^th as the date of the competition for entry into both Miss Florida USA 2010 and Miss Florida Teen USA 2009. The venue will be the West Boca Raton Performing Arts Theater. For more information email Pageant Director Grant Gravitt, Jr. at Telair@aol.com or via phone at (954) 924-4949.

» MISS DORAL USA & TEEN USA

The directorship team of Miss Miami Tropics has launched a pageant for those in the fast growing region of West Miami Dade County. Dates are yet to be set but look for a mid August pageant. For more information call Pageant Director “Miss Rose” Martinez at (305) 412-8034 or via email to missmiamitropic@aol.com.

» MISS FLORIDA USA & MISS FLORIDA TEEN USA ON MYSPACE:

Be our MySpace friend at either www.myspace.com/missfloridateenusa or www.myspace.com/theofficialmissfloridausa as we feature the Miss Marion County USA 10 Minute Pageant at our Miss Florida USA site and the Miss Marion County Teen USA 10 Minute Pageant at our Miss Florida Teen USA site.

This week is all about playing catch up with our special reports from our pretape weekends. Today we give you three movies as you get to go behind the scenes at our pretape visits to Downtown Hollywood, Hollywood Beach and Seminar Day. So enjoy this edition of www.youtube.com/missfloridausa Channel Movie of The Week.

Click here for more YouTube Movies!

Out of Africa

Inspired by a trip to Morocco, a Berlin designer makes effortless modern sophistication a reality.

When I returned from my post-grad backpacking trip, I didn't have much to show for it except a suitcase full of market stall junk and a maxed out Visa. But designer Svenja Specht left fashion school with a mission in mind, and after seven years of world exploration, settled in Berlin armed with enough inspiration for her own label.

She named it Reality Studio, after a term coined by avant-garde author William S. Burroughs. In Burroughs' "Reality Studio," life is like an endlessly looping film reel, and it's the artist's job to re-interpret all this mundaneness in more interesting ways. Specht is striving to do the same with fashion design, by taking fragments of her eclectic life experiences and remixing them into fresh variations.

Take her current collection, for example—dubbed "Zahara" and inspired by a recent trip to Morocco, the line seamlessly blends customary North African motifs with edgy European sophistication. Hooded capes and tunics are rendered in futuristic, shiny white; harem pants and jumpsuits are designed with an exaggerated low crotch; while a graphic necklace inspired by mosaic tile patterns and turban-esque hats are glamorous interpretations of the country's traditional art and culture.

"I think 'Zahara' is very elegant and sexy, but I gave it a twist by using the colors, cuts and details of traditional Moroccan clothing," says Specht, who has also dabbled in product and graphic design. "I also played with cultural symbols like the veil, transforming it into fringed 'face curtains'."

So where does this experimentalist see herself in the future? "I'd like to be in a big studio with a nice view, surrounded by a great team and somebody who cooks, cleans and pampers us," she says. We guess even the most devout nomads need to settle down sometime—but if it means more of these enlightening designs, we're all for it.

For more information please visit www.realitystudio.de.

- Erin Magner

Updated 6/20!

The MISS FL USA

Official Preliminary Calendar

Click Here For The Latest Calendar Updates!

Recent Editions: