With a dramatic entrance on five powerful bikes, and dressed in tight leather outfits that showed skin, sass and a whole lot of confidence, the contestants of the ninth Miss Big & Beautiful Pageant gave us a drama-filled night to the max.
Parading onto the small stage at The Plantation on Sunday night, the five full-figured women introduced themselves to a full house of patrons who were on their feet screaming and applauding from the first roar of the bikes coming through the gate.
Focusing on the theme Unstoppable, the contestants offered such words as “fluffy” and “bountilicious”, emphasizing the positive in the derogative comments usually hurled at big women, and telling the audience of their achievements and aspirations.
Every time Miss Structure Clothing (Katrina Blackman) stepped to the mic, as the last contestant, it was apparent she had brought her own large cheering section. Even though she stumbled in the question and answer section, at the end of the night, her poise, beauty and voluptuous body had earned her 1 813 points to crown her queen.
Gracing the stage in casual wear, formal wear and the long-awaited lingerie, contestants had patrons, who were lining up from as early as 6 p.m., screaming for more.
Blackman, 24, chose a Pauline Bellamy designed gown of satin and tulle with beading and lace – designed for her curves – to win Best Formal Wear.
She also took the titles of Miss Photogenic, Miss Facebook, Best Casual Wear for her two-piece denim outfit and Best Lingerie. The aspiring chef enticed the audience with a white chef jacket and hat, feeding a cream covered strawberry to a lucky male. She then took off the jacket to reveal a bold, black one-piece with little pink ribbons.
She gave her extra buxom bottom a jiggle to get patrons up and screaming.
Second place went to Best Talent winner Miss Harmony (Nahketa Harris), 30, who scored 1 796 points. Dressed in a genie costume, she went from belly dancing to Bollywood. Running across the stage, she shook and shimmied her body, even showing how big girls get down – literally.
She went on her knees and bent over backwards.
Harris’ formal wear of a two-toned, two-piece green organza outfit was a little too much for her large bosom; but her lingerie was racy and saucy. Dressed in a teddy, she had the bad teacher look just right – complete with strap.
Third place went to Miss La Femme Fashion Factory (Julia Mascoll), 30. With her sunshine smile and pleasant personality, she took Most Improved and Best Essay with 1 777 points.
An educator who wants to be a broadcaster, she was impressive in her sign language dramatic piece done to Set Fire To The Rain by Adele. Wearing white gloves and a black dress, she used lighting for extra dramatic effect, and capped the piece with two firesticks she used to flick along her arms.
But she was tame in her lingerie piece of sexy cop with thigh-high, red leather boots, a jumper and handcuffs. Her evening gown, a one-shoulder, white, sequinned dress with chiffon and a front keyhole piece with diamantes hanging off the shoulder, was designed by Shannon Ashley.
Miss Pon Di Scene TV (Tracey Collins), the smallest and shortest of the bunch, was a bit timid in her talent piece of a soca dance. With doll-like features, she wore her Lucy Lui gown beautifully.
Miss Urban Vybz Boutique (Mecheale Reid) won Miss Congeniality. She sang Jar Of Hearts for her talent piece – she has a beautiful voice. But she fumbled in the question and answer segment.?It probably didn’t help that Reid was the first contestant out for every category.
At the end of the night the contestants represented themselves well. All were beautiful and carried their weight well.
