The road to the Miss Universe crown wasn’t an easy one for Pia Wurtzbach, as most of you may have heard. It wasn’t until her third attempt at Binibining Pilipinas that the half-German-half-Pinoy beauty finally got a shot at winning the crown. As she recently celebrated the anniversary of her Miss Philippines Universe win, designer Albert Andrada spills some secrets we bet you didn't know about Pia’s prep for the big competition.
1. The famed blue dress which she wore during the main pageant didn’t arrive until 4 days before the competition.
Albert shares that the evening gown wasn’t commissioned until the 9th of December and they were only able to fly out on the 16th, having missed their flight on the 15th.
2. Up to the moment she went on stage, no one knew which dress she was going to actually wear.
A few other options were laid out for Pia to choose from prior to the competition but in the end Stella Marquez-Araneta let her decide which dress she wanted to wear.
3. People actually line up at Albert’s shop to pay homage to the blue dress.
“My assistant once told me that someone visited the shop and made the sign of the cross after touching it,” says Albert.
4. Her national costume almost went missing.
Albert says the the luggage the dress was in did not arrive when they came back after the competition. “They called me when they found it and I had to go and pick it up,” he shares.
5. Albert and his team had to travel from Makati to Cubao every day while working on the dress.
Madame Stella was very hands on and she wanted to make sure that everything was in place.
6. The headpiece of the national costume came from a secret vault.
Madame Stella has a secret archive where she keeps costumes from the past. They found the headpiece there and Albert took it to make some alterations to fit the dress.
Images from @piawurtzbach, @albertandada, and @missuniverse on Instagram.
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