This weekend I did my first pageant product review. I decided to review a gown by one of the most popular pageant gown designers, Sherri Hill.
I obtained a Sherri Hill gown (Thank you Kara Hall at Sherri Hill!) and endured it through a series of quality assurance procedures and tests to measure it's reliability under controlled situations. This following video is the documentation of our test results.
WARNING: Do not try this at home. Tests were performed by seasoned pageant professionals and below average snipers.
P.S. Watch the entire video to view a 2nd bonus test 🙂
My name is Joey Galon, originally born and raised in San Francisco, California. I received my B.A. degree in Fashion from San Francisco State University. In my senior year of college, I interned in the Special Events Department for I.Magnin, working with some of the greatest designers from Givenchy, Carolina Herrera, Thierry Mugler, and so many more. After graduating college, I relocated to Southern California working at Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills and got to work with Valentino, Escada and many more fashion designers.
I took a bit of a diversion in my career and started planning corporate & sports related events, eventually pulling me away from the fashion world. 25+ years in the special events industry, I had a deep yearning to design some gowns of which I officially launched my line at the last "True Beauty Expo" a beauty expo hosted during the Miss USA pageant week in Las Vegas.
I remember feeling so intimidated looking at the other booths of amazing fashion design icons like Sherri Hill, Tony Bowls, Carlos Alberto and many more established pageant gown designers. Always envisioning one day, I will have a gown on the Miss USA competition stage.
Gown sketch for Miss Nevada USA
Fast forward to today, I was approached less than a week out from our reigning Miss Nevada departing to Baton Rouge for her official Miss USA competition journey. I had designed a gown for a previous Miss Nevada USA, Jade Kelsall who loved the gown I made for her that she texted a photo of it to Shanna Moakler, Executive Director for the Miss Nevada USA pageant.
Shanna asked if I could make a gown for Brittany McGowan before she departed. I took on the challenge and made my promise to design, construct and have a gown ready for Brittany by the time she departed for Baton Rouge.
Shanna was open to my direction and design, so I at least had some creative freedom to create a special dress representing my state of Nevada. We chose silver as Brittany would be representing the Silver State of Nevada. I found some incredible lace fabric and saw a design that I felt would best compliment her figure.
I had also made the detachable Edwardian train of platinum silver dupioni silk. I've always loved working with this fabric as I love how light it is that it flows well and at the same time has great body and form when it drapes.
Close up of lace appliques
Brittany was so inundated with her last week that unfortunately, she wasn't able to meet me earlier in the week. I literally sent her a measurement sheet to fill out and then from there, we cut the fabric to make her gown. She arrived back into town on Friday as a going away party was planned for her that night.
Before she left for her send off party, she tried the gown on and it fit like a glove. I then took the gown and applied (by hand...one by one) thousands Swarovski crystals throughout the gown.
The gown is very sheer and I used a very light liner, so I reinforced some areas on her body with extra cut out lace appliques.
Basically, the gown was ready for her by the time she departed. This was the fastest gown I designed and turned around for delivery to any client.
Because Brittany had the gown for a very short time, she didn't have any prior rehearsals in the gown. She literally was practicing her walk and detaching her train in the hotel hallway.
I had Brittany's gown commissioned by a local Nevada designer, Joey Galon, three days before she left for Miss USA. I discussed the style and cut with him and chose the color and fabric! He was fantastic in executing it so quickly!
When Brittany first put it on, she had that magical moment and just knew that was her dress! We thought the detachable train would be fun and dramatic. You could tell when she walked out she simply felt beautiful and for me that is the whole purpose of evening gown competition!
-Shanna Moakler, Executive Director of the Miss Nevada USA pageant
Joey and Brittany during fitting
While watching the telecast of the Miss USA pageant, it was so surreal watching Brittany make it up the ranks as finalist. I just wanted to see my gown on tv and certainly, the goal was accomplished.
Truly it was a magical experience as I had set out a goal to have a gown on the Miss USA stage and here I had the opportunity.
I could've easily declined allowing my fear and/or doubt get the best of me due to the lack of time....but I trudged forward and stayed committed to creating this gown for Brittany and finally, fulfilling my dream of a gown at Miss USA.
I will eternally grateful to Jade Kelsall (Miss Nevada USA 2012), Shanna Moakler and for Brittany McGowan for taking a chance on me and providing me with such a golden opportunity -- the chance to fulfill one of my greatest dreams.
I'm just building my evening gown design company....one dress at a time!
Look out world.....my goal is to have my company name up there in the rankings with all the other great pageant gown establishments.
(photos by Miss Universe Organization and Joey Galon)
My first meeting with Elizabeth was when she walked in my runway show for the premiere of the Spring 2015 collections. She had recently been crowned Miss United States 2014, and I was immediately impressed with her character, style and poise. I knew she would be a strong contender for one of the biggest pageants in the world and was eager to design a one of a kind magnificent creation for this beautiful woman.
Speaking with Mr. Chris Wilmer, pageant director for Miss United States shortly after, he felt based on my experience, vision and prior successes I was the perfect designer for the Miss World Pageant wardrobe and our collaboration began.
The original design with neckline beading
During our second meeting I had Elizabeth try on a variety of my gowns in all kinds of fabrics, colors, and body shapes. Right away, I knew that the mermaid style looked marvelous and provided an amazing fit for her longer body.
Now that I knew Elizabeth should wear a mermaid style dress, I also realized that I wanted the gown to look clean and grand. Elizabeth completely agreed although this was outside “the sparkle queen” image she had presented in the past wearing typical pageant gowns. We were all confident that if Elizabeth was to make an impact as Miss United States, then this was our direction.
The original design was based on a previous pageant style. Although this original style has very minimal beading, Elizabeth’s gown would not have any. In addition I added ¼ inch straps, which perfectly complimented her frame and bone structure. My vision was for her to envelope the Hollywood red carpet glamour without anything to distract from her facial beauty.
Elizabeth’s contribution to the design was a plunging neckline. My research showed that in previous Miss World competitions this is not a standard feature. However, this detail proved to be a major success.
Gown Sketch by MacDuggal. Named “Lal Rani”
The last decision came to the final color. Sometimes girls think of color coming first, but it is the last thing I think about. I believe that it’s best to create a design that will best showcase you and your walk first.
Elizabeth had to decide between red and white. Originally Elizabeth had been crowned in white, but she really wanted a red dress. It was truly a hard decision to make, but she trusted me with the final choice.
The red version of the dress truly lit up her face. It was unbelievable, the red gown even made her eyes glisten.
Elizabeth seeing her gown for the first time
When the gown was finally completed, it took up an entire garment rack on its own...
I couldn’t just give this magnificent creation a style number, it needed so much more. The dress needed a name.
I christened the gown “Lal Rani,” meaning the Red Queen in my native tongue.
Elizabeth was stunned when she first laid eyes on “Lal Rani.” She kept asking over and over, “Is that really my gown?!”
At first, my team and I had to help her walk in her dress because of the voluminous Mikado fabric, and extended train. Making her keep her eyes closed until she first saw herself in the mirror added to the anticipation. When she opened her eyes, she started crying instantly and said, “It is everything that I could have ever imagined!”
"I was so excited to see the dress that Mac took me directly back to where it was hanging, before we even got a chance to talk. He didn't want to keep me waiting any longer, which I was thankful for since I felt like I was about to burst with anticipation! When I saw it, I couldn't take a big goofy smile off my face. I also remember giggling because I was so giddy! I imagine trying on your Miss World gown is similar to trying on a wedding dress and finding the right one -- I just felt like it was part of me. It was just RIGHT and it was simply me. I had tears because it was perfect in every way. I can't thank Mac enough for giving me my dream dress and making me feel like Miss World every time we worked together. He is, like his designs, one of a kind!" –Elizabeth Safrit, Miss United States 2014
As a designer, these words were so utterly heartwarming and I felt a deep sense of satisfaction. These are the moments that have kept me enraptured with my work and profession for over thirty years.
(Photos courtesy of MacDuggal, Miss United States Organization, and Miss World Organization)
I met Nina from her local director, Johnny Triquet, over the phone as he had served as one of the judges on the panel at the local she had won and then was assigned to her as her “mentor/local director”.
Johnny said he instantly knew that he was going to contact me after having watched Miss America 2013 when Mallory Hagen from New York had won. I worked with Lexie Madden from Wyoming and had designed the black gown she had competed in and placed 3rd runner up to Mallory.
So when Nina and I connected...Nina, Johnny, and myself did a lot of texting back and forth. She described and sent me text messages of dresses she liked and possibly wanted.
Taylor Swift's white gown at the People's Choice Awards 2013
Her ideas were great but she said she wanted to make a statement and have an impact. The dresses she was showing me were very pretty and very red carpet but not much for impact.
Her favorite gown was a white crepe dress worn by Taylor Swift. I used the gown as inspiration with some modifications. I built a corset into the dress to maximize her small waist and give her great structure for her bust.
I wanted to be sure to add the cap sleeve so that it would define her shoulders and not make her look too wide with excess fabric.
Gaspar Cruz's original sketch of Nina's gown
I also wanted to show off her back, so we cut a keyhole in the back so when she turned around it would have some detail.
Then of course I added the two foot train to make her look taller as she walked off.
I sent over one of my measurement charts and she said to me she had lost over 60lbs at that point and wasn’t sure if she was going to lose any more weight.
I said let’s make the dress to the size you are now and we can work on the small details after the fact. We discussed chiffon, crepe, and a few other fabrics and decided to go with 2 layers of chiffon and charmeuse as lining.
I sent her photos of a few dresses, one of them was for a client that I had designed for competing in my pageant.
Nina Davuluri with the Top 5 at the Miss America 2014 pageant
She liked the idea but was a little nervous about the color and the plunging neckline because she is Hindu and wanted to be sure she didn’t embarrass her parents or insult her religion.
I told her that I would add some sheer netting to it so that it would be classy and tasteful at the same time. After a week or so, I emailed her and her director and see if they had decided on what she was going to do. We went back and forth on color and finalized yellow.
Up until she received the dress I think she was still a little nervous. As you know she eventually won Miss New York 2013 and was headed to Miss America.
Initially I wanted to add rhinestones to the gown should she have won Miss New York but she was firm on keeping it completely simple.
I had this gut feeling that she was going to win Miss America regardless of what gown she had on. I think the fact that she had this very “red carpet” sort of gown separated her from the other contestants more typical pageant type gowns.
