(From left) Pia Wurtzbach, Michelle Dee. Images: Instagram/@piawurtzbach, Instagram/@michelledee
Pia Wurtzbach has expressed her support for Miss Universe Philippines 2023 Michelle Dee, advising the newly-crowned queen to embrace her true self as she’s set to represent the Philippines in the global stage.
Wurtzbach gave the heartfelt advice in the comments of Dee’s Instagram post on Tuesday, May 16, where the latter narrated how she and her team decided on a classy, black Mark Bumgarner dress for her evening gown performance.
“YES!! Beautiful! I love how you stayed true to who you are and [it] stood out perfectly! Please maintain that til Miss Universe,” she said.
The Miss Universe 2015 titleholder also reminded Dee to not allow “other chiefs dictate how you should represent yourself,” because it’s she who will represent the Philippines in the pageant.
“We want to see YOU. Michelle Dee. [Don’t] let other chiefs dictate how you should represent yourself. As Esther advised me before, too many chiefs ruin the fun. And at this point everyone will act like an expert, even strangers,” Wurtzbach said, referring to Esther Swan who used to mentor her and other beauty queens as the Miss Universe talent director before resigning from her post just recently.
“It’s YOU Michelle who’s gonna be on that stage. And [that’s] a once in a lifetime experience. Bring the Philippines with you, yes, but still be YOU,” she added.
Image: Screengrab from Instagram/@michelledee
Dee expressed her gratitude to the former beauty queen for her words of encouragement, saying she will take her advice to heart.
Image: Screengrab from Instagram/@michelledee
‘An evening gown with restraint’
On Instagram, the actress-beauty queen revealed that her evening gown was planned to be an “iconic masterpiece” that would showcase her “best assets” during the pageant.
“In pageantry, every queen’s goal is to stand out and wow the crowd. One of the best ways to do that is to wear a gown that looks and feels like the ‘winning look’ for the night, full of anything that would add shimmer, shine and extravagance,” she began. “Mark and I had a different vision. We didn’t want to go the typical ‘pageant patty’ route. We wanted an iconic masterpiece that would bring out my best assets and to stay true to who I am: daring, elegant, fierce — and of course in my color, BLACK.
Dee pointed out that her black gown is about having “restraint” and “choosing to stay true to yourself,” pointing out that it’s a testament to her “strength and power.”
“To me, this gown symbolizes that in this life, it’s not about always being what everyone expects you to be. It’s about having restraint and choosing to stay true to yourself even if it’s so much easier to just follow what everyone wants you to be,” she said.
“That in being yourself, you will find people who will believe and see the potential within you. In choosing to be yourself, you will find enough strength and power to achieve anything you set your mind to,” she further explained.
Dee was crowned Miss Universe Philippines 2023 after her second attempt in the national tilt. She is the second titleholder to make a successful crossover from Miss World Philippines to the title, after Catriona Gray, who also won the Miss Universe crown in 2018.
Dee will vie for the 72nd Miss Universe title in El Salvador later this year, in a bid to win for the Philippines its fifth crown after Gloria Diaz (1969), Margarita Moran (1973), Wurtzbach (2015), and Gray (2018).
Meanwhile, Wurtzbach clinched the Binibining Pilipinas 2015 crown in her third attempt, where she eventually brought home the global tilt’s title in Las Vegas, U.S. in the same year. EDV