Poise under pressure

 Evening Gown standouts

By Earl D.C. Bracamonte

Arm trains and capes made a big splash in this year's edition of the Miss Universe preliminaries. While the bejewelled, form-fitting, and body baring silhouette was prevalent, we a saw a slight shift in the design and structure of the evening gowns.

Wearing a beaded icy blue art deco bustier with featured gossamer panels from Oliver Tolentino, the Philippines' Celeste Rabimbi Cortesi leads the race in the evening finery segment.

Other standouts in this category, in alphabetical order, are:

- Kiara Arends (Aruba)

- Evlin Khalifa (Bahrain)

- Tashi Choden (Bhutan)

- Maria Fernanda Aristizabal (Colombia)

- Gabriela dos Santos (Curacao)

- Andreina Martinez (Dominican Republic)

- Floriane Bascou (France)

- Mideline Phelizor (Haiti)

- Virginia Stablum (Italy)

- Irma Cristina Miranda Valenzuela (Mexico)

- Telma Madeira (Portugal)

- Ashley Cariño (Puerto Rico)

- Ndavi Nokeri (South Africa)

- Anna Sueangam-iam (Thailand)

- Tya Jane Ramey (Trinidad and Tobago)

- Viktoria Apanasenko (Ukraine)

- R'bonney Gabriel (USA)

- Amanda Dudamel (Venezuela), and

- Nguyen Thi Ngoc Chau (Vietnam)

This year's preliminary selection committee were book author Emily Austin, Miss Universe 1998 Wendy Fitzwilliams, media personality Myrka Dellanos, supermodel Mara Martin, together with Kathleen Ventrella and Miss Universe 2015 2nd runner-up Olivia Jordan.

Hosted by Randi Rousseau and outgoing queen Haarnaz Sandhu, the Miss Universe preliminary competition was beamed live through the Miss Universe Organization's online channels on Facebook and YouTube, as well as the Lazada app in the Philippines.