Celebrating 50 Years of Andrew Logan’s Different Miss World Pageant

DIY, technicolour and utterly chaotic, the theatrical pageant Different Miss World is incomparable to some other occasion, even when it does draw parts from drag competitions and is a subversion of the unique Miss World Contest. A longstanding establishment amongst a selected crowd of London vogue designers, artists and eccentrics, for 50 years the competitors has invited folks of all genders to current their appears to be like and skills on stage throughout its three classes; daywear, swimwear and nightwear.

What outcomes is a parade of performers, drag queens and latex lovers that resembles a cross between an LSD journey and Crufts canine present – which isn’t stunning provided that acid and Crufts had been two of creator Andrew Logan’s key inspirations. An artist, sculptor and jewelry maker, Logan views the competitors as an extension of this work. “I see Different Miss World as one other sculpture, one which includes lots of of individuals,” he says. “We create it, then we let it run.” Logan doesn’t wish to impose too many guidelines on the competitors, though every pageant has a theme (“water”, “earth”, “hearth” and “air” in earlier editions, together with “the universe” and “the void”).

The 2022 Different Miss World marks the Fiftieth anniversary of the pageant, and the fifteenth version so far. The anniversary will happen at The Globe Theatre on London’s Southbank with the theme “gold”. Different Miss World takes place at random intervals, Logan explains, as a result of he likes to maintain issues sporadic, thrilling and surprising, moderately than annual or routine. He’ll placed on an Different Miss World when the concept involves him. “There’s nothing logical about it in any respect,” he laughs, when requested how he decides concerning the timing.

The primary two Different Miss Worlds had been held in Logan’s Loft in Hackney 1972 and 1973 as an intimate occasion amongst pals. Over the next years, Different Miss World grew, drawing in an thrilling roll name of friends. Derek Jarman was topped the winner of 1975 version at Logan’s then-studio Butler’s Wharf (the place different notorious events and occasions would draw within the likes of the Intercourse Pistols and the Rolling Stones.)

In 1978, the pageant moved to a circus tent on Clapham Widespread with a circus theme. “That was a favorite,” says Logan. “It was within the spherical, and we had the judges in a lion’s cage. There have been ridiculous steps, virtually 90 levels, and I believe the winner slipped down them.” Drag queen Divine co-hosted (alongside Molly Parkin), having been delivered to a celebration at Butler’s Wharf the yr earlier than, by Logan’s good friend and longstanding Different Miss World collaborator, the designer Zandra Rhodes. “I’ll at all times bear in mind Divine internet hosting within the circus tent,” says Logan. “I mentioned, ‘Good day would you give us a couple of ideas?’ and Divine mentioned: ‘EAT, EAT, EAT!’”

In 1981, Different Miss World returned, this time at Kensington Olympia (with a “royal” theme to befit the situation). “We had a catwalk that was 250-feet lengthy,” remembers Logan, which was too lengthy for 35 contestants – one thing that turned clear when the occasion “took so lengthy we completed at three within the morning… the music had been turned down, they’d switched off the heating and a lot of the viewers had gone dwelling.”

The milliner Stephen Jones entered in 1981 as “Miss Mash” – her daywear look was mashed potato and her night put on look was chips. Jones entered once more in 1985, says Logan, on the day of his birthday, the identical yr Leigh Bowery entered. “That was the primary time Leigh Bowery was on stage,” remembers Logan, “I believe AMW brings folks like that alive, they assume: ‘I can do that!’ It evokes them to create.”

Over the subsequent twenty years, Different Miss World popped up on the Clapham Grand, The Hippodrome and the Roundhouse, with hosts together with Richard O’Brien, Julian Clary and Ruby Wax, earlier than settling at its present dwelling of the Globe in 2014 with artist Grayson Perry as co-host. Now in its third yr on the venue, Different Miss World has discovered its most fixed dwelling. The demographic has shifted, in that “we’re all previous now” as Logan jokingly places it of the group behind the occasion. However in recent times, there have been 16 contestants, “eight previous faithfuls” (like Logan’s sister Janet, a nurse, who enters each contest) in addition to “eight areas for brand new contestants.” Logan hopes this makes the occasion a uncommon instance of 1 that’s actually intergenerational, in addition to being “inclusive to everybody”.

Not fairly the impromptu underground fiasco it began as, this yr’s anniversary occasion bought out on-line in minutes. “Effectively, over 50 years I suppose it will get a little bit of a following, and there’s nothing prefer it,” muses Logan. Nonetheless, he maintains that Different Miss World retains its spontaneity – “I by no means actually know who’s getting into aside from Janet,” he says – and in addition its intimacy; “the benefit of The Globe is you can stand proper beneath the stage.”

He additionally hopes that the competition continues to champion the iconoclastic, individualised and DIY concept of vogue that impressed it, a sentiment that was knowledgeable by his group of pals within the Seventies when the competitors first started; these embrace Rhodes, and the London designers Thea Porter and Ossie Clarke. (You may even purchase a poster of Vivienne Westwood on the 1975 version of Different Miss World, seated with Malcolm McClaren, who attended once more in 2014.)

After the Fiftieth anniversary occasion is over, Logan is planning a photograph e-book cataloguing the very best of the contestants’ costumes through the years, and hopes to maintain internet hosting the pageant in his trademark host outfit, which is predicated on an previous British selection present costume he present in a jumble sale. One aspect of it – the “hostess” – is designed by Rhodes, whereas the opposite aspect – “the host” – is by Whitaker Malem. Identical to the competitors itself has been since its inception, the look is a witty play on gender and efficiency.

“My purpose for Different Miss World is to hold on doing it till I die,” says Logan, earlier than hanging up the telephone. “I might be carried on on a stretcher,” he says. And is there something he hasn’t executed but that we are able to count on from future Different Miss Worlds? “I really like that the viewers at all times will get dressed up – it will be nice if we might have one lengthy catwalk and have everybody within the viewers run alongside it. That may be nice enjoyable.”

The 2022 version of Different Miss World will happen on October 28 at 7pm. You may watch the livestream right here.