The universal right for everyone to dress up and be fabulous made a comeback on Saturday night after a five year hiatus at Shakespeare's Globe, with a multi-coloured, glitter-covered vengeance.
The Alternative Miss World beauty pageant, created by sculptor, painter and performance artist Andrew Logan, is an alternative to the traditional Miss World beauty pageant, being open to people of different genders that celebrates diversity and equality.
The Alternative Miss World was founded by Logan after the UK stopped televising the Miss World beauty pageant pointing out that it was unfair to rank a woman based on how well she carries her bikini.
With equality and celebration of the inherent unique as its core values, Alternative Miss World focuses not on beauty, but on personal transformation, and values creativity over conformity.This welcoming, all-inclusive event has launched the careers of many famous celebrities, including director Derek Jarman and performance artist Leigh Bowery, Vice reported.
In no way comparable to the formal and professional fashion shows that upholds set rules on what is "hot", the Alternative Miss World 2014, which was co-hosted by Grayson Perry, who himself is a product of the alternative event during the 80s, is also much more entertaining and hilarious. Perry invited everyone to the show with "My lords, ladies, and everyone in between!", which was welcomed with a thunderous applause, Vogue reported.
The various categories in the competition include daywear, swimwear, and eveningwear. The contestants creatively interpret them into outrageous costumes using inflatables, latex or literally anything to grace the stage as telephone boxes, dinner tables, "Who Gives a F*ck?", Queen of Scots; anyone or anything they want to be.
In the end, there could only be one Alternative Miss World who was showered with confetti as she was carried around the Globe Theatre: Miss Zero+. The contestant represented an androgynous human figure that has been transformed into something strikingly similar to an anime.
The Miss Zero+'s real name is Sasha Frolova, a Russian performance artist, who wowed the judges by saying she would like to go "Somewhere far from Russia!" when they asked her favourite holiday destination.
In the following video, watch Donna Maria's Maypole performance at the opening of Andrew Logan's 13th Alternative Miss World competition at Shakespeare's Globe theatre.