Best stepping stone to showbiz

Even with all the star searches and reality shows all around television, joining national beauty contests is still the best springboard to better options in life for young women. Danielle Castaño took the pageant route and now she is at a crossroad of career choices.

I first met Danielle at Gold’s Gym through her trainer John Cuay. She was then preparing for Binibining Pilipinas 2008 and despite being the crowd favorite, managed to finish only as first runner-up. Not that it was so bad. In fact, when controversial winner Janina San Miguel was unable to continue with her reign, it was Danielle who was crowned Binibining Pilipinas-World and competed in the international contest in South Africa last year.

Taking part in Miss World actually opened doors for her. Danielle was chaperoned during the contest by her mother, former model-actress Eppie Muriel (introduced in Puppy Love), and in the process befriended casting agents from all over the world. One of the agents Eppie met was Tommy Hoang, who wanted to ask if Danielle was willing to work in Indonesia.

Mother and daughter didn’t immediately give an answer, but they stayed in touch with Hoang. Then sometime last month, Danielle received an invitation to be a special guest (tasked to hand out awards) in Indonesia’s 2009 Miss Tourism or Putri Pariwisata. The contest organizers also wanted a Miss Philippines-Universe and the name of Anna Theresa Licaros was brought up and the people in Indonesia immediately sent them plane tickets and made hotel accommodations.

Danielle almost wasn’t able to take part in this affair because it clashed with another commitment. But when she found out that the proceeds of the Indonesian pageant was going to the victims of the recent earthquake there, she readily accepted.

That tragic earthquake in Indonesia happened practically around the same time as Ondoy and Danielle felt that taking part in this event was another way of helping disaster victims — even if her own family was not spared by Ondoy either. Their house in Marikina was being renovated that time and it got flooded. The same happened to other close relatives living in that city.

And so they flew to Jakarta and their party also included Danielle’s mom, Eppie, and an aunt, Elsie Lazatin. The Philippine delegation arrived in the Indonesian capital at 12:30 a.m. and two BMWs were dispatched to ferry them to their hotel, the Jakarta Millennium.

By 1:30 a.m. Danielle and Theresa were already being fitted into their kebayas (the Indonesian national costume for women) that they were going to wear on coronation night. Prior to that the designer, Marga Alam, only asked for their chest, waist and hip sizes, but the clothes fit perfectly. Apparently, any fashion designer knows beauty queen measurements.

Danielle still can’t get over the fact that the kebaya she wore costs 10 million rupiah or half a million pesos — the most expensive dress she has donned in her life. Hers came in mauve and the one that went to Theresa was in pearly green. Both outfits were studded with sequins and Swarovsky crystals. Of course, they had to return those after the pageant because the gowns were also to be exhibited later at a fashion event.

After the fitting, they had tea and pastries at the lobby and with only four hours of sleep, they showed up at breakfast with the contestants. Danielle and Theresa were asked to lead this little affair since they were told that Indonesian women are basically shy. They confirmed this upon meeting the representatives from the various cities of Indonesia. Yes, most of them were shy, says Danielle, but she swears they were just as charming and hospitable as the Filipino women.

Although the two Pinay beauties were treated like princesses (that was how they felt that time) by the Indonesian organizers, they barely rested since a lot of activities were lined up for them. In fact, they had to skip lunch to be able to catch up on their sleep to look fresh on coronation night, which was staged at the Jakarta Event and Convention Center.

Hours before the pageant, they had to be made up, change and put on their accessories for yet another pictorial. Over dinner, they finally met Dr. Johnnie Sugiarto, the president of El John, which runs the Indonesian beauty pageant.

During the actual contest, Danielle reports that the production was very impressive — especially the parade of local costumes (representing the different regions of Indonesia) and the evening gown competition where all the delegates wore formal dresses in batik. But sorry, guys, there was no swimsuit portion since Indonesia is predominantly Muslim and that’s a no-no under their religion.

After their chore of handing out awards, Danielle and Theresa were made to meet up with people from the beauty and fashion industry of that country. (A thrill for Danielle was her reunion with last year’s Miss Indonesia who was with her in the Miss World search).

Their participation in this event opened more prospects for the two Filipino beauty queens in Indonesia and they may consider career options there as models. At the moment, there is also an offer for Danielle to work in the US, but is still undecided.

Again, with all the star searches and reality programs that are starting to come out of our ears, a young woman’s still best stepping stone to further her career is still through beauty pageants.