Michelle Dee is no cookie-cutter queen, and that’s her edge
Now she is decompressing in Los Angeles before moving forward with her journey to El Salvador, but we caught up with Miss Universe Philippines Michelle Marquez Dee prior to her flight last Oct. 31 at the NAIA Terminal 1, where she was sent off by ecstatic pageant fans by the dozens!
She did serve a killer look, donning a tailored denim ensemble that was just the beginning of her serving cutting-edge looks. She told us, “I am working with one of the best stylists, team Ryuji Shiomitsu. I have always been a denim fan. It has to accentuate my personality and branding. I’m very confident.”
In pageantry, you can expect long locks and it has been a custom to have that dated Barbie girl vibe with whimsical styling, but Michelle is going with a different route.
For the 72nd season of Miss Universe, her eight suitcases are filled with 72 striking outfits that she will wear throughout the competition.
She even cut her hair shorter and now her hairstyle is one step away from being like a pixie cut, saying, “You don’t have to fit in to become Miss Universe, you can shine with your own uniqueness.”
MMD, as she’s fondly called, further shared the story behind her look: “There has been a lot of talk and a lot of speculation about my hair pero ang totoo is I cut my hair around two weeks ago and it has been such a struggle to just hide it. But now I am showcasing it and it has such an amazing meaning not just to me but to all the girls around me saying you can only be a beauty queen with long hair.”
Michelle always shares how joining Miss Universe squeezed some blood, sweat and tears from her life and it is not stopping there. “In L.A. (Los Angeles), it will be dedicated for the Q&A, final trainings and really for me to rest. Half of the struggle is already done,” she said.
If our past beauty queens had designated colors like lava red for Catriona Gray, royal blue for Pia Wurtzbach, canary yellow for Rabiya Mateo, and emerald green for Maxine Medina, for MMD, she is choosing to be a chameleon throughout the competition. We have seen her in black as well as green which is the color that represents her advocacy which is autism awareness. But she told us that she has more range in terms of looks, explaining, “I don’t want to be stuck with one color, we are switching things up so just wait and see.”
What is nice to see about Michelle is how much growth is so evident when you speak with her. From the simplest questions to the toughest topics, she will have a poignant two cents about everything. Her improvement in all departments is just so assuring that the Philippines did indeed send the right candidate.
I have been covering Miss Universe for more than a decade now and during the send-off for Michelle, the communications director for Miss Universe Philippines (MUPH) Voltaire Tayag, who was once a pageant reporter observing all the queens and reporting about them before they would embark on the competition, shared his perspective. He said, “It is seldom that I talk to queens that I also learn from. Usually it is the other way around, but there are many things that you will learn when you talk to Michelle.”
With over 90 candidates this year, Michelle’s strategy seems to be working as she also garnered fans outside of the Philippines, and she is now one of the frontrunners in the competition. It helps that Michelle is hands-on in what she wants to do and what her strategy is.
She said that she is even the head producer of the social media content and challenges they do for the competition. “We were tasked to highlight a popular venue and I am the creative director with the Miss Universe Philippines team. I had a vision and we made it happen,” she added.
The Miss Universe competition is happening on Nov. 18 at the National Gymnasium in El Salvador.
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