Pageant: The Beauty Contest [Paperback]

Keith Lovegrove (Author), Kelth Lovegrove (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2002

One day humankind discovered aesthetics and we have been preening ourselves ever since. But only a few of us dare to declare that we are more beautiful than the next person. The beauty contest in all its forms, whether it be a competition to find the most beautiful woman in the world or to find the man-or woman- with perfectly formed pectorals, must be the most blatant display of peacockesque attention-seeking, unmatched in its glamour, glitz and sheer exhibitionism.

Pageant celebrates the culture of the beauty contest, from the well-know spectacles of Miss World and Mr. and Miss Universe to the flamboyance of Alternative Miss World; from subculture contests, such as Miss Hell's Angels, to the bizarre, for example, the crowning of Miss Sausage Queen to promote National Hot Dog Week. In America alone, 35,000 beauty pageants are held through the year, but the beauty contest is a truly international phenomenon. Pageant features contests from around the world, ranging from the National Beauty Contest to crown Miss Tanga in Colombia to the beauty pageants of the Russian Army; from Miss Malaysia Petite to Mr. Gay UK. An irresistible combination of nostalgia and contemporary kitsch, the book is a unique study of our human obsession with the beautiful.

* Great companion volume by the author of Airline Identity Design and Culture (3-8238-5460-7, teNeues)

* A nostalgic trip through time with pageants such as Miss America and Miss USA and including more unusual contests like Miss Car Wash (California), Miss Kansas Turnpike, Mr. America and Miss Nude UK.

* Attractively designed with French fold flaps

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

* Great companion volume by the author of Airline Identity Design and Culture (3-8238-5460-7, teNeues)

* A nostalgic trip through time with pageants such as Miss America and Miss USA and including more unusual contests like Miss Car Wash (California), Miss Kansas Turnpike, Mr. America and Miss Nude UK.

* Attractively designed with French fold flaps

About the Author

Keith Lovegrove is the author of the highly successful book Airline: Identity, Design and Culture. He founded the Lovegrove Associates design consultancy in London in 1985 and has worked on a wide range of projects including corporate literature for prestigious clients; information and environmental graphics for the British Airports Authority, and a project with Philippe Starck. In 1987 he won the PPA Magazine Designer of the Year for Photography magazine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Te Neues Publishing Company (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3823855697
• ISBN-13: 978-3823855699
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,226,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GLAMOUR, GLITZ, AND YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!, December 19, 2002

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pageant: The Beauty Contest (Paperback)

Keith Lovegrove, author of "Airline: Identity, Design and Culture" and founder of a London based design consultancy firm, opens his take on the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the preposterous in beauty contests with "The beauty contest in all its forms, whether it be a competition to find the most beautiful woman in the world or to find the man - or woman - with perfectly formed pectorals, must be the most blatant display of peacockesque attention-seeking, unmatched in its glamour, glitz and sheer exhibitionism."

This lavishly illustrated volume (150 color and 100 black and white illustrations) proves the above to be almost an understatement, whether the author is focusing on the Miss Illinois contestants who happily pay $1,000 for the privilege of competing or the eye popping Miss Nude UK contest. (Don't worry, we haven't been outdone by the Brits - as the author notes in the U.S. The Ponderosa Sunclub in Indiana has sponsored the Nudes-A-Poppin pageant for some three decades).

Lovegrove divides his book into three parts. "Foundation," the opening segment is a history of the beauty pageant; "Parade" features the variety (and sometimes the oddities) in contests; and the closing section, "Close-Up" takes a look at the author's up-close-and-personal experiences with three disparate contests.

From The Sausage Queen adorned with jewelry fashioned of sausages and frankfurters to the Alternative Miss World to Miss America, they're all here for your enjoyment and incredulity.

- Gail Cooke