How I came to own a Miss Universe sash
‘ARE YOU WILLING TO SELL IT FOR A HIGHER PRICE?’ MY ONLY ANSWERS: ‘THANKS’ AND ‘SORRY, BUT NO’
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Philippine Daily Inquirer
06:30 AM January 29th, 2016
THE AUTHOR with Miss Universe winners Margie Moran, 1973, and Gloria Diaz, 1969
The sash used by Gloria Diaz, the country’s first Miss Universe, was just too tempting to pass on.
It was 2002, and I was attending a press lunch in a Makati hotel. My companions were excitedly talking about an upcoming auction of items previously owned by celebrities.
One of the organizers, cook and columnist Claude Tayag, said he had been able to convince Gloria to part with her Miss Universe 1969 sash, as the funds raised would provide educational and livelihood assistance for a chosen charity.
Other items would be up for bids, like a black-and-white nude photo by photographer Raymund Isaac, signed copies of books by authors Carmen Guerrero Nakpil and Ambeth Ocampo, and even a Caribbean-inspired outfit actress Jackie Lou Blanco wore on “GMA Supershow.”
My mind, however, was set firmly on Gloria’s sash.
I quietly asked how much it cost, and if he would be willing to part with it without putting it on the block. Claude agreed, and that’s how I became the proud owner of the sash of our country’s first Miss Universe.
So lucky
Word spread quickly that afternoon. I wouldn’t be able to bring the sash home until after the auction and exhibit a week later, but the calls and text messages came one after the other.
“Congrats, you’re so lucky! Are you willing to sell it for a higher price?” My only answers to these repeated queries were “Thanks” and “Sorry, but no.”
I was interviewed on TV, and there was even a small photo of me standing beside the coveted item in an article published in the Sept. 18, 2002 issue of Inquirer Lifestyle’s 2bU section.
“What made you decide to buy the sash?” the TV crew asked as I stared into the camera. My answer was simple and true. “This was the sash worn by the Philippines’ first Miss Universe. It is a piece of our history.”
It would only be years later, when I got to meet Gloria Diaz, that I told her I was the one who had bought the sash. She smiled and asked if I was a designer. (I’m not.) I asked her if what I had was really the sash they placed across her chest on her historic win.
“Oh no,” she said. “They gave me several sashes. I had to use different ones at public outings and events during my reign.”
The news left me a bit nonplussed, but then I remembered—like the optimist I try to be—that I have the only sash she ever gave up for auction.
GLORIA Diaz, the country’s first Miss Universe
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