Some beauty queens wear their perfectly poised hearts on their sleeve, but the newly crowned Miss America Nina Davuluri wears hers on her sole.
And, although I love that the former Miss New York fully displayed her home-state spirit, I wish she had paired it down just a notch.
For her appearance at the pageant’s annual “Show Us Your Shoes Parade” on Saturday, in which contestants show off their creativity by decorating their shoes to match their personalities, Miss New York made a seriously splashy ode to the Big Apple.
Davuluri, who hails from Syracuse, was decked out in a pair of Pink & Pepper “Alexa” round-toe platform pumps with New York City’s most iconic landmarks and symbols: a sparkly Empire State Building was screwed behind one of the 5-inch heels, while the covered toe revealed an equally embellished red apple.
The mate displayed a 3-D inspired skyline of the city, including the Chrysler Building, a multicolored Empire State Building, a yellow cab and Lady Liberty.
The aggressively appliqued heels were a bold style statement — and perfectly aligned with the festive spirit of the parade’s 92-year tradition. All of the contestants’ DIY shoes reflect the aesthetic of their home state and are meant to be over the top — for example, Miss Minnesota’s shoes looked like a pair of snowflake-embellished ice skates. Kudos to Davuluri for getting festive as all get-out, but she should’ve edited her accoutrements to avoid duplicates. As Coco Chanel once said “before leaving the house, a lady should look in the mirror and remove one accessory.”
