Catriona Gray first appeared on Esquire’s pages as the jokester in a “Funny Joke From a Beautiful Woman,” back in the magazine’s early days. Later, she exhibited her musical chops, singing at an intimate Esquire soiree at Las Flores. In 2014, she hosted Esquire’s epic Eraserheads reunion ball at the Dusit Thani. Today, after years of supporting us in multi-faceted roles, she is finally our cover woman, and we couldn’t be more pleased to call her the Sexiest Woman Alive, the magazine’s highest honor conferred to women who have made an impact, women who are unapologetic about their smarts, and women who make a career out of simply being awesome.
Coming home as Miss Universe is a life-changing event, but it’s only the beginning of Catriona’s journey in the spotlight as she uses her now expanded public platform to draw attention to issues other than herself.
PHOTO: Dookie Ducay
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The 25-year-old wasn’t your typical beauty pageant contestant. She ran as an independent in a bi-partisan system, handpicking her own coterie of trainers, mentors, designers, and stylists. After her Miss World 2016 bid where she made it to the top five under the guidance of Aces and Queens—one of the two boot camps that have a duopoly on the pageant industry—Catriona decided to go rogue when she entered Binibining Pilipinas and eventually Miss Universe. By that time, she knew what she wanted and how to achieve it. She was smart, she was creative, so why shouldn’t she have more of an input in determining her own path to the crown?
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On the morning of the shoot with Esquire, a barefaced, ponytailed Catriona walked into the hotel suite sporting large eyeglasses. She looked nerdy, friendly, and ready to attack the five back-to-back interviews and photo shoots she had that day. Bit by bit, under the skilled hands of the hair and makeup artists, she morphed into the glammed-up queen we’ve become familiar with.
But the transformative moment really came when she stood in front of the camera. The instant she lifted her head and threw back her hair, she turned into her own personal Sasha Fierce alter ego. Her eyes gleamed, her body took on more sensuous angles, and her hair seemed to float on its own accord. “God is a woman,” Catriona belted along to Ariana Grande, posing in sync to the music and making us believe.
In the interview/makeup chair, however, she was just Catriona, a veritable girl-next-door. Her story is well-known: She grew up in Queensland, the only child to a Filipino mother and Scottish-born Australian father. She had a happy, loving childhood, one enriched with dance and drama classes, martial arts and music lessons. She was primed to perform at a young age, but after she finished high school and wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do, she decided to take some time off and explore the other half of her heritage. Like many a bi-racial young adult before her, she came to Manila and became a model.
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In a few years, however, she hit a slump. The pressure of being financially responsible for her family while living on a model’s sporadic income, topped off with other professional disappointments, led to a deep existential crisis. She sought to divert her attention to a worthy cause, and through a search online found an NGO that appealed to her sense of charity.
Recalls Ann van Wijgerden, founder of Young Focus International, “It was May 3rd, 2016, the first time Catriona and her mother Mita came by the Young Focus main office in Tondo. My husband Paul and I had a great talk with them; there was an immediate click,” she says. “We were immediately struck by this remarkably mature and down-to-earth 22-year-old.” Catriona and her parents kept returning, and they developed a close relationship, not only with Ann and Paul, but with the whole Young Focus family.
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Catriona’s visits to Tondo weren’t merely for photo ops. She spent time with the children and the staff, helped raise funds for the opening of a new building, put up benefit concerts here and abroad to raise money and awareness. She organized donations of equipment for the classrooms, and, using creative skills we would later see in the now-famous ear cuff and all her Philippine-inspired outfits, she helped redesign a jewelry line for a program where college students earn a bit of extra money crafting jewelry items.
Many people have come through Young Focus’ doors, using them for personal gain. Cynics viewed her volunteer work, and her final answer in the pageant, as coming from a particularly privileged viewpoint, but Catriona was truly moved and affected by what she saw at the former dumpsite, especially during that low point in her life.
“I do understand the skepticism and aversion to 'romanticizing poverty,'” van Wijgerden says. “This is something perhaps some from the richer classes are prone to do, i.e. have an unconscious, condescending attitude, resulting in a subliminal justification for not taking any responsibility for social equalities: ‘After all, they’re happy in their simple, poor lives. Let them be! No need to get involved!’” But this is definitely not the Catriona we know. She is passionate about making a difference, as well as respecting and loving the people you want to help.”
PHOTO: Dookie Ducay
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Catriona herself clarifies that the “beauty” she was talking about in her final answer was the beauty in the children, not of the surroundings. “The stories from the children, the staff, the families, are really stories of hope, persistence, and just the love that people have there, it really changes your perspective,” she says. “I know it changed mine.” After all the benefit shows she had done, she wanted to tell a story visually for a change, and this led to her remaking “We’re In This Together,” a song written and originally recorded by Marcus Davis, Jr., a music producer from California who, like Catriona, saw poverty for the first time when he came to the Philippines and was shaken to the core.
The music video, which Catriona conceptualized, shows her coming to Tondo in a jeepney, playing with the children there and spreading joy in the form of colored chalk and bubbles. “I didn’t want to show it in a way that would not bring integrity to the people there. I wanted to show children being children, being happy as kids and not as victims. That’s why the video is colorful, and shows them playing, and shows that even in those circumstances, joy can be found,” she explains. Of course, the point wasn’t to simply show children playing happily in the slums, but to highlight the educational initiatives provided by Young Focus as a key to breaking the cycle of poverty.
The video, hand in hand with Catriona’s win, worked wonders—Young Focus received an unprecedented amount of publicity and exposure, as did the communities in Tondo. “Positive exposure, for a change,” says van Wijgerden. “It brought a sense of [deserved] self-respect, and the sense of “we are seen, we count for something, we are not forgotten.” People have been signing up as volunteers, making donations, and sponsoring students, and the organization was able to fill its budget gap for the coming school year. Catriona could have released a sexy pop-dance track as her debut single. She could’ve gone the eye-candy route for easy clicks. Instead, she chose to deal with a difficult topic, and present it in an uplifting way, an equally difficult thing to do.
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PHOTO: Dookie Ducay
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Leather jacket by Yves Camingue
Right after the collective high from her win, Catriona was photographed clinking Champagne glasses (albeit uncomfortably) with former Ilocos Sur governor Chavit Singson on his private jet. Chavit’s LCS Group of Companies financed the 2016 Miss Universe pageant held in Manila, and it is unclear whether we will be seeing more of the controversial businessman involved in the beauty pageant scene in the coming years.
Observers in the Philippines were, truth be told, afraid, especially in the wake of the allegations from three Miss Earth 2018 contestants who spoke up against a sponsor whom they claimed were sexually harassing the ladies. But Catriona gave her assurance that there was nothing malicious to the context of that plane ride. Addressing the Miss Earth accusations, she gives a careful and balanced answer.
“I’m really glad they felt empowered to speak out, if the women felt that they couldn’t speak out, then perhaps it would be swept under the rug,” Catriona says. “We should be doing more work to empower women who may be victims to speak out. That being said, an investigation should always ensue, it shouldn’t be he-said-she-said.”
Following the allegations, that particular sponsor was banned from the Miss Earth pageant. While this kind of behavior undoubtedly happens everywhere—Donald Trump had been known to enter the changing rooms of Miss USA contestants—it hasn’t been Catriona’s experience.
“Mme. Stella is super protective of us in Binibini,” she says of Stella Marquez Araneta, whose Bb. Pilipinas Charities Inc. has held the franchise for the pageant since 1964. “When that issue came out, she reiterated in the media, no arms around the girls.”
Even the hardiest of feminists, those who believe that beauty pageants should be a relic of the past, must have felt some upwelling of pride when Catriona breezed through the competition and claimed the crown for the country. Why do we, a pageant-bonkers nation, feel so much joy at being validated on the world stage for being beautiful and smart and talented? One day, it won’t be necessary for women to compete against each other and be judged on the way they walk, smile, or how they wear their hair—but until then, coming home with a sash and crown is still the penultimate way for women from diverse backgrounds to ensure a lifetime of recognition, endorsements, and career opportunities.
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Pageants may have been a product of the patriarchy, but now more than ever women are claiming them for themselves. Some competitions, like Miss America, have done away with the swimsuit competition, and while many would think that it’s a step forward, contestants themselves are coming to the segment’s defense. “I feel it’s refreshing for people to see real bodies on stage, because in media we’re always confronted with images that are retouched, filtered, edited, whereas a real body in motion on stage is not,” Catriona says. “I know that as a little girl, I’d see someone with my same body type, so there are positive aspects.”
“Pageants are constantly evolving, because the audience is demanding that. People want to see themselves represented on stage. So we’re seeing more inclusivity, whether it be gender, body types, or people from all walks of life. I think we’re moving in that direction,” she continues.
PHOTO: Dookie Ducay
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Catriona Gray is the future of pageantry, or perhaps its greatest outlier. She came to it as a means to boost her main calling of advocating for education and children, and not the other way around. She trusted her own instincts and abilities, and her most important resource turned out to be her values-oriented upbringing. In the midst of everything, her heart remains pure, visiting orphans of the drug war not with any political intent, but simply because she loves spending time with kids. These are qualities we should all aspire to—a simplicity of being, a groundedness in the present, and a grateful heart for all that is yet to come. Oh, we also wouldn’t mind having that insane ability to switch on your fiercest self with a single hairflip.
In this story: Produced by Clifford Olanday • Photographs by Dookie Ducay • Styling by Meg Manzano • Interview by Audrey N. Carpio • Hair by Brent Sales • Makeup by May Francisco • Production assistants Pauline Macaraeg and Ednalyn Magnaye Garcia • Styling assistants Sophia Concordia and Katrina Pascual • Location Novotel Manila Araneta Center
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From topmost: Bodysuit by Bench, Glorietta; Leather jacket by Yves Camingue and trousers by Matter Makers at Comme Ci, Power Plant Mall; Silk top by Matter Makers at Comme Ci, Power Plant Mall.
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