Resources for Costumes:
You might need a costume for the talent category of your beauty pageant, if it does have that area of competition. Or you may need a costume to represent the city, state, region, or country that you are representing.
Depending on the level of the pageant and your budget, you may want to have a costume made for you. Or your pageant director may have ideas on this or may be able to connect you with last year’s winner, or other contestants, who might have costumes to sell or lend).
But you might also be able to buy a good costume from the places I’m pointing you to below. Some are pretty good, others would be good as a base and you could dress them up or adapt them in various ways.
Even if you or someone you know may have the skills to make a costume for you, these sites will give you some ideas. So check them out. And remember to come back here later to find your costumes for Halloween, seasonal parties, theater productions, conventions, themed parties, etc.
[P.S. to Pageant Directors: You might decide to go with a cute but inexpensive costume that you want all the contestants to wear for an opening number. Send them all to one of these sites with the particular item number in their hands so you are sure they get what you want. Or contact me and see if I can get you a code to offer to you or them. (I can’t promise it but I can look into it for you.) You might decide to get all the costumes for the contestants to save shipping costs for everyone.
All that said, you can keep costs down for everyone by going with a standard look that the girls might already have in their closet or can get “anywhere” (like a black skirt or pants with a certain color or style of top) to create a base and create a theme or dress that base up with a simple accessory that they all have in common or a variety of accessories thoughtfully selected (see the websites below for ideas).]
Costume Craze
This is one of the world’s largest online costume retailers. Everybody loves to shop for costumes! Last time I checked, they had a reasonably low flat-rate shipping no matter how much you get or what it weighs.
On this site, I’d do two things. First, on the home page, scroll down and (last time I looked) there was a section called “American Culture and History” section. Look through those if you are in a U.S. pageant.
I’d also click on “History” costumes (a choice in the left-hand navigation bar) which takes you to a page called “History and World Culture” costumes. Some of them overlap with the American Culture ones, but some don’t.
Either way, look through the variety they have there as those sort of pageant costumes are more representative of what your city, state, region, or country might be known for or for the culture you might represent if you are in a pageant that emphasizes cultural background or ethnicity.
Spirit Halloween also offers a large selection of costumes that may fit your needs, check them out below!