Beauty in bikinis is in the eye of weatherman

Bikini. Bikini. Undies?

A stoush over the decency of bikinis has erupted between Miss World contestants and a TVNZ weatherman.

Pageant contestants put their heels down when TVNZ presenter Sam Wallace asked to interview the women in bikinis on Breakfast, a Miss World organiser said.

However, a TVNZ representative said if bikinis were decent in beauty contests, were they not perfectly decent for television?

Email correspondence between Wallace and a Miss World NZ organiser was leaked to the Sunday Star-Times.

Wallace allegedly said the audience wanted "smart girls that can hold there [sic] own in a conversation . . . and look great in a beach fashion.

"And I’m happy not to use the term swimsuit or swim wear. But it’s still a part of the competition and to be fair it’s what people want to see."

Miss World NZ spokesman Desmond Foulger said Wallace did not grasp the changing face of beauty pageants.

"I think he was swept up with the idea of having beautiful girls around him," Foulger said. "On the one hand he was trying to say, ‘yes we want to show beauty pageants aren’t what they use to be’, but on the other hand he wanted girls in womens bikini swimwear answering questions."

Twelve women are competing in Miss World NZ on April 27 at Waitakere in Auckland.

"It’s really not about girls in bikinis. We do have a beach fashion section but it is very small and private compared to the rest of the pageant."

Some of the young women wear sarongs as beachwear, he said.

TVNZ’s Megan Richards said the organiser asked for the contestants to be decently clothed. "Which begs the question, if swimwear is perfectly decent in the context of the Miss World contest, why is it not decent on television? Perhaps there are parallels with the ‘togs, togs, undies’ ad."

Wallace, the presenter, had himself appeared in public wearing speedos, she said.

"In the end the proposal collapsed because the organiser of Miss World wanted control . . . to the extent of specifying what questions could be asked. That was unacceptable to us."

Wallace never wanted to interview the women in their tankini swimwear- just that it would be good to get a taste of the different aspects of the Miss World show, she said.

Foulger said competitions like Miss World were no longer about women parading in bikinis for men to perv at and Miss World was about beauty with purpose, with a focus on charity.

He used the example of Northland contestant Esther-Jordan Muriwai, who suffers from bronchiectasis, a life-threatening respiratory condition. She joined the contest as part of her bucket list and set up the Northland Bronchiectasis Support Group.