Third times the charm right?

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Pinup Pageant Recap as I’ve taken a bit of a break for a little while due to burnout and mental health but why not get right back into the pageant world and partake in one of the biggest pinup pageants in Australia, the Cooly Rocks On Pinup Pageant for 2024. Having already done this pageant twice before, read about my previous experiences here, I knew what I was getting myself into but compared to my previous attempt back in 2021, this year’s pageant formula would be a little different. For the last few years, Cooly Rocks On has combined the Rockabilly Pageant with the Pinup Pageant with the two now being all one event. The participants still compete in their categories but it gives audiences a chance to see two different styles. So let’s get ready for Cooly Rocks On 2024!

Pageant Planning;

Getting ready for any pageant takes a lot of preparation and practice. This year the pageant would be split between three rounds; day wear, talent and evening wear. Each round is marked on outfit, grooming, personality, stage presence and the overall performance. It took me a little time to brainstorm what I wanted to do for each round on stage and I was waiting for inspiration to hit and it certainly took its time. Whilst chatting to my partner one evening, we were discussing some gardening I was doing and how I hoped to make our backyard more pollinator friendly which took us into a discussion about my love of bees and eventually, I thought about doing a bee keeping inspired routine for day wear. When it came to talent, my idea for this popped into my head well over a year ago whilst I was wallpapering around some tricky corners of my house and my partner expressed how impressed he was with my skills. Jokingly, I started talking about how funny it would be to do wallpapering as a talent for a pinup pageant and as soon as I said that, I knew it would be my talent for my next attempt at Cooly Rocks On. For my third and final round which was evening wear, I had the option of sewing something brand new or using a gown I had sewn a year prior but never released photos or footage of the gown. After chatting to a friend, I ended up deciding on my already made dress as she really deserved her big moment on stage. With all three rounds tentatively planned, it was time to actually bring them all to life.

Pre Pageant Sashing

The first official event for all the girls competing in the pageant was a Meet and Greet followed by a sashing ceremony as all girls received a finalist sash. I was a little nervous to meet everyone as I have been out of the pinup scene for a while and hadn’t met any of the girls competing. The event was held at the Surf Club and it provided an intimate atmosphere with a stunning backdrop of the Coolangatta beach. It was here that I got to meet everyone and I was relieved to find that all the girls were super sweet, kind and creative. I loved talking about sewing with the girls that made their outfits, discussing the joys of travelling for pageants with ridiculous props and sharing in the excitement of the pageant which was to be held in two days time. The meet and greet was a wonderful opportunity for all of us to mingle, meet other pinups who would be watching the pageant and of course take some photos. For this event I wore a tartan dress I made from Vogue 9100 and a matching head wrap and I was very happy to be comfortable and look cute (full blog on this outfits can be found here).

Round One; Day Wear

My bee-keeping routine for round one probably took me the longest to play with. When it came to my outfit, I at one point had over 8 possible designs but it came down to my fabric choice and using a pattern that I was confident in sewing. Eventually, I chose the Charm Liz dress pattern with Gertie’s Yellow Rose cotton sateen and I added some contrasting yellow cotton to the underbust/shoulder strap and the top bust pleats so the dress had a unique focal point. I will be releasing a full blog about my sewing process for this dress very soon so please check back soon. At one point in the planning, I wanted to create a white bee-keeping suit which I would tear away to reveal my dress but it was just a little too much work for me and I wanted to keep my routine and idea really simple. With my dress, I paired a straw hat which originally was going to have a veil on it to represent the bee keeper’s hat but I ended up omitting this idea as their veil kept slipping and sometimes just wouldn’t work at all.

With my outfit ready, I turned my attention to props. One evening I called my dad and asked how he felt about creating me a beehive prop and after describing my idea, I was absolutely shocked when he rocked up at my house two days later with the main part of the prop ready to go and all I had to do were some minor adjustments. At the back of the prop I had a metal loop where I could sit a honey jar and a hook for me to hang my bee smoker off. I ended up making my honey jar out of an old peanut butter jar (it was made out of plastic which made it light and easy to transport) and I simply covered it in a few coats of gold holographic glitter and PVA glue. To finish off my jar I added a little bee decal which I cut out from left over wallpaper from my bedroom. I made my bee smoker out of an old Pringles can which I added a dome made from a toilet roll to one end. On the metal base of the can I drilled a hole into it before stuffing a loop turner into it to give it that pumping action I wanted it to have. I did toy with the idea of making a working pump which sent out a puff of glitter but I figured keeping it simple was best. To finish my smoker, I painted the whole thing a light green and covering it in green glitter. If I’m being honest, this is probably the roughest prop I’ve ever made and close up she was a big old mess. The reason she was green was because I had a fair amount of green glitter and I didn’t want it to be too dark.

The final big prop craft I had to do was to paint my beehive; I started by painting the back with normal black acrylic paint and I gave the front a few coats of white acrylic. Once dried, I used a mix of burnt umber, gold and white to create the beehive shape on the prop and tried my best to keep it looking professional as possible. My dad also kindly made me cute little wooden labels which I used to label my hive as ‘Honey’ just incase the audience didn’t know what my prop was supposed to be.

My routine for round one was very simple; with the Archies singing Sugar Sugar in the background I came out on stage, greeted my audience and then tended to my bees. Inspired by a previous similar idea from this pageant, I added bee buzzing sounds to my music and then proceeded to smoke my bees to calm them down on stage and harvest some honey. As a real lover of bees, I wanted to give them some recognition on stage and after showing off my honey to the audience I thought it would be fun to be chased off stage by a swamp of bees. Exit pursued by bees.

I’m so happy with how my daywear round came together. The round that took the longest amount of fiddling, sewing and prop building all came together perfectly on stage. Having the idea to do bee keeping was also close to my heart as I loved playing on my grandfathers property as he always had bees. I have bee art and wallpaper in my home as well so this fun theme was a chance to share that with a wider audience. For the pageant, there were so many amazing ideas for daywear and seeing all the creativity, time and work that everyone put in made this round really incredible.

Round Two; Talent

If I had to guess, the talent or ‘Uniqueness of you’ round will always be the most daunting for me. For my first Cooly Pageant I did knitting as my talent and my second Cooly pageant had me “singing” the Tequilla song with a little bit of fan dancing. This year I wanted to do something a little different and as mentioned above, I ended up deciding to do wallpapering. Having a bit of an odd talent I knew I had to make it entertaining and fun; with only three minutes max on stage for this round, I really had to think outside the box. For my performance, I ended up creating a board which was my “simulated wall”, and I had it propped up on an easel so the audience could see. The night before the pageant, I wallpapered half of the wall so all I had left was to add one piece to my board as part of my demonstration. With my basic idea in my head, I could focus my efforts on creating my outfit, choosing my wallpaper and coming up with my speech for the demonstration.

Having done a fair amount of wallpapering around the home, I dove into my pile of scrap wallpaper and found pieces that would fit my board. I decided on some wallpaper from Spoonflower by the designer Lauren Liza Designs titled Retro Celestial Butterflies design as it was the brightest and boldest. I made my dad and partner stand far away from me as I held up various wallpaper options and they both voted this one as the most visible from a great distance. If you’re planning to do a pageant with a talent round, always remember your audience and think about what they can see. I had originally used this wallpaper for my linen cupboard and I still really loved it which made the decision a solid choice. With my wallpaper selected, it was time to move onto creating my outfit.

Although I’m on a self imposed fabric buying ban, I did order 4 meters of this design in cotton from Spoonflower as I wanted to match my wallpaper. I thought this would be a cute idea and even if not everyone realised, I knew that someone would and it was a detail I wanted to add. As my talent was something home decor related, I decided to sew up Simplicity R10646/S9164 which was a sweet shirt dress pattern. Having never made a dress like this meant that I sewed it very slowly over a few days but I love how it turned out (full blog on this process coming very soon so please check back). To add a little interest to the garment, I added a contrasting pink collar, sleeve cuffs, fabric covered buttons and a self made belt. To complete my look I wore my hair in a poodle style finished off with a matching pink head scarf. When put together on the day of the pageant, I absolutely loved my look for this round. It was fun, sweet and a little ridiculous and certainly gave me a little extra confidence for the round.

As you need a few tools to wallpaper properly, I brought on stage my pink toolbox which my dad made me for this pageant, and I had my spray bottle, plumb bob, travel card for scraping and a Stanley knife. I thought that by having everything in my little tool box it pulled the look together and kept everything neat and nicely placed in something that was easy to carry and transport. On stage, I did have a gorgeous stage kitten come up to assist me and wallpapering is a two person job. Olivia kindly held my wallpaper taught as I sprayed the back of it with water to activate the paste and then held my easel and board so it wouldn’t fall over during the actual wallpapering.

With only three minutes on stage for this round, I decided to break down my wallpapering demonstration into three short sections. I discussed preparation of the wall, the plumb bob and how it assists alignment and then how to paste and finesse the wallpaper for easy application. I didn’t write out a speech as I didn’t want to fall into the trap of performance sounding boring so I just practiced my speech whenever I showered and by the time the pageant rolled around, I think it came together nicely. This is the round I received so much positive feedback for and was told it was funny and a great way to show off a unique talent. Talent rounds may seem really daunting especially if you don’t do something traditional such as singing or dancing but if you are worried about what you could potentially do, I’d recommend thinking outside the box and checking out this post from my Pinup Pageant Guide series and see the talent section.

Round Three; Evening Wear

Evening wear is always the round you can relax in a little bit. The daywear and talent rounds are the ones you can use props, create a routine for and really practice but I personally think that the evening wear round is a chance to just relax and have fun on stage without stressing about too much. I always recommend not worrying about props or too strong of a routine for this round as it’s just you and your beautiful outfit. When it came to deciding what to wear for this round, I thought about sewing up something new but after chatting with a friend, I decided to use a gown I had sewn over a year ago but never shared online. This dress really deserved her moment and it was something that I really loved creating. By now you would be aware that I love anything celestial so I played into that idea with this round through my styling but first let’s look at my dress.

I made my dress using a vintage pattern from 1947, Vogue 436. I do believe that this pattern has since been released under a new pattern number and can be found under Vogue 1963. I do plan on sharing a full blog and video about the creation of this gown very soon so please check back for more details. This dress was originally one piece but as I was making it, I wanted to add a lot of fabric and tulle to the design so I ended up turning it into two pieces. The underskirt features a huge circle skirt with 10 yards of navy glitter tulle gathered over the top. She is very lush and full but I do find that the glitter tulle sticks to everything and it can get stuck in awkward positions. The top of the dress was made up using midnight navy satin from Homecraft Textile and despite the gown being completed a year prior, I ended up pulling the top apart and adding more boning. Whenever I had worn the gown previously, I noticed the top neckline points tended to droop a little so I added two extra boning channels which went from the centre front and up into the points to help them stand better. I did also use fashion tape to adhere the dress to my body a bit better but this ended up being pointless as I had put lotion on before and the tape didn’t stick.

Having my gown already mostly made up meant I had some time to relax and a chance to finesse the fit a little bit. I added a few extra star decorations to the dresses top skirt edge but for the most part, she stayed true to her original self. A few days before the pageant I decided to make a little belt for the dress as it would help it sit a bit better on my waist and I did this be sewing some navy ribbon to two moon shaped buckle clasps. This was the perfect finishing touch and I think it brought my whole dress together. To style my dress I wore navy satin shoes with shiny diamond buckles on them, long evening length navy gloves and a star halo head piece which was left over from my wedding. With my hair, I attempted my bestowed set brush out and although she was a bit more frizzy than I’d like, for my first brush out in over a year and with my new hair colour, I was pretty happy with my look. Although it wouldn’t have been noticed on stage, I also added shimmer to my eye makeup so I felt a little more glamorous. To really give my gown her shining moment, I wore a full length petticoat and hoop skirt underneath which although terrifying to navigate stairs with, looked absolutely stunning on stage.

As mentioned above, the evening wear section of Cooly Rocks On is a chance to just let the audience soak in your outfit and for you to just model on stage. I honestly had not poses or anything planned and just strutted around on stage, showed off my outfit and enjoyed my music choice. In the background was ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ by King Harvest as it’s always been one of my favourite songs and it matched my outfit theme. This round was a lot of fun and I think my gown made a great impression. It was a great way to round off my third Cooly Rocks On Pinup Pageant.

Backstage

When you take away the props, the gowns and all the pretty hair and makeup, the best part of this pageant will always be the incredible girls you compete with. It felt that this year, all the girls were the kindest, sweetest and most supportive group I had ever done a pageant with. We all helped each other backstage with hair, makeup, zipping, getting dressed between rounds and of course lots of support and encouragement. We were often found dancing and goofing off with each other and it really made me miss being more involved with the pinup community in general. I had never met or competed with any of this years contestants so I left the Cooly Rocks On weekend feeling like I had a new amazing bunch of girls to call friends.

There were so many deep conversations shared between us before the pageant which really gave us all a chance to connect and get to know each other. It was validating seeing girls share similar struggles to mine as well as discussing everything from politics, our passions and personal stories. It was the highlight of the whole event for me. Of course, I will absolutely share my love and thanks to all the kittens who helped wrangle props, our stage mumma who provided us with love, comfort in a fabulous dressing room, lunch and a space to feel safe. Another huge thanks to our organisers, judges, sponsors and of course Miss Chrissy and Bettie Butcher for putting together and organising all us girls which is no easy task. I think this years Cooly Rocks On Pinup Pageant was one of the best run pageants I had ever done. Oh and we even had a crab break into our dressing room at one point so we have to Steve Irwin it out and back into the wild.

Crowning

With the formula for the pageant being a little different and 6 girls competing for the classic title at the same time 6 girls competed for the rockabilly title, there were three titles to vie for this year. We had the Classic winner, the Rockabilly winner, and the Most Entertaining. For Crowning we all got called up on stage and after some final score counting and judges deliberation we had our results. Our first winner and taking out the Rockabilly title was Reckless Penny. This was her first ever pageant which just goes to show how incredible she was on stage. It is a huge honour to announce that I took out the Classic title and to say I was shocked was an understatement. I could not stop shaking on stage and it took me a few minutes to realise what had happened. Taking out the Most Entertaining title was Miss Aphrodite Darling and her entire performance on stage was sheer perfection; I am still lusting over her evening wear dress too. This would have been an incredibly difficult pageant to judge as everyone was so unique, stunning and fun on stage. We had everything from stunning custom outfits, perfect costume reveals, stunning props, fun talents such as cake decorating, makeup and painting, and of course, a great demonstration on how vast and wide our pinup community is. It really was a celebration of our community.

Final Thoughts

It took me a few days before the reality of the pageant really hit me and I was still in shock and awe flying back home. Months of literal sweat, blood and tears went into creating everything I needed for this pageant and there were definitely times where I thought about pulling out. Coming back from such a huge break was really daunting for me and felt that maybe I should ease myself into pageants again but I am so happy that I stuck to my goal of one day winning the Cooly Rocks On Pinup Pageant. I have heard this event and pageant being likened to Viva Las Vegas so to take out a title is such a huge achievement for me and I couldn’t feel more proud of myself. Of course I didn’t do this pageant alone; along with my dad helping me with some prop creation and my partner helping me practice and be a sounding board, this pageant really reminded me of how much support I have from those around me. It may sound cliche but I could not have done this pageant alone and I am so grateful and thank full to those around me for their support and love.

As is becoming tradition, after the pageant, I go and inhale a huge bowl of pasta which I did again at Radici in Coolangatta because their pasta is delicious. The rest of my time at Cooly Rocks On was spent doing some shopping, swing dancing, media calls and photoshoots all which just made the experience all the more fun. For the next week after the event I spent it recovering, catching up on sleep, nursing blisters and reflecting. Cooly Rocks On has always been one of my favourite retro and vintage events and one that is not for the faint of heart. After three attempts, I have loved seeing my own personal skills and style change over the year and I’m now very proud to stand with the other previous winners and come back next year to hang over my title. Having achieved such a huge personal goal of mine, I am now more keen and excited to get back into the parts of pinups I missed the most and continue creating and sharing.

Note: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions and thoughts expressed are solely my own and not influenced in any way. There are no affiliate links and I do not benefit from any link clicks or purchases made.