Emerging Edmonton fashion designer has career hopes pinned on Miss Universe Canada
CBC
The profile of an emerging Edmonton fashion designer will go from zero to runway next month when her evening gowns and swimwear are featured at the biggest beauty pageant in Canada.
Francheska Esguerra has been interested in pageants and sketching gowns since she was a kid. When the pandemic hit in 2020 and her career as a makeup artist ground to a halt, she decided to turn her passion for fashion into something more serious.
"I have two options," she recalled with a laugh during an interview with CBC's Radio Active. "I can either cook all day or study."
Esguerra registered for an online fashion diploma and bought a sewing machine. In the spring of 2021, she took a leap of faith and pitched the organizers of the Miss Universe pageant.
"It was a shot in the dark, when I emailed them," Esguerra said. "I just finished watching Miss Universe and I was like, 'I can do this. I want my gowns to be there.'"
In August, Esguerra got a response to go ahead with an evening gown for Tamara Jemuovic, the reigning title holder, to wear during the coronation of the next Miss Universe Canada, which will take place in Toronto on May 14.
By December, she was in conversations to design dresses and swimwear for the more than 50 contestants who will vie for the title.
Esguerra said the project has been an unique challenge, in terms of creating designs that would work on all different skin tones and body types.
It's also been a lot of work — all unpaid, she said.
"I didn't anticipate the stress and all the funds I would need for 70 dresses and 70 swimsuits," Esguerra said, adding that she received helped from Edmonton businesses Vo Jewellers and Fly & Fetch in getting the project off the ground.
She hopes this will lead to partnerships with other pageant contestants in the future.
Esguerra will fly to Toronto May 2 to deliver the garments and do fittings with contestants. The preliminary Miss Universe Canada competition is May 12 and the winner will be crowned May 14.
"I am pretty new in this field, here in Canada, so I would like to showcase what I can do, and take my talent to the national stage," Esguerra said. "I hope this can help me get noticed."
Amanda Nahwegahbow, 38, is being remembered by her family as a vibrant and resilient woman who could light up any room.
As Nova Scotia bucks a national trend of declining rent prices, the province’s housing minister said he's hopeful that work to stimulate more construction will lead to improvements.
When the New Brunswick Health Council released its report this week on avoidable deaths in the province, one area stood out.
Almost once a month for almost a year, Kathleen Toman has left her home in Balsam Lake, Ont., for Mont-Tremblant, Que. This weekend, she’ll make the 500-kilometre trip again, meeting her ex-husband, Chris Toman, there.
A charity in Chase, B.C., has secured funding that it hopes will improve child-care services in the community by training new childhood educators.
Ontario is seeking feedback on a potential amendment to the Coroners Act that may replace mandatory inquests into jail deaths with coroner-led annual reviews.
Paul Myllyniemi takes the bus to work in Thunder Bay, Ont., every day — except when it doesn’t show up.
Residents in the Greater Toronto Area are digging themselves out and going back to their regular weekday schedules a day after a major snowstorm.
Commuters hoping to escape the cold by travelling on Line 6 will need to think again, as train service is down Friday morning.
Halim Rahim has lived in Canada for almost four years, but says he’s never experienced a winter like this.
For Lindsay Gillan, walking her dog, Daisy, twice a day in Charlottetown’s Victoria Park is a treasured routine that benefits both her physical and mental health.
Whitehorse city council has postponed its decision on an overhaul of its zoning bylaws that would, among other things, introduce short-term rental regulations in the city.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he has reached a deal with China to allow tens of thousands of Chinese electric vehicles into the country in exchange for lower canola duties.