To be eligible to participate in the
Miss France
competition , candidates must be at least 1.70 meters tall.
The reason for this lower size limit is purely technical and logistical.
During each ceremony, the outfits used for the tables of the fifteen semi-finalists and the five finalists are prepared beforehand, but no one knows in advance who will wear them.
"For the final table, we will have eight different dresses to consider all the possibilities among the five girls who will be qualified"
, explained the artistic producer Frédéric Gilbert.
"During my election, I almost fell while stepping on the bottom of my dress because it was intended for a candidate over one meter 80"
, still remembers Diane Leyre, from the top of her 177 centimeters.
To discover
Miss France 2023: discover the official photos of the 30 candidates
What about the size of the 30 candidates competing on Saturday at MACH 36 in Déols, near Châteauroux?
Sixteen of them measure between 1.70 and 1.74 meters, nine between 1.75 and 1.79 meters and five exceed 80 meters. If Orianne Méloni, Miss Corse, and Alissia Ladeveze, Miss Auvergne, respectively reach 1 .83 and 1.84 meters, the highest point of the 2023 promotion is held by
Adèle Bonnamour
with 1.86 meters.
“I had a complex about my size for a very long time.
I am also the biggest miss in the history of the contest
, told us the 18-year-old Miss from Ile-de-France.
It took me a while to accept it because I've always been tall: in third grade, I was already 1.84 meters tall!
In the class photos, I tried to bend down and look small when I had to assume my height.
I almost didn't feel normal... I know now that it's a great strength.
»
A candidate of 1.87 meters for Miss France 2024?
And if the student in the second year of business school is indeed the greatest candidate to take part in the ceremony of the Miss France competition, she is however not the first.
During the Miss France 2020 election,
Meïssa Ameur
, Miss Auvergne, had the opportunity to defend her chances from the height of her 186 centimeters.
This record could well be beaten next year with
Léa Rodrigues
, Miss Périgord 2021 and third runner-up of Miss Aquitaine 2021.
"I think I will represent myself next year"
, told us the 20-year-old young woman measuring 1.87 meter who took a year off.
Even taller,
Mathilde Huet
(1.88 m) had finished first runner-up to Miss Nantes 2020. Finally,
Lina Dalati
(1.89 m) attempted the local elections of Miss France several times in 2014, 2016 and 2019 on the side of Vendée, only once reaching the regional election stage.
"When I was 25, I had stopped because of the age limit
", confides the young woman who is now 29 years old.
Thanks to the new regulations put in place by Alexia Laroche-Joubert, with no upper age limit imposed, Lina Dalati could try her luck again.
Comfortable with her size, she knows that it could have allowed her to stand out during her experiences in the beauty pageant, without knowing if it was an advantage or a disadvantage.
Read alsoWho will become Miss France 2023?
Discover the predictions of five former runners-up of the competition
Last September,
Alizée Bidault
was able to take part in the election of Miss New Caledonia 2021 despite being smaller than the criteria requested by Miss France.
"My size does not allow me to reach the first two places in this election, I was elected second Dauphine and it is with great pride that I wear this title"
, reacted the young woman measuring 1.66 meters. after the coronation of Océane Le Goff.
The size of candidates for Miss France taken into account for the parade in swimsuits
During the traditional tableau in swimsuits of all the participants in the Miss France competition, in the first part of the ceremony, the young women follow one another in a long choreography.
One by one, they will walk the catwalk and position themselves for a few seconds at its end to be better seen by the jury of personalities (chaired this year by Francis Huster) and by viewers.
As last year, the order of passage of the 30 candidates will be determined by their size, from the smallest to the largest.
"We could have chosen the order of the regions but that would mean that it would always be the same thing from one year to the next
," explained Frédéric Gilbert.
If we did so arbitrarily, we would be accused of favoritism.
We want to avoid this kind of debate about why her first and her second.
We took something simple, the order of the sizes.
»
Thus, from the top of their 171 centimeters, Inès Tessier (Saint-Martin Saint-Barthélemy), Enora Moal (Brittany), Florence Demortier (Midi-Pyrénées), Perrine Prunier (Normandy), Bérénice Legendre (Picardy) and Esther Coutin (Rhône -Alpes) will open a parade that will end with... Adèle Bonnamour (Ile-de-France).
“On the Rocketman
chart
we just repeated where the contestants wear platform soles, she goes up to a height of 2.02 meters!
“
, Reveals with fun the artistic producer about the latter.