SERIES / 2008

Miss Naked Beauty

Miss Naked Beauty is a short-lived, six-episode reality television show produced by Maverick Television, aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. The show, presented by Gok Wan and Myleene Klass, was conceived as a radical "reality" take on beauty pageants. Some 7000 women applied to become the "ultimate 21st century beauty queen". The focus of the program is on natural and diverse beauty, as opposed to surgically "enhanced" and conformist concepts of beauty. In the first episode, hundreds of remaining applicants were whittled down to just twelve finalists, by a panel of judges composed of fashion stylist Gok Wan, musician Myleene Klass, magazine editor James Brown, journalist Kathryn Flett and musician, actress and TV presenter Mica Paris. In subsequent episodes, various issues were explored such as body image, plastic surgery, self-esteem, modern versus Renaissance and earlier notions of beauty, eating disorders, over-reliance on makeup, the fashion industry. Meanwhile, the programme also progressed as a pageant, eliminating contestants in typical reality TV style, down to five finalists.