Southern Ethnic Costumes: Communicating Southern Identity through the Costumes of Miss Grand Thailand 2025 Contestants

Abstract

In the contemporary context, local identity has become a fragile and contested domain that requires specific mechanisms for its preservation. Beauty pageants have emerged as symbolic spaces that provide opportunities for local communities to narrate their stories through contemporary forms of cultural communication. This research article aims to examined the use of Southern Thai ethnic costumes featured in the Miss Grand Thailand 2025 pageant, specifically in the segment titled "Southern Ethnic Costumes of the Malay Peninsula" as a cultural tool for communicating local identity. Employing a qualitative research approach, the study analyzed video recordings of the competition during the "Miss Favorite of Songkhla Province" round.

The study revealed that the communication of local identity in the Southern Malay Peninsula through the costumes worn by beauty pageant contestants demonstrates considerable diversity and depth across multiple dimensions including culture and tradition, rituals and beliefs, literary characters, ways of life, cuisine, and mythical creatures. Among these, the most prominently represented elements are culture and tradition, followed by rituals and beliefs. This suggests that the contestants, through their costumes, function as vital cultural communicators who powerfully convey emotions, beliefs, and the spiritual essence of local identity. Simultaneously, they take on the role of content creators and intermediaries who help revive fading cultural identities in a contemporary context. Local identity, therefore, should not be viewed merely as a relic of the past but as a form of cultural capital for the future. While beauty pageants are often perceived as platforms that emphasize visual appeal and external beauty, the evolving nature of pageant design has increasingly opened up space for contestants to express creativity and actively participate in content production. As a result, contestants are no longer confined to the singular role of beauty representatives. Instead, they have become communicators of local identity, using thoughtfully designed costumes as meaningful tools to articulate cultural narratives.