We're so happy and proud that our very own Miss USA, Olivia Culpo, was crowned Miss Universe 2012 this past Wednesday (Dec 19th)! She looked so incredibly beautiful, and we can't believe that the USA finally has the crown again after 15 years! Olivia beat out 88 competitors to take the crown!
Olivia is 20 years old and is currently a sophmore at Boston University. It's so impressive that she's juggling college while competing in such difficult pageants - really shows you what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it!
During the preliminaries, when Olivia was named one of the final 16 contestants, she donned a purple Sherri Hill bandage mini-dress (style 2932). During the final competition night on Wednesday, Olivia wore a tight navy blue mini-dress with a sequin bodice on stage for the event's opening number. For the swimsuit portion of the competition, she wore a purple and blue bikini. At the end of the event, she looked gorgeous in a wintery red velvet gown with a plunging neckline.
There were also so many other beautiful ladies and dresses at the event - it must of been hard to be a judge and pick the winner! A lot of the women were wearing some of our favorite dress designers - Sherri Hill, Mac Duggal, and Tony Bowls! Check out some of the dresses below.
The contestants all looked so pretty when they were wearing the Sherri Hill bandage dresses at the preliminaries. You can see Miss USA all the way to the left in her purple dress.
A lot of the contestants were wearing Mac Duggal dresses! Below are some of the contestants in their beautiful MacDuggal gowns - clockwise from top left: Costa Rica, Nazareth Cascante; Great Britain, Holly Hale; Jamaica, Chantal Zaky; Slovak Republic, Lubica Stepanova; Peru, Nicole Faveron; Ghana, Gifty Ofori.
Miss Tanzania, Winfrida Dominic (left); Miss New Zealand, Talia Bennet (middle); and Miss Ghanna, Gifty Ofori (right), all looked gorgeous in Tony Bowls dresses!
Are you excited that Miss USA won, or were you rooting for another contestant? Leave us a comment below and let us know!