Miss Italy organiser Patrizia Mirigliani has banned revealing swim wear, tattoos, and contestants with cosmetic surgery from her competition, beginning with this year's pageant.
This year's 101 final contestants will don black-and-white one-pieces with a veil attached to one shoulder for the swimsuit portion of the competition, which will open the Rai1 season on the 9th and 10th of September.
Rai's new president, Anna Maria Tarantola, appointed under Mario Monti, plans to clamp down on nudity on television, and Mirigliani agrees that it is time for restraint. She plans for her competition to harken back to the classic beauties of the 1950's.
Miss Italy host Fabrizio Frizzi has called the move "an elegant solution", but the newspaper Il Giornale, owned by Silvio Berlusconi's brother, published a scathing commentary on the new rules, saying "if we cover men's dreams, the bottoms, with centimetres of fabric, what sense does the competition have?".
Last year, Mirigliani added ten rules for good behaviour to the pagent policies, and tomorrow, she extends the focus on beauty in action even further. The 230 contestants will have an interior beauty training with Tara Gandhi, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, in Montecatini Terme in Tuscany.
Gandhi will also judge the final competition, occupying a spot on the panel typically reserved for male Hollywood actors.
In the past, the Miss Italy competition provoked controversy by allowing married contestants and size-44 women. Next year, Mirigliani plans to make the competition eco-friendly.
