“Many still do to this day,” says Molly O’Rourke, chairperson of Miss Pacific Islands Pageant (MPIP) PNG.
She says opportunities such as the pageant puts PNG on a different scale.
“Because we can do more than that (headdress and bare-chest)… This is where these ladies (designers) come in with their different cultures and talents,” she said.
The chairperson further explained that a designer’s role now is to use modern materials but speak a traditional story.