Forever Crystals Adds Sparkles of Light and Color to the Folkloric Attire of Miss Universe Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Aug. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Forever Crystals, a Puerto Rican company that works with design, manufacturing and distribution of fashion accessories made with Swarovski crystals is adorning the festive folkloric attire of the "Vejigante" with more than 6,000 of the glittering items, to be worn by Puerto Rican beauty Viviana Ortiz Pastrana during the Miss Universe contest coming up in Brazil.  

"Our mission is to enhance the natural beauty of our clients with crystals, and what could be better than enhancing the beauty of the Puerto Rican woman who will be representing us in Brazil with so much dignity and pride," says Merari Pena, president of Forever Crystals.  "We were so excited to collaborate on this project, because as a Puerto Rican company we want to support the ethnic richness of our culture, and the figure of the Vejigante has such an abundant rich and picturesque lore, its very presence reflects our complexity as Antillians."  

The job of crystallizing this futuristic interpretation of a Vejigante falls to fashion designer Jaer Caban and craftsman Kenneth Melendez Padilla.  It will entail nearly 100 hours of painstaking work, applying each one of Forever Crystals' glittering Swarovski crystals by hand, to add sparkles of light and color in shades of sapphire, citrine and aurora borealis crystal to a costume inspired by the vejigantes of Ponce and the Island's festive environment.

"We are delighted that Viviana Ortiz Pastrana will be assuming the role of a Vejigante in the typical costume, I am very optimistic that the model we've selected will have a huge impact.  I believe that Puerto Rico is going to dazzle everyone with this design," commented model and entrepreneur Desiree Lowry, holder of the local franchise.

The slender figure of Miss Universe Puerto Rico will be adorned with a low-necked, high-waisted leotard, in which blue will predominate with flashes of yellow. Both the mask and the leotard are to be covered by more than 6,000 of Forever Crystals' Swarovski crystals. Using the mask as his point of departure, the designer has endeavored to portray his vision of a modern-day vejigante.  

About Vejigantes

The masks and vejigantes are of African and Spanish influence; the playful masks are traditionally made out of cardboard or coconut shell.  Vejigantes appear primarily in the celebration of the festival of Santiago the Apostle in Loiza Aldea, but are also prominent in the Carnival at Ponce and the Festival of Masks in Hatillo.  The traditional colors of vejigantes are red, yellow, blue and green.  They sweep through the streets of the town and out into the neighborhoods with leaps, shouts and somersaults, pretending they can fly, while brandishing inflated dried animal bladders on the end of a stick which they wave at people to frighten them.

About Forever Crystals

In 2007 Forever Crystals began operations under the leadership of Merari Pena who recently embarked upon an assertive plan of expansion, inaugurating her first shop in the Dominican Republic on the International Plaza's Fashion Boulevard in Santiago de los Caballeros, and is preparing a second shop in Santo Domingo, soon to be opened in the Plaza Carolina.  

Forever Crystals contributed the crystal spread on the dress "La Gran Maravilla de El Yunque" (The Great Wonder of Yunque) during the Miss Universe Puerto Rico contest in 2010.  That dress had more than 20,000 Swarovski crystals in its crown, flowers, skirt, train and crystal cascade.  

SOURCE Forever Crystals