Michelle Villemaire is the Mrs. Thailand USA delegate at the pageant this weekend at Redondo Beach. Photo: SHLOMIT LEVY BARD
Michelle Villemaire is the Mrs. Thailand USA delegate for the Virgelia Productions Miss/Mrs Asia USA Cultural pageant that will be held at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, Saturday November 22. If you can’t make it to the pageant, one can still vote online for this Palisadian through November 19 click here.
The red carpet for the 37th year of the pageant starts at 4 p.m. and opens with the National Costume.
“I’m doing this crazy thing – a pageant,” Villemaire wrote CTN at the beginning of November. “The fires really got to me. I was exhausted by post-fire life, and I saw an ad for the pageant and was taken by the elaborate costumes.”
Villemaire is multi-faceted and talented. She initiated and led yarn-bombing in the Village from 2013 through 2020, highlighting famous women during National Women’s History Month.
Next it was karate. Inspired by her two daughters Pearl and Vivi, who were taking lessons at Gerry Blancks Martial Arts Studio, she took classes, competed in her first competition in 2018, and won first in traditional forms and second place in traditional weapons.
In 2024, she started MAVVEN Mercantile on Antioch with Lisa Waters. The two women met when Villemaire’s dad, a rocket scientist, moved her family from Saudi Arabia to the small town of Merritt Island, home of NASA’s Space Center. Villemaire is a self-described “air-force brat.”
She has a popular family blog, has been featured on “Good Morning America” and Hallmark’s “Home and Family” and was invited to the White House during the Obama administration. She is a DIY (Do It Yourself) Designer and a content creator (Visit: www.villemairedesign.com).
Michelle Villemaire in a traditional costume, designed by Aksara Bondu.
Born in Massachusetts, she has a dual citizenship because her mother is Thai. Villemaire never learned to speak the language as a child. During Covid she studied online with a teacher from Bangkok and now speaks conversational Thai.
The family moved to Pacific Palisades in 2011 but during Palisades Fire is not one of the few standing homes in the middle of the desolation. “I’m a designer and spend my days in overalls,” she said. “But even more so in those dark days after the fire. The Redondo venue happens to be ten minutes from our Airbnb. It looked fun. So, I signed up.”
Her husband Jonathan Abrahams and daughters are “very supportive! Jonathan loves that I’m doing this for me, as a creative way to heal from the trauma of the fires.”
Villemaire, who is 5’5” said the upcoming pageant has also been the impetus to eating right, exercising and engaging with the world, some of which were hard to do after the fire.
“Despite the fact that pageant prep is a lot of busy work and I’m exhausted, I’m a much happier person because of it. I might be fighting with my insurance adjuster one minute, but then I’m strapping on six-inch rhinestone heels the next. It just makes me smile.”
Surprisingly, one preparation for the pageant is walking lessons – with coaches.
“Walking is a different animal when you are presenting the work of all these trades: makeup, hair, gown, pageant coaches,” she said. “Walking used to mean, I go from point A to point B, and quickly. Now I have to slow down, present all the work it took to make the look come together, smile and not trip.”
The Mrs. Asia USA is a traditional pageant, which means there is no talent or interview portion.
“I really wanted an interview portion because I’ve always wondered how I might answer an important question about the world in under a minute! Would the words flow or would I crack under pressure?” she said. “I’ll never know.”
Swimsuit is optional, as a “presentation,” but not-judged. Villemaire is wearing a suit at the urging of her daughters, “MOM you HAVE to! What’s the point of doing a pageant if you don’t do the swimsuit!”
After the fire, Villemaire contemplated on what was most meaningful to her and started #Unburnable, stories about women who survived the Palisades fires in their own words. Her housekeeper, Rosa, is the first on her blog (VillemaireDesign.com) and also on Instagram click here. She plans to post more after the pageant.
Ticket prices are $85 for general admission. $150 and $200 for VIP tickets which come with after party access. “Expensive!” Villemaire said, “But I want to get the word out because even if folks can’t come, if they purchased a ticket as a donation, I could give the ticket to a loudmouthed local and seat them behind the judges so they cheer for me when I’m on stage. Pageantry is strategy!”
Photo: SHLOMIT LEVY BARD