Miss Thailand wears gown made with can tabs, in tribute to garbage-collector parents

As the Miss Universe pageant kick-started this week, Miss Thailand Anna Sueangam-iam began trending on the internet when she made her debut on stage wearing a gown made with soda tabs.
The gown, also called the ‘Hidden Precious Diamond Dress” was designed by the brand Manirat and is made out of the aluminium soda tabs of cans with Swaovski crystals embedded into it.
On Instagram, the post featuring the dress has reached over 150,000 likes. Sueangam-iam explained that her gown was designed as a tribute to her parents who were garbage-collectors, as a way to honor her upbringing.

“This gown was inspired by the familiar surroundings of my childhood. Growing up with garbage collector parents, my life as a child was among piles of garbage and recyclables. This unique gown was purposefully tailor-made with discarded and recycled materials, namely the ‘Can Tab’ to present to the UNIVERSE that what’s considered worthless by many actually possesses its own value and beauty. Thank you all for seeing it, hearing it, and hopefully being that message of self-worth.” 

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