site.btaJanuary 20, 1929: Bulgaria's First Beauty Pageant Takes Place in Sofia

On January 20, 1929, the City Casino (today's Sofia City Art Gallery) in Sofia hosted Bulgaria's first ever beauty pageant. It was organized by the Zora daily. The winner, 22-year-old Luba Yotsova from the northwestern town of Vratsa, was named Miss Bulgaria. 

The jury was made up of artists Stefan Ivanov, Nikola Marinov and Borislav Mitov, sculptor Andrey Nikolov as chairman, the scientist and writer Prof Asen Zlatarov, opera singer Konstantsa Kirova and Zora director Danail Krapchev.

The candidates were to meet the following requirements: "to be slim, with an elegant figure, a beautiful head with large, eloquent eyes, a gentle smile, intelligent and modest." There were no specific requirements regarding height or measurements.

The candidates wore folk costumes. A total of 200 girls submitted photos, which were displayed in the window of a large shop in the capital where passers-by viewed them.

The jury selected eight candidates but also admitted last-minute entrants who "gathered the courage at the last moment  without submitting photos in advance". Initially, Lyuba Yotsova had no intention of competing but was persuaded by friends to go to the City Casino where Prof Zlatarov was the first to notice her and invited her to take part.

The jury chairman, sculptor Andrey Nikolov, described the first Miss Bulgaria as follows: "Choosing from among the most beautiful young women the one who will represent the beauty of the Bulgarian woman at the international contest in Paris, we could not select an obvious, striking beauty that everyone can see. Instead, we opted to choose beauty that is subtle, quiet, modest and expressive, embodying our national character."

The first Miss Bulgaria, Lyuba Yotsova, left for Paris where ten brunettes and seven blondes ran in the Miss Europe pageant. Yotsova made it to the top five. She was invited, but refused to participate, in the Miss World pageant in the United States.

After she was named Miss Bulgaria, Yotsova became the face of the Eugene curling iron and of cigarettes made by the Tomasyan factory. The Papazov perfumery launched a perfume named "Lyuba" in her honour, and her face appeared on lottery tickets.