Entertainment

Miss Piggy’s Modelling Career: Alicia Machado Over Trump’s ‘Miss Piggy’ Insult

Published on: February 2, 2017 at 11:17 AM
By Stacey Cole

Miss Piggy is an important character within American pop culture. Created by Bonnie Erickson, Miss Piggy first featured as a minor character on The Muppet Show , the famous television program that was broadcast from 1976 to 1981. During the television series, Miss Piggy became a leading character and as well-known as Kermit the Frog, the chief character of The Muppet Show .

The fashionable and opinionated Miss Piggy was shown to possess a strong will, unstoppable confidence, a star’s ego, and an intense personality. Even though Frank Oz was the primary voice artist for Miss Piggy, other artists have been lending their voices to the character during her public appearances and media junkets.

Miss Piggy’s sparkling personality made her a style icon and a champion of body confidence. Jim Henson Company was the owner of Miss Piggy and other Muppet characters until Walt Disney acquired the ownership rights, and since then, leading fashion designers have relied on Miss Piggy to be a model and pose in their stylish clothes.

Miss Peggy has previously adorned herself in clothes that were conceptualized and designed by famous designers like Prabal Gurung and Jason Wu. Opening Ceremony, the popular fashion house, has also selected Miss Piggy as their fashion model to promote their products.

Kate Spade New York, the American fashion house, launched the Disney Miss Piggy Collection late last year, to debut clothes aimed at giving the wearer the confidence that Miss Piggy is so famous for. The famous pig featured in the company’s advertisements along with models Jourdan Dunn and Catherine Baba to promote Kate Spade’s holiday campaign.

The Miss Piggy-inspired fashion products mostly comprised of leather handbags, clutches, wristlets, and jewelry. According to Mashable , Kate Spade released a media statement that threw light on the meaning behind Miss Piggy’s famous brand name .

“Kate Spade New York celebrates interesting women leading interesting lives, and Miss Piggy continues to represent the very definition of an interesting, strong, independent, mesmerizing, tantalizing, and irresistibly fabulous woman of this millennium… or any other.”

Apart from fashion companies, Miss Piggy has been a brand ambassador for New York City. Earlier, Miss Piggy and other key characters of The Muppet Show like Kermit the Frog and Gonzo partnered with New York’s tourism department to promote the city as a part of the city’s “NYC Family Fun With The Muppets ” marketing campaign.

Miss Piggy appears to be the favorite Muppet character among fashion designers because of her attitude, especially since it is well known that the attitude of a model is of tremendous importance while posing during a photo shoot or while walking during a fashion show. According to Allure , Miss Piggy urges prospective customers to make their very own style statement by being inspired by her.

“Attitude is everything. Your clothes should always make a statement. I like mine to say: ‘Yoo-hoo, everybody, look at me! I’m fabulous! Don’t you wish you were moi?’”

Even though she is known for her confidence and boldness, Miss Piggy has also been involved in a controversy that surfaced during last year’s infamous presidential election. Alicia Machado, the former Miss Universe, accused Donald Trump of calling her “Miss Piggy” because she had gained weight. Salon reported that the cruel comment by Trump came after Machado gained 60 pounds after winning the title of Miss Universe .

This occurred a decade ago, and it is refreshing to know that today, Alicia Machado has not let the uncalled-for “Miss Piggy” comment ruin her life. The former Miss Universe wrote a piece for Harper’s Bazaar in which she detailed the events of the day when she and her eight-year-old daughter participated in the Los Angeles Women’s March to stand up for women’s rights in the face of Donald Trump’s misogyny.

“It was a day where I felt proud to be a woman and an American.”

Back to the popular Muppet , the Donald Trump controversy did not tarnish Miss Piggy’s brand image as the character is popular as ever. People magazine reports that Disney’s Miss Piggy appeared during an interview and spoke about her popularity as an influential fashion model .

“I don’t know any other model who gets their image emblazoned on as many articles of clothing and consumer goods. And who wouldn’t want to carry around a tote or a wallet with moi’s face?”

[Featured Image by Theo Wargo/Getty Images]

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