On 19 September 1888, the Belgian spa town of Spa hosted what is considered the first international women’s beauty contest, the concours de beauté. Until then, pageants of this kind did not formally exist, making the event a social novelty that attracted wide attention across Europe.
The competition was organised by the local newspaper La Gazette de Spa, which sought to promote the town’s reputation as a fashionable resort. It was carefully staged to maintain propriety in an era when public displays of female beauty could be considered controversial. Candidates were chosen not through a public parade but by submitting photographs to the organisers. A panel of judges then selected 21 finalists from around the world, who were invited to Spa for the contest.
The winner was 18-year-old Bertha Soucaret from Guatemala, who received the top prize and instant international recognition. Contemporary accounts described her as embodying elegance, grace, and charm, qualities that went beyond simple physical appearance.
The 1888 Spa contest set a precedent, inspiring the development of beauty pageants around the world. The contest was remarkable for its time. It gave women a rare opportunity to be celebrated in public life, though still under the lens of rigid 19th-century expectations of beauty and morality. This modest concours de beauté also laid the groundwork for what would later evolve into the modern beauty pageant industry of the 20th century, including national contests like Miss America (founded in 1921) and global competitions such as Miss Universe and Miss World.
The 1888 Spa event is now remembered as the birth of organised beauty pageants, with Bertha Soucaret as the first recorded “beauty queen” in history.
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