Designing Official Staff Apparel for 27th Annual Miss Paradise Pageant
For the 2026 Miss Paradise Pageant, Sticky Sweet Bears was honored to be asked to design the official staff apparel, contributing behind the scenes to one of Asbury Park’s most respected drag traditions.
For this year’s pageant, we created custom designs inspired by the pageant theme, made for the people who keep the night moving: staff managing doors, coordinating performers, cueing music, and making sure the focus stays where it belongs: on the queens.
The Miss Paradise Pageant
For decades, the Miss Paradise Pageant has been a cultural cornerstone of Asbury Park’s LGBTQ+ nightlife, drawing queens from New Jersey, New York City, and beyond to compete on a stage that carries real weight.
Held at Paradise, inside the historic Empress Hotel, Miss Paradise is a crown associated with professionalism, consistency, and deep connection to tradition earned in a room where audiences know drag and expectations are high.
Paradise itself is part of queer pop culture history. The venue is owned by Shep Pettibone, the legendary producer and DJ whose remix work helped define Madonna’s club-era sound, underscoring the long relationship between queer nightlife, music, and performance in this space.
A Pageant With Royal Lineage
Miss Paradise has always been about more than a single night. It’s a lineage shaped by performers who built the pageant’s reputation long before drag reached mainstream television.
The first Miss Paradise, Lady Marisa, set the tone for what would become a defining East Coast pageant: competitive, polished, and deeply connected to community.
Over the years, the crown has been worn by remarkable queens such as Victoria Courtez, Jolina Jasmine, Cee’Mour Cox, Victoria Lace, and Lea Sky, helping establish Miss Paradise as a proving ground where craft and consistency matter.
That local excellence has extended to the national stage with Honey Davenport (Miss Paradise 2018), Olivia Lux (Miss Paradise 2020), and Crystal Envy (Miss Paradise 2022) all went on to appear on RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Showing Up With Intention
Designing staff apparel for Miss Paradise is about supporting the people that allows the pageant to thrive. The people who make the night run smoothly and the performers feel supported.
For Sticky Sweet Bears, contributing to the 2026 pageant is a way to show up for a space that not only shaped drag culture but provide the safe places for us own growing up gay in New Jersey.
