What we do to the candidates in this place before the competition is a well-kept secret. The “HMC room” is an obligatory and sometimes traumatic passage for the contenders for the Miss France crown…
The 30 contenders for the crown of Miss France 2025 are currently experiencing their preparation trip to Ivory Coast. An intensive stay, punctuated by visits, photo sessions, including the famous swimsuit photo session, cultural and sporting activities and group sessions. A real marathon on the outskirts of Abidjan, before the final sprint on election night, December 14, at Futuroscope in Poitiers.
But it’s not all fun before the competition. You also have to take tests, including the famous general knowledge quiz unveiled this week, give presentations, rehearse choreographies, take catwalk classes (or the art of walking like a top model) as well as intensive workshops on beauty, ranging from hairdressing to makeup, including trying on the outfits that will be worn on the big night.
One of the challenges of the event for each of the candidates is to show themselves in their best light, but also to be able to transform in a few fractions of seconds between the different “tableaux” which will make up the evening. And we often say, “you have to suffer to be beautiful”. This is why the candidates must go through stages that are as obligatory as they are merciless: sessions where all their faults are scrutinized and where the aim is to “enhance their beauty” according to the established term.
A name has even been given to the “torture room”, where they are examined from every angle and given a makeover: the “HMC” room for “dressing, makeup and hairstyle”. A place where they must spend hours in Ivory Coast at this very moment, but which will also be installed in Poitier on December 14, for the big show. Around twenty small, expert hands are busy transforming the thirty young women into machines of seduction.
Precise necklines, impeccable blow-drys, sophisticated makeup, neat manicures, ultra-bright smiles… In the HMC room, nothing is left to chance so that they are perfect in all circumstances. Stylist Aurore Donguy is in charge of the outfits. She revealed in Gala some rules that she applies in this den of beauty: mark the sizes, favor “skirts or little short dresses to reveal the legs”, “tops that are close enough to the body, to emphasize the shapes”…
Often approached with enthusiasm, the HMC room is also the place of doubts and suffering in the face of the most buried complexes, such as a recent report of the Parisian devoted to the makeup of the Misses was able to give us a glimpse. And the stress of the clock is added to it. “You have to find little tips to be beautiful in a minimum of time,” says Cindy Fabre, the director of the competition. “Beautiful people have a mission, to be even more beautiful. They must always do better […]. They are watched constantly. Always more beautiful and always faster”, also summarizes the article. We wouldn’t have said anything else.