$0 | Midtown

Zozibini Tunzi, 27, and Cheslie Kryst, 29

Occupation: Ms. Tunzi is Miss Universe; Ms. Kryst is Miss USA.

Suitcase storage: Is an issue, despite the apartment’s large size and the many closets. Each woman has numerous suitcases since so much of the job usually involves long trips and many costume changes. Traveling with multiple gowns and a suitcase just for shoes is not unusual.

Where do they keep their crowns? Ms. Tunzi prefers to store hers at the nearby Miss Universe offices, but Ms. Kryst keeps hers on the night stand. “It’s a Mikimoto tiara, which is one of the most iconic designs,” she said. “It’s embarrassing, but I like to wake up and look at it.”

Ms. Tunzi and pageants: “At 7, my mom took me to this pageant at church. I was really shy, she wanted me to meet other young girls. But then I loved it, the feeling of making friends and then the confidence of walking onstage.”

Ms. Kryst and pageants: “My mom was the second Black Mrs. North Carolina, so I knew no matter what, I was going to compete. I started when I was 13 or 14, in high school.”

The apartment’s size, they agree, makes sharing it relatively easy. Both were surprised at how large the space was the first time they saw it.

“Before I came to New York, everyone told me things are really small; even the hotel rooms are like shoe boxes,” Ms. Tunzi said. “I walked in and was like, ‘This is a huge space.’ ”

“You think of New York as being 300-square-foot apartments, but this is massive,” Ms. Kryst said. “With the pandemic, you get to the point where you want to be outside, but I have my own room, I have my own bathroom, we have an extra bedroom.”

Image The closet in the third bedroom, where Miss Teen USA stays when she visits the city, has become a voice recording studio since the women started working from home. Credit... via Cheslie Kryst & Zozi Tunzi

The third bedroom, which is reserved for Miss Teen USA when she visits the city, has become a work space — the closet is great for recording voice-overs — as has the living room. They had used the living room sparingly before, as a place to catch up between work trips, but they now shoot all their videos there; there’s even a teleprompter corner.

Source: New York Times

Powered by NewsAPI.org