In the kingdom of miss France, the revolution is well underway. It is not yet the triumph of a thirty-year-old, a married woman or a mother – all now authorized to compete. Miss France 2024 is only 20 years old and has a cat in her life. But by crowning Miss Nord Pas-de-Calais (the fourth in ten years after Camille Cerf, Iris Mittenaere and Maëva Coucke), the beauty contest showed audacity. Far from luscious beauties with cascades of hair, Eve Gilles is skinny and wears a short haircut. A first ! Some lashed out on social networks against his thinness and his speech deemed “woke” (a culture of victimization of minorities). But the developments in the election please the majority with, on the evening of his coronation, an average of 7.5 million viewers glued to TF1 and record audiences for women and young people. What if Miss France 2024 simply embodied a woman of today, freed from the shackles and proud of her physique, whatever it may be? HAS Gala, even before knowing that she would win, we also wanted to shake up the codes by adorning the new queen with a pantsuit. At the doors of this eclectic dressing room, in a suite at the Peninsula Paris, all that remained was to make the one everyone is talking about speak.
GALA: It’s been a long time since a Miss France election made so much noise. Everyone is talking about your short hair, your androgynous silhouette… Do you feel like you symbolize a revolution?
EVE GILLES: Yes and no. I just embody a type of woman today, like you see on the street. I am not just a short haircut but it is true that by embodying it at Miss France, and by winning, I help to represent this type of woman who had not yet been highlighted.
GALA: On election night, you declared: “I want to be the Miss of Differences. » Are you carrying a message?
EG: I am a Miss Diversity. I just want that, thanks to my election, every woman can feel good in her body without needing to conform to this or that criterion. Miss France is not necessarily a beautiful blonde with shapes. I myself, a few years ago, imagined it like that. Actually no. A Miss is a woman who lives in her time, wants to accept herself as she is and is not there just to look pretty.
GALA: Is this a form of feminist demand?
EG: Yes, I feel feminist.
GALA: Your thinness has earned you derogatory comments on social networks…
EG: I chose my haircut. My body, no! This thinness is not the result of deprivation, it is my nature. On the contrary, I am even very greedy!
“OK, I have short hair and little chest but (…) I feel very feminine.”
GALA: What do you say when people say that you are the embodiment of a gender-neutral culture?
EG: I do not identify as gender neutral. OK, I have short hair and small breasts but for me, through my everyday style, my way of being, I feel very feminine.
GALA: Have you always worn your hair short?
EG: No, I cut them three years ago. Before, I had them either on my lower back or in the middle of my shoulders. Until I entered middle school, I even had them at knee level. And one day, I was with my mother on the sofa, she said to me: “Eve, I’m fed up, you’re losing your hair, it’s everywhere. Cut them! » I replied: “OK”. She said to me: “I’m kidding!” ” But not me ! [rires]
GALA: Ah! are you like that: capable of acting on a whim?
EG: Yes, I can make very quick decisions. For Miss France, for example, when I decided to compete, I sent an email the next day.
GALA: Is it true that your maternal grandfather, who lives in Reunion [sa mère est d’origine réunionnaise, ndlr], gave you the trigger?
EG: It’s true. He first planted the idea in my mother’s head. This caught my attention because I had several very beautiful cousins in Reunion, and he didn’t do it for them. I thought, “Maybe he sees something I don’t see.” »
GALA: We can indeed say that he was inspired! Let’s go back in time. You were born in Dunkirk on July 9, 2003, and grew up in the neighboring village of Quaëdypre. What was your childhood environment like?
EG: There was the countryside, the cows at the end of the garden. With my friends, we were walking around the village. It was a very calm childhood, in contact with nature.
GALA: What do your parents, Bruno and Edith, do?
EG: My father is a surveyor, he has his own practice. My mother, who originally studied sewing, became his secretary.
GALA: And your two sisters?
EG: Lisa, the eldest, is 30 years old, she lives in Belgium, near Brussels, where she should soon become director of a retirement home. And Lucie is 26 years old and works as an accountant in Reunion. She went there last June and it pains her a little to know that my Miss France adventure is happening far from her. My sisters nickname me… “Minus”, even though at 1.70 m, I am the tallest. My parents too. It’s easier to call me from afar than “Eve”! [rires]
GALA: Your parents told me that you had character. What are the major traits of your personality?
EG: I am determined, go-getter, warrior. I put things into perspective a lot and am very positive. My parents raised me with the idea that if you did something, you did it well and to the end. At Miss France, I only aimed for the crown!
GALA: What are your faults?
EG: Very often, I have trouble getting up in the morning, it makes me “bitter”, even if I make an effort since the Misses. And I’m quite messy but it’s an… organized mess: there’s something in every corner but I know what’s in each corner. [rires]
GALA: Among the regulatory changes, a Miss France now has the right to be in a relationship. Is this your case?
EG: I want to keep a part of mystery and that’s part of it, I don’t want to reveal it…
“I have always loved math”
GALA: What are your artistic tastes?
EG: I like detective novels, the adventures of Sherlock Holmes or Arsène Lupin. And historical stories. In music, I listen to everything and as I am very indecisive, I prefer to put on the radio than a playlist, so that the sounds play on their own.
GALA: What are your other passions?
EG: I started dancing at the age of 3. And I started horse riding because I saw my sisters doing it. Unfortunately, my club closed and I quit.
GALA: You are studying maths and computer science to become a statistician. It’s an amazing calling, isn’t it?
EG: No, because I have always loved math. I had started studying medicine. The idea of contact with the patient appealed to me. But the operations side wasn’t my thing. I preferred to stop everything in the middle of the first year to reorient myself without wasting time.
GALA: Will you finish your studies?
EG: Yes, even if I have to do it remotely, I will complete my license. I know that Miss France opens up opportunities in the world of fashion and modeling. But if one day it doesn’t work out or I no longer like it, I want to have a real diploma on the side to bounce back.
GALA: By becoming Miss France, you embody a feminine ideal. Now that our readers have gotten to know you better, what would you like to tell them?
EG: I would like everyone to be able to accept themselves as they are, without fantasizing about the women we see on television and in advertising. And at the same time, without criticizing them either. You have to accept everyone and focus on yourself, tell yourself that you are strong, that you are beautiful, and move forward with determination.
This article could be found in Gala N°1593, available on newsstands on December 21. The new issue of Gala comes out this Thursday, December 28, 2023. Enjoy reading.
Photo credits: SIPA