Before winning Miss World 2000 and stepping into global stardom, Priyanka Chopra was a teenager experimenting with her style. The actress recently revealed that her love for her belly button piercing once led her to re-pierce it herself — in the back of a cab.Recalling her teenage style, Priyanka said she wasn’t particularly into fashion at the time but loved experimenting with her own sense of style. “I wasn’t really a fashion girl. I didn’t grow up knowing or having any relationship with fashion, but I did have a relationship with style,” she said on the Going Rogue podcast.“In the ’90s in high school, I was that quintessential ’90s girl — flared jeans, a pierced belly button and crop tops.”She also revealed the unusual way she once re-pierced her belly button. “I re-pierced my belly button in the back of a cab. That’s what we used to do back then,” she said.
Priyanka shares her quick fashion hacks
During the conversation, the host also brought up a moment from Priyanka’s Miss World 2000 journey when she used a “namaste” gesture on stage to discreetly hold her gown in place.Asked if she had other quick fixes for fashion emergencies, the actor shared some of her go-to hacks. “Chewing gum to hold my shirt together just for a quick photo moment,” she said.“Once when I was getting out of my car and going in, my shirt was separating, so I just put gum on it and it held together.”She added that even a simple band-aid can double as fashion tape in emergencies. “If you don’t have double-sided tape, take a band-aid and make it into a circle.”
‘I had never modelled before Miss India’
Priyanka also opened up about how overwhelming it felt to enter the world of beauty pageants as a teenager with no modelling experience.“When I went for the Miss India pageant, I had never modelled before. It was the first time I was modelling, walking the runway and going toe-to-toe with all these models who had so much experience,” she said.The actor explained that she was just 17 or 18 at the time and suddenly found herself in a completely unfamiliar environment. “I was a teenager from a small town, so it was a massive transformational change for a young girl who didn’t know what the industry was like and suddenly found herself in the limelight.”According to Priyanka, the intense environment of pageants forced her to mature quickly. “I learned fast. I had to grow up quickly because in a pageant you’re not supposed to make any mistakes. You’re expected to do everything perfectly, to be eloquent and well-spoken. So I immediately tried to become the best version of myself. Everyone around me was so polished.”
‘Sometimes you have to fake it till you make it’
Priyanka also reflected on competing at the Miss World pageant in the UK and how different the cultural environment felt.“The Miss World pageant I attended was in the UK, and it was very different from how America views its pageants. It was culturally different too. I grew up really fast and learned how to ‘fake it till you make it’ sometimes. That was the only way to not look like I was dying inside in front of millions of people.”She added that the experience taught her an important lesson about confidence and self-belief.“Sometimes when you walk into a room and it feels tough, you have to give yourself a talk and say: you either belong in this room and people will see you, or you will be invisible. And both are fine — but you have to decide which side of the room you want to be on.”
