Miss Universe 2022 - Best National Costume
One of my FAVORITE competitions for Miss Universe is the National Costume. It is always very creative, colorful and wonderful to learn about the inspiration for each country's costume. This year I scored each of the costume presentation and you are welcome to see my scores at the bottom. I will be providing my Top 10 Costumes with a brief description. Remember, this is all for fun and JUST my opinion if I were a judge. Here goes...
NOTE: Not all pictures are from competition night.
#10 - Mexico - A wonderful rendition of one of Mexico's national dresses. This costume is adorned with buttons, flowers and Swarovski crystals throughout. Score: 9.41
#9 - Indonesia - Representing early Indonesian sailors, this costume brings together boat and sea into a fantastic shining imagery. It looked great in movement! Score: 9.43
#8 - Ghana - Imagine Ghana's first female warrior. What would she look like? It screams a Wakanda dream. The tribute was well done in all gold with images of Ghanian women on the front. Score: 9.46
#7 - Argentina - Paying homage to one of the wonders of the world, the Iguazu Falls, this costume is draped with white feathers to symbolize the falling of the water. Score: 9.59
#6 - Vietnam - Representing the basket weaving artistry and commerce that exists in Vietnam, this costume brought together a variety of pieces in an elaborate and impressive display. Score: 9.61
#5 - Guatemala - This costume brought together several concepts that exist within Guatemala. The design brought together the sun, the pyramid and jaguars that exist in the country as it fabulously showed us the culture of this beautiful country. Score: 9.62
#4 - Puerto Rico - This costume depicted a Puerto Rican telescope as it brought beauty, technology and hardware together into something we will remember for years. The best part of this costume was when Ashley turned around, the circular backpiece turned into a screen and shown famous Puerto Rican celebrities and images. Incredible! Score: 9.69
#3 - USA - USA is not known for their national costumes at Miss Universe but in the last decade they have been getting more creative and actually showing up to compete. This year's costume could be a winner. Representing R'Bonney's hometown of Houston, Texas, where the first exploration to the moon occurred, this costume allows us to imagine the accomplishment of the first woman to the moon in all of it's fantastic glory. It was an INCREDIBLE design with the crown, the moon, stars, flag and then it lit up...WHAT??? I would actually be quite happy if this won! Some critics have mentioned that she could not walk well in the costume, however, I like to imagine that the walk is similar to how she would be walking if she was actually on the moon, so without even planning for it, even the walk was perfect representation! Score: 9.75
#2 - Ukraine - Paying tribute to the tragedy of war that is occurring in her country, this costume depicts a warrior princess that provides strength to all of the soldiers fighting against their enemy. What you did not know or expected about this design is that the wings opened up revealing the fantastical possibility of the princess flying over Ukraine spreading her strength to all the soldiers. THIS is certainly the sentimentle favorite. Score: 9.85
#1 - Trinidad and Tobago - From the second this costume walked out on stage, I felt the gasp of the audience in New Orleans. It was something that none of us expected. The costume represents Trinidad and Tobago's Mas Culture of Carnival. When Tya Jane opened up the costume for the world to see her and then made the character dance, I did not need to hear the audience's cheering to know that it was DONE! THIS was the Best National Costume! Score: 9.95
In all honesty, I would be happy if any of my top 5 took home the prize as each of them were fantastic in their own right! Good luck to all of these ladies!
Below, please find my scoring which was done from 7.5-10.0. I scored them as I watched the preliminary competition on line and went with my gut reaction to the delegate's performance, what the costume represented and the overall beauty of the costume.
Want to watch the 2022 Miss Universe National Costume Competition? Check it out on YouTube below: