Beauty queens turn activists at Miss Universe's National Costume Show Fashion statements abounded at this event 14 May 2021 - 18:40 By Paula Andropoulos Miss Universe Singapore Bernadette Belle Ong. Image: Rodrigo Varela/Getty Images Historically, the national costume segment of the Miss Universe competition has encompassed a bizarre range of walking human floats and on the nose puns from the presenters — and this year's, which took place in the US on Thursday, was no exception. However, perhaps because of the heightened social and political circumstances in which we — universally — find ourselves, some of the participating country's representative’s costumes made interesting and provocative statements, showing once again how fashion can operate as a conduit for protest and self-expression.