The Mail: A feature on Maksuda Akhter - Miss Universe and more. June 2026

 

From charity shop to red carpet: Miss Universe Ireland finalist Maksuda Akhter talks style and her love of Irish Designers.

By Sara Colohan

The first dress Maksuda Akhter ever wore to a competition came from a charity shop, bought with money she could barely spare. Years later, she would walk the red carpet at Cannes in Irish couture, representing a country that had given her almost everything. That contrast, between where she started and where she stands now, tells you a lot about her.

Maksuda Akhter was born in Bangladesh and came to Ireland alone as a teenager, with nothing. Her father had died when she was eight, and her mother sent her away to keep her safe. The early years were lonely ones: no immediate family, no close friends outside a small, tight-knit Bangladeshi community with traditional views. She went to school, to college, to work, and back again, eventually completing a degree in business management and building a career in financial services.

Then the recession hit in 2009, and she lost her job in the financial industry. Shortly afterwards, she became pregnant with her first child and found herself financially dependent on her partner – a position she had never wanted and found suffocating. When her second child arrived, the relationship broke down entirely, and with it went much of the community support she had relied on. People she had known for years turned their backs on her. She was a single mother, and in some people's eyes, that made her a source of shame. She was in her early twenties, with two babies under the age of three, wondering how she was going to manage.

"It was the lowest point of my life," she says. "But it was also the moment everything changed."

She answered an advert in the local paper to take part in the Ms Ireland 2014 pageant. It said anyone could enter, as long as they were an Irish citizen — regardless of ethnic background, skin colour, race, religion, or culture. "I had so many negative thoughts writing that first application, like, 'I am not native Irish. They won't accept me.' The fear of rejection was overwhelming, but I knew if I didn't apply, I would regret it for the rest of my life." Her application was accepted, and she never looked back.

Around the same time, Akhter made another decision that would shape everything that followed. Determined never to be financially dependent on anyone again, she began training as a pilot in 2012. "People laugh when I tell them I was entering pageants and learning to fly simultaneously while raising two small children alone," she says. "But all of it came from the same place — the absolute refusal to accept that the life I had was the only one available to me." She qualified in 2013, training at the National Flight Centre in Dublin, and took on flying jobs part-time to help support her family. "The cockpit and the catwalk are not spaces most people imagine occupying at the same time. I liked breaking the mould. I found it quietly satisfying."

She went on to win Ms Ireland 2014, then Ms Earth International 2015, then Miss Universal Royalty, and in 2021, UK Top Model. Each title was pursued on a shoestring — entrance fees were scraped together by buying fewer groceries, and outfits were sourced from charity shops. As one of the first Bangladeshi-origin women to enter beauty and modelling competitions, her success rippled outward in ways she hadn't anticipated, bringing press coverage and advertising work back in Bangladesh. With visibility came vulnerability: Akhter became the first woman in Bangladesh to speak publicly about a #MeToo experience. "It was terrifying and necessary in equal measure," she says. "I'm glad it helped open the door for other women to come forward with their own stories."

Ireland, by then, felt like home, and she wanted to truly represent it.

Her relationship with Irish fashion didn't begin on a red carpet. "The more I integrated into Irish life, the more I discovered Irish designers. They seemed to understand something instinctive about elegance and beauty that doesn't need to shout. So slowly I built relationships and started wearing Irish designs."

When she attended pageants and film festivals representing Ireland, she made a decision early on to showcase Irish designers — not as a statement, but as a thank you. "Ireland had given me so much. Wearing Irish designers on the world stage felt like the least I could do."

Over the years, that has meant working with designers including Claire Garvey — "whose designs are unlike anything else: bold and completely fearless" — and Geraldine O'Meara, whose work Akhter describes as feminine and beautiful, along with Audrey O'Hanlon, Carina Cunningham and Ashleigh Myles. The accessories of Fiona Rafter have become a signature part of how she presents herself internationally. "Every one of them feels like a global standard but is also rooted in Ireland."

Cannes has become one of the most significant stages in recent years. "When you're standing on that red carpet, cameras everywhere, people from every corner of the world watching, you realise you aren't just a woman in a dress. You have a country's creativity, displaying it on an international platform." This year's festival, she says, brought the same deep sense of pride in representing Irish designers on that stage.

For Miss Universe Ireland this year, Akhter has made a decision that feels personal: she's rewearing pieces she's already worn at Cannes. "It's a deliberate choice, and it connects directly to my advocacy platform of sustainable fashion. I love the idea that a dress can be beautiful, meaningful, and worn more than once. We talk a lot about sustainability in fashion, but sometimes the most powerful statement is simply choosing to reach back into your wardrobe for something you already love and wearing it again with just as much pride."

The past couple of years have moved at a pace that still surprises her. She welcomed her daughter Lavisha, now almost two, and says becoming a mother again has been one of the most rewarding and transformative experiences of her life. "She has taught me about resilience and balance in ways I hadn't anticipated." Her older two children are teenagers now. "My daughter tells her friends that I am her icon, which stops me in my tracks every time I hear it." Her son has autism, and the world of pageants and red carpets isn't really his thing. "That's perfectly fine by me. What matters is that all three of my children see that women don't have to choose between motherhood and their dreams. You can be present for your family and still pursue your ambitions, at any age, under any circumstances."

That belief sits behind everything Akhter does with Miss Universe Ireland. Her platform is built around sustainable fashion and encouraging women, especially mothers, to keep going. "I just want women not to let responsibility become a reason to stop dreaming."

She feels passionately about this subject and continues, "I know what it feels like to think the world has closed in and given up on you. I was a young single mother with two babies, buying clothes from charity shops, wondering if any of this was worth it." She adds: "I came from a society where women didn't enter pageants, didn't go to the gym, and certainly didn't pursue careers in aviation. I became a pilot anyway. I walked every red carpet I was told wasn't for me, and I proudly wore Irish fashion while I did it."

On June 20th, Akhter will compete in Miss Universe Ireland, in the country she now calls home. "There is something extraordinary about standing on that stage, in Irish couture, in Ireland, as an Irish citizen who came here with nothing and built everything. My kids are proud of me, but I'm proud of myself too, and I'm beyond grateful to everyone who has helped me along the way."