KAMPALA — Miss Uganda Trivia Elle Muhoza turned heads at the Miss World 2026 festival in Vietnam after appearing in a dramatic couture gown inspired by the seven anatomical layers involved in a Caesarean section.
Dubbed “Layers of Life,” the gown was designed by Ugandan designer Keesha Abdallah for the World Designer Award and transformed the physical journey of childbirth into a fashion statement.
Muhoza wore the creation during the Miss World Beauty Fashion Fest’s 17th edition in Vietnam, where contestants showcased couture designs under the theme “Soul of Heritage.”
The gown uses different colours, fabrics and textures to represent the layers encountered during a C-section — skin, fat, fascia, rectus muscles, peritoneum, uterus muscle and the amniotic sac.
Abdallah said the idea emerged from her fascination with the anatomy of childbirth and was also influenced by her own experience as a new mother.
“I had this crazy idea to turn the layers of childbirth into a couture gown,” Abdallah said.
She said the opportunity to design for Miss Uganda gave her the chance to develop an unconventional concept rather than produce a conventional pageant gown.
“I wanted to create something fresh, original and highly inspired,” she said.
According to Abdallah, she studied images showing the different layers involved in a C-section and was particularly drawn to their colours, depth and structure.
“With all the pictures, I connected with this one the most because of the colours, the layers, the art, and how deep the whole C-section process is,” she said.
The designer has also clarified that the colours were not intended to represent different races or skin tones. Instead, each layer was selected to convey a particular stage, texture or transition in the childbirth story.
For Muhoza, the gown represented more than a competition outfit.
“This gown was created to be more than fashion. It was created to tell a story, to bring visibility to the realities of caesarean-section childbirth, the layers a mother’s body goes through, and the extraordinary strength carried through birth, healing and recovery,” Muhoza said.
She dedicated the presentation to women who have undergone C-sections, describing their scars as reminders of courage, sacrifice, healing and life.
The unusual design soon attracted attention beyond the pageant and fashion worlds. World Health Organisation Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised the gown for highlighting the realities of Caesarean childbirth.
Tedros noted that when medically necessary, a C-section can be the difference between life and death for mothers and babies, while also pointing out that the procedure remains a major medical intervention with potential risks and a demanding recovery.
The gown’s international reception has also prompted renewed interest in Uganda’s own history with Caesarean surgery.
A 19th-century account by British medical student and missionary physician Robert Felkin documented a successful Caesarean operation he witnessed in Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom (present-day Western Uganda) in 1879, in which both mother and baby survived.
Robert W. Felkin’s paper, “Notes on Labour in Central Africa,” originally read before the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society on January 9, 1884, and published in the Edinburgh Medical Journal (April 1884, Vol. 29, pp. 922–930), serves as the primary historical source for this account.
Muhoza, who was crowned Miss Uganda in 2025, is representing Uganda at the 73rd Miss World Festival. Her appearance in the “Layers of Life” gown has given the Ugandan delegation one of the pageant’s most distinctive fashion moments while placing the physical realities of childbirth at the centre of an international runway.
