Maysie Bestall-Cohen

Maysie Bestall-Cohen (born 1945) is a New Zealand retired model and modelling agent and the former organiser and presenter of the Benson & Hedges Fashion Design Awards.

Early life Bestall-Cohen grew up in Dublin, Ireland, where her father was a children's clothing manufacturer. When she was 16, the family moved to New Zealand and settled in Auckland. She attended secretarial college there, and was invited to join a modelling agency by two women she met a party, Winsome Goudie and Mary Bourne. The following year Bestall-Cohen began organising and presenting fashion shows—the first one she managed was for department store Milne & Choyce—which she continued to do up until the late 1980s. From 1982 to 1988, she organised the annual Benson & Hedges Fashion Design Awards.

Recognition In 2000, Bestall-Cohen received an honorary Bachelor of Arts degree in Fashion Technology from the Auckland University of Technology.