Elon Musk's daughter walks NYFW runway for designer's BDSM-themed fashion show

NEW YORK − New York Fashion Week stretched into its fourth day, with more celebrity cameos on (and off) the runway.

Vivian Wilson, the eldest daughter of tech founder and Trump acolyte-turned-foe Elon Musk, strutted down the runway at the Chris Habana show on Monday, Sept. 15, after making her runway debut over the weekend for fashion designer Alex Bittar's spring/summer 2026 collection.

Clad in a chain-mail dress with sheer stripes and waist-length hair, Wilson's appearance during the Chris Habana show was greeted with raucous applause. The 21-year-old model walked slower than the other models, opting for a stilted gait in her white patent-leather pumps.

The day after Wilson walked the Alex Bittar runway, she strutted her way down fashion designer Prabal Gurung's runway on Sept. 13.

Wilson has been an outspoken critic of her father in recent years. That she is a transgender woman only serves to sharpen her critiques, as Musk has become a prominent figure in the "manosphere," where he often derides transgender people.

"He's a pathetic man-child. Why would I feel scared of him? Ohhh, he has so much power. Nah, nah, nah. … Why should I be scared of this man?" Wilson said of her father in a March interview with Teen Vogue.

Wilson's runway walk widens the space occupied by the women of Musk's family in high fashion. His mother, Maye Musk, 77, is also a model and walked the Juzui runway during the fall/winter edition of New York Fashion Week in February.

Musk wasn't the only celebrity on Habana's runway.

Famed model Connie Fleming, also known as "Connie Girl," also appeared, as did supermodel Irina Panateva. Swedish singer-songwriter Cobrah also sported some of Habana's designs, as did rapper JT from the hip-hop duo City Girls.

Put on by Pornhub, Habana's collection leaned into elements of BDSM and played with proportions. "The whole collection is really about restraint and expansion," Habana told USA TODAY in an interview before the show.

"It's a metaphor for how I run the business," Habana added, describing the difficulty of balancing humility and pride in the fashion industry.