New York Fashion Week

Elon Musk’s model mom Maye Musk walks runway at fashion week amid ongoing Trump drama

Elon Musk’s model mom Maye Musk shuts down the runway at NYFW show amid White House drama.

Portrait of Anna Kaufman Anna Kaufman

USA TODAY

NEW YORK — New York Fashion Week is fast underway, with runway shows up and down Manhattan offering a peek at the trends that may dominate fall and winter. 

On Tuesday at the Glasshouse, a riverfront high-rise, design house Juzui pulled off a rare feat: making Elon the less famous Musk.

Following a parade of models who walked in an array of floral prints, slouch pants and tulle micro-skirts, Musk’s mother Maye closed out the show. 

Maye Musk, Elon Musk's mother, presents a creation by Juzui from the fall 2025 collection during New York Fashion Week, in New York on Feb. 7, 2025.

Her cropped silver ‘do was paired with a long shimmering charcoal dress and a feathery white fur jacket. Other designs showcased has similar silhouettes, while the main pattern of the afternoon was a multi-colored bloom inspired by winter gardens. 

The elder Musk’s appearance punctuates a long relationship with the fashion house. 

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

“Maye as a person, as a woman, I really adore her (and) respect her,” chief designer Taoray Wang tells USA TODAY following the show.

NYFW Day 1:Whoopi Goldberg, Katie Holmes join star-studded front row at Christian Siriano show

Designer Wang Tao, left, professionally known as Taoray Wang, and Maye Musk, Elon Musk's mother, acknowledge applause after the Juzui fall 2025 collection show during New York Fashion Week, in New York on Feb. 7, 2025.

“She inspired me,” Wang says. “And I believe she’s not just inspired me she’s inspired a lot of my customers in China.”

Maye Musk, Elon Musk's mother, walks the runway during a rehearsal for the Juzui fall 2025 collection show during New York Fashion Week, in New York on Feb. 7, 2025.

Maye, 76, is both a model and author with five decades of fashion experience under her belt. 

She has appeared on the Juzui runway before, and shared an embrace with Wang at the show’s conclusion. 

More from NYFW:Keke Palmer stuns at New York Fashion Week: See her looks

Musk’s moment on the catwalk comes as her son has risen up the ranks in government amid the new administration. 

After aligning himself with President Donald Trump in the final months of the campaign, Musk has become a right-hand man for the president, helping to choose cabinet appointees and spearheading efforts to slash the federal workforce. 

Some in Congress have begun to sound the alarm on Musk’s seeming unfettered access to the inner workings of government. 

“The Musk hatchet brigade has infiltrated a gold mine of data that every foreign spy and corrupt actor would love to see,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. said. “It is a prescription for nightmares.”

Maye Musk has remained fairly mum on politics, though she echoed Trump and Musk’s anti-immigrant sentiment on X in October of last year (she was born in Canada and raised in South Africa). 

Contributing: Josh Meyer

Featured Weekly Ad

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here