{"id":1875,"date":"2025-10-14T16:37:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T16:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/1875\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T16:37:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T16:37:49","slug":"vivian-wilsons-nearly-normal-life-the-cut-fall-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/1875\/","title":{"rendered":"Vivian Wilson\u2019s Nearly Normal Life: The Cut Fall Fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n GIVENCHY BY SARAH BURTON Dress, at givenchy.com.
\n Photo: Cruz Valdez\n <\/p>\n

This article was featured in One Great Story<\/a>, New York\u2019s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to get it nightly.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow the fuck do you eat these?\u201d asks Vivian Wilson, staring skeptically at the oysters on the dinner table in front of us. \u201cOh my God! They smell like the ocean!\u201d It was her idea to order them. She couldn\u2019t remember whether she even liked oysters, so instead of getting a full dozen, she asked the waiter for two, one for each of us. \u201cI feel so fancy ordering appetizers! I haven\u2019t had fancy food in forever!\u201d she tells me when the two lonely bivalves arrive on ice. \u201cI don\u2019t even know if this is fancy.\u201d It\u2019s not really: We\u2019re sitting on the sidewalk patio of an unremarkable seafood joint on Ventura in the Valley, and, honestly, the oysters don\u2019t look entirely fresh. Wilson takes a second to psych herself up. \u201cI love seafood, I love seafood, I love seafood,\u201d she mutters before finally committing to it. She grimaces, then promptly washes it down with a sip of her pi\u00f1a colada. \u201cOh, girl. This is so strong, girl,\u201d she says, sliding the cocktail across the table. \u201cHave a sip, girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cut Fall Fashion 2025<\/p>\n


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See All<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, Wilson is starting to show some spirit. When I picked her up at her house an hour earlier, she barely made eye contact or spoke above a whisper. She blamed her state on staying up till well past 5 a.m. that morning getting stoned and watching The Hunger Games. \u201cI can be a bit closed off,\u201d she tells me. \u201cI have a lower social battery than most people.\u201d As she gradually opens up over dinner, I learn that, in addition to staying up too late too often, she subsists on takeout, mostly \u201ccheap\u201d sushi; she doesn\u2019t call her mom enough; she loves video games and K-pop and Drag Race; and she has ADHD, meaning she struggles to sit still or pay attention. When a particularly noisy car drives by, she starts screaming at it: \u201cYou want attention? Just go on social media like everyone else!\u201d She tells me, \u201cI feel like I\u2019m an adult, but I also feel like other people don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m an adult. Which is annoying.\u201d I can\u2019t help but remind her, several times, that she\u2019s only 21 years old.<\/p>\n

An unusual 21-year-old, though. In 2022, news leaked on TMZ that she\u2019d petitioned a judge to let her drop her father\u2019s last name<\/a>. It was the first time much of the public learned of her existence, and it seemed almost beyond belief that supervillain Elon Musk had a beautiful, hilarious trans daughter. She was celebrated as a kind of martyr icon, especially when she started speaking out against him. Teen Vogue, earlier this year, put out a special issue with her face on the cover<\/a>, blaring that she was \u201ctaking on the right.\u201d In reality, Wilson seems to have little desire to be a resistance hero. \u201cObviously, I\u2019m still discovering who I am and whatnot,\u201d she tells me. \u201cI haven\u2019t gotten the chance to do that yet. I want people to know me as something other than just the obvious.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n GUCCI Dress, at gucci.com. JIMMY CHOO Shoes, at jimmychoo.com.
\n Photo: Cruz Valdez\n <\/p>\n

Wilson is the oldest of Musk\u2019s brood of 14 children (maybe more<\/a> \u2014 she doesn\u2019t know exactly how many<\/a> half-siblings she has). Her mother, Justine, is a fantasy novelist who would later recall feeling \u201cdisposable\u201d in her marriage to Musk. The two divorced when Wilson was only 4; six weeks later, he told Justine he was engaged to the actress Talulah Riley.<\/p>\n

They split custody of their children, sending Wilson to elementary school at Mirman in Bel Air and then to Ad Astra, the L.A. County school her father created for the children of SpaceX employees because, he told the press at the time, his kids weren\u2019t \u201cdoing the things I thought should be done\u201d at their liberal SoCal private school. At Ad Astra, there were no grades and mostly STEM classes; the first year, Wilson and her four siblings composed almost half of the student body. For high school, her parents let her transfer to Crossroads in Santa Monica, where she graduated in the same class as Gwyneth Paltrow\u2019s daughter, Apple Martin. \u201cIt was exactly what you\u2019d expect of a private high school filled with nepo babies,\u201d says Wilson. \u201cPeople were unhinged, and I was not popular. I didn\u2019t talk to anyone.\u201d She was a loner, but she did join the Queer Student Union, where she first heard about Drag Race.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n PRADA Jacket, Shirt, and Earrings, at prada.com.
\n Photo: Cruz Valdez\n <\/p>\n

She came out as trans at 16. \u201cI had really, really, really, really \u2014 I can\u2019t emphasize how many reallys are in this statement \u2014 really fucking bad gender dysphoria,\u201d she tells me. She went by Jenna at first, and later landed on Vivian, the name of a character in one of her favorite online first-person-shooter games, Paladins. By the time she turned 18 in 2022, her relationship with Musk had soured. In her petition for her name-and-gender change, she wrote to the judge, \u201cI no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Musk was, publicly at least, somewhat supportive of her decision. \u201cShe does not want to be a public figure,\u201d he told the media<\/a> at the time. \u201cI think it is important to defend her right to privacy.\u201d The journalist Walter Isaacson\u2019s 2023 memoir of Musk described tenser relations. Isaacson, based on the information he gathered while shadowing his subject for two years, used Musk\u2019s experience with his daughter\u2019s transition, in part, to explain his increasingly extreme forays into the culture wars. In 2024, when trans issues began to take center stage in the U.S. presidential election, Musk gave an interview to Jordan Peterson in which he deadnamed Wilson and said his child had been \u201ckilled by the woke mind virus.\u201d (In the meantime, he began donating<\/a> hundreds of millions to GOP candidates, many of whom focused their campaigns on anti-trans policies; soon, his DOGE was running wild dismantling diversity programs.)<\/p>\n

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\n FENDI Dress, at fendi.com. POMELLATO Bracelet and Ring, at pomellato.com.
\n Photo: Cruz Valdez\n <\/p>\n

Wilson, by then in college, decided to respond<\/a>. \u201cLast time I checked I am, indeed, not dead,\u201d she wrote on social media (Threads, not her father\u2019s X). \u201cI don\u2019t concern myself with the opinions of those who are below me. Obviously Elon can\u2019t say the same because in a ketamine-fueled<\/a> haze, he\u2019s desperate for attention and validation from an army of degenerate red-pilled incels and pick-mes who are quick to give it to him.\u201d She also gave her first interview<\/a> to NBC, calling her father \u201cquick to anger,\u201d \u201cuncaring,\u201d and \u201cnarcissistic.\u201d (Wilson and Isaacson, by their own accounts, never spoke to each other for the book. Wilson says Isaacson never reached out directly; Isaacson says he attempted to contact her through other family members.) She could barely make it through the interview, she says. \u201cI was sobbing like a bitch the entire time.\u201d She was motivated to share her side of the story, she tells me, out of \u201cspite.\u201d \u201cThat was years of pent-up energy. I got that out of my system. It felt so fucking good,\u201d she says. On X, the singer Grimes<\/a>, who has three children with Musk, defended her: \u201cI love and am forever endlessly proud of Vivian.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n LOEWE Shirt, Vest, and Skirt, at loewe.com.\u00a0
\n Photo: Cruz Valdez\n <\/p>\n

The back-and-forth drew more attention than Wilson expected, especially from her father\u2019s army of extremely online right-wing trolls. \u201cA lot of people have tried to spin things I say into things I don\u2019t mean,\u201d she says. When she told her followers this past November that she couldn\u2019t see a future for herself in the U.S., the New York Post wrote it up as if she already had a one-way ticket out of the country. The last time she let loose and had a few drinks at a party, it ended up all over TMZ the next day. (Headline: DRAGGING OUT THESE MOVES JUST FOR YOU, DAD!!!) When she goes to the gay bars now, she wears a disguise. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to know my ways!\u201d she tells me when I ask what that entails. Which is to say nothing about the haters in her DMs. \u201cA lot of people can be really creepy, especially about my body,\u201d she says. \u201cA lot of people say the most disgusting, unhinged things they would do to me. It makes me feel gross. Don\u2019t text people on the internet all the ways you\u2019d fuck them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experience led her to decide to stop the flame-throwing, for now at least. \u201cI kind of hate the fact that I\u2019ve become more hinged. Last-year me was mega-unhinged,\u201d she tells me. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what the fuck I was doing, and I didn\u2019t give a fuck. I kind of hate the fact that I care now.\u201d She\u2019s not especially interested in discussing her family anymore. At one point over dinner, I broach the topic anyway, asking how she deals with her father\u2019s omnipresence \u2014 on the news, but also all the Cybertrucks<\/a> driving past us on the street and the rocket ships and Starlink satellites somewhere up in the skies. A few days before we met, Musk even opened a Tesla diner across town in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d she says, not really responding to my question. She goes silent and looks down into her lap, fidgeting with the keys on her carabiner.<\/p>\n

What would you prefer to talk about? I ask her.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot that,\u201d she whispers.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n MIU MIU Dress, Earrings, Shoes, and Socks, at miumiu.com.
\n Photo: Cruz Valdez\n <\/p>\n

Successfully distancing herself from her father\u2019s reputation, Wilson has learned, means it\u2019s time to get serious about what exactly she wants to do with her own career. While she was duking it out with him on the internet, she was at school in Quebec, a choice she made in part to brush up on her French and also because she\u2019d dreamed, as a kid, of becoming a translator. (She also has Canadian citizenship through her mother.) One of the few times she becomes truly animated during our conversation \u2014 other than when talking about her favorite movie, the animated Netflix musical KPop Demon Hunters<\/a> \u2014 is when we get to talking about all of the languages she learned growing up, including Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. \u201cGetting noticeably better at a language is probably the most satisfying thing I\u2019ve ever done, and I want to keep doing that,\u201d she tells me, tearing up. \u201cBeing able to speak to someone who doesn\u2019t speak English is very, very fucking cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n VALENTINO Coat, Sweater, Shirt, Pants, and Necklace, available at boutiques. VINCE Shoes, at vince.com.
\n Photo: Cruz Valdez\n <\/p>\n

She found college, however, especially during her first Quebecois winter, to be \u201cdepressing.\u201d One semester in, she transferred to the Temple University campus in Tokyo to practice her Japanese. \u201cI keep getting seduced by other languages. I\u2019ll study them for a year, then switch,\u201d she says. She enjoyed the gay bars in Tokyo and made some friends in her K-pop dance club, but mostly, she says, she got depressed again; she did not take well to living alone. After a year and a half, she dropped out. \u201cI don\u2019t miss the homework,\u201d she says. \u201cEveryone else was using AI<\/a>. It ruined my motivation.\u201d This past spring, she returned to Los Angeles, living with her mother briefly before moving out in July.<\/p>\n

In the fall, she\u2019s hoping to enroll at a community college to keep studying other languages. \u201cCollege is expensive. I don\u2019t have that inheritance,\u201d she tells me. Despite being the daughter of the richest man in the entire world, Wilson seems to worry a lot about money. \u201cPeople assume I have a lot of money. I don\u2019t have hundreds of thousands of dollars at my disposal,\u201d she says. She is eager to save and hopes to not ask too much of her mother. \u201cMy mom is rich, right? But obviously the other one\u201d \u2014 during our conversation, she never once says Elon or even Dad \u2014 \u201cis unimaginable degrees of wealthy.\u201d She lives with three roommates, she says, because it\u2019s \u201ccheaper.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n HERM\u00c8S Shirt, at hermes.com. POMELLATO Earrings and Bracelets, at pomellato.com.
\n Photo: Cruz Valdez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Book is subject\u2019s own.\u00a0
\n Photo: Cruz Valdez\n <\/p>\n

She is not, she insists, \u201csalty\u201d about any of this. \u201cI don\u2019t have a desire to be superrich,\u201d she says. \u201cI can afford food. I have friends, a shelter, and some expendable income, which is nice and much more fortunate than most people my age in Los Angeles.\u201d And her newfound fame has opened other pathways. She has an agent at CAA now and is exploring modeling<\/a> and influencing. The Teen Vogue cover made her feel like the former is a real possibility. \u201cI was so nervous that I\u2019d be perceived poorly or people would think I\u2019m bad at it,\u201d she says. She certainly looks the part \u2014 six feet tall with Rapunzel hair that falls well below her waist. And though she\u2019s timid, when she walks, she struts like she\u2019s on a runway. She\u2019s already signed partnership deals with Boy Smells; TomBoyX, the gender-inclusive underwear line; and Wildfang, the queer clothing brand. And last month, she checked off one of the items on her bucket list: making her drag debut at the queen Pattie Gonia\u2019s show in L.A. It was, she says, the happiest she\u2019s been the whole year. \u201cI felt emotions I can\u2019t describe. It was literally fucking incredible. It was so thrilling that I cared about doing something so deeply,\u201d she says. She is also hoping she\u2019ll be recruited onto a game show like Traitors. Despite the introversion, \u201cI\u2019m an Aries. I\u2019m very fiery,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m very competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mostly, though, she\u2019s focused on growing up in all the normal ways. \u201cI need to get more organized. I need to clean my fucking room,\u201d she tells me. Also on her bucket list: \u201cFinding out what\u2019s on my bucket list.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n CELINE Coat, at celine.com. JESSICA MCCORMACK Earrings, at jessicamccormack.com.
\n Photo: Cruz Valdez\n <\/p>\n

After dinner, Wilson is ready to head back home to watch her favorite new Netflix series, Alice in Borderland, an animated sci-fi show about a gamer in Tokyo. We decide to stop by a liquor store to pick up some booze first. \u201cLet\u2019s get some cheap wine,\u201d she says. \u201cCheap wine is one of God\u2019s greatest creations.\u201d She can\u2019t taste the difference, she tells me, between red wine and white wine, or shitty wine and expensive wine, so she settles on a $9 bottle of Cabernet called Santa Carolina Reserva.<\/p>\n

The burly guy at the cash register, wearing a Dodgers cap, seems to recognize her.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look familiar,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Wilson clams up. \u201cUmmm \u2026 maybe \u2026 I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019re barely out the door before he chases us down.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not Elon\u2019s daughter, are you?\u201d he asks.<\/p>\n

She hesitates and looks off in the opposite direction as if she\u2019d take off, running across the street, if there weren\u2019t so much traffic. \u201cUm, no. Sorry. I get mixed up for her a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

He calls her bluff. \u201cI was going to say she\u2019s my favorite person,\u201d he tells her, before sending us away with two free shots of tequila.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n PRADA Dress, Earrings, and Bag, at prada.com.
\n Photo: Cruz Valdez\n <\/p>\n

To shake it off, and save money on an Uber, we decide to walk the two miles back to her house. \u201cI\u2019m not very good at being famous. It\u2019s a skill,\u201d she tells me, reflecting on the encounter. \u201cI fought so hard for so long to be viewed as a regular person. There was a moment literally right before I became famous where no one knew who I was. It was amazing. Everyone treated me as a regular person. I kind of miss that. But I also like being famous.\u201d She says so half-heartedly. Does she, really? I ask. \u201cI guess I\u2019m kind of indifferent to it. But I like the fact that it makes me money.\u201d<\/p>\n

After being tumbled through the right-wing media machine, she\u2019s working on building back her confidence. \u201cI think about the support I get more than the hate, and it kind of outweighs it,\u201d she says. \u201cI get a lot of hate posts about me. But what the fuck am I supposed to do about that? I don\u2019t really have a choice other than to build a bridge and get over it.\u201d One positive takeaway of the past year, she says, is an \u201cimproved faith in people. I thought people would hate me immediately. It\u2019s been a year, and seemingly people don\u2019t hate me.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The walk to her house is dark, along a busy street and by a couple of fairly creepy underpasses. At one intersection, a driver waiting at the light spots us, then launches into a profane, transphobic tirade. For the first time this evening, Wilson gets mad. \u201cShut the fuck up! Girl, go to Texas! Get your bitch ass back to Texas!\u201d she screams as he drives off, starting to chase after him. \u201cI wish he\u2019d come back so I could yell at him some more. Like, fuck that bitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unpleasant, and we\u2019ll be needing a cigarette. Wilson left her Marlboros at home, but luckily I have plenty on hand. When she notices my lighter, which has a photograph of Stevie Nicks on it, she laughs at me, calling me a \u201cstereotype\u201d of an enby. I ask what the most stereotypical thing about her is, and the question isn\u2019t even fully out of my mouth before she shoots back an answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cDaddy issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n LOUIS VUITTON Dress, at louisvuitton.com.
\n Photo: Cruz Valdez\n <\/p>\n

Production Credits<\/p>\n

Photography by
\n Cruz Valdez<\/p>\n

Styling by
\n Jessica Willis<\/p>\n

Digital Tech:
\n Tara Raine DeVoti<\/p>\n

Photo Assistants:
\n Austin Durant\u00a0and\u00a0Sebastian Acero<\/p>\n

Hair:
\n Lauren Palmer-Smith<\/p>\n

Hair Assistants:
\n Antonina Getmanova\u00a0and\u00a0Austin Manigo<\/p>\n

Makeup:
\n Zaheer Sukhnandan<\/p>\n

Manicure:
\n Ginger Lopez<\/p>\n

Prop Stylist:
\n Aaron Bobrow<\/p>\n

Movement Director:
\n Charissa Kroeger<\/p>\n

Tailor:
\n Elma Click<\/p>\n

Production:
\n Kindly Productions<\/p>\n

The Cut, Editor-in-Chief
\n Lindsay Peoples<\/p>\n

The Cut, Photo Director
\n Noelle Lacombe<\/p>\n

The Cut, Deputy Culture Editor
\n Brooke Marine<\/p>\n

The Cut, Photo Editor
\n Mara Rothman<\/p>\n

The Cut, Fashion Market Editor
\n Emma Oleck<\/p>\n

One Great Story: A Nightly Newsletter for the Best of New York<\/p>\n

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\n If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the September 2, 2025, issue of
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