South African Maye Musk’s cover for this month’s Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam features a unique zipper couture piece by avant-garde designer Autumn Lin.
The one-of-a-kind full-body creation made its debut on Lin’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection at Philadelphia Fashion Week on Sunday September 22, in Pennsylvania in the US
The 76-year-old model, dietitian and author of A Woman Makes a Plan, was a vision in all-white in her cover photo, graced with the headline: “Glorious Triumph: When Fashion Changes, We Have to Change with the Fashion.”
She is also mother to filmmaker Tosca Musk, restaurant entrepreneur Kimbal Musk and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who is on track to be the world’s first trillionaire due to his vast empire which includes Tesla, SpaceX and the X social media network.
In her interview with Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam, Musk said: “Elon is my genius child. As a boy, he could hear, read and remember everything. He read two sets of encyclopedias, so he could answer any question I had about anything and any country. He was shy, so no one else realised how brilliant he was — but now they do. He takes on the biggest challenges in the world to make this planet, and soon Mars, better places.”
Musk’s futuristic and ethereal zipper couture creation took weeks to make. “I started with my inspiration, from my dreams and the supernatural,” Lin explained to TimesLIVE. “For this collection, all the looks were based on a narrative story I wrote based on my dreams. I then took whatever zipper inspired me and then worked with it intuitively to create different patterns and textures.
“My signature pattern is like a wave and I count or measure the teeth of the zipper because of a numeric spiritual significance to me. I then drape the pieces intuitively on the dress form and hand-sew them together in a very long and arduous process.
“I was honoured to have an icon like Maye Musk wear my piece on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam.”
Internationally published stylists Kevin Parker and Kerry Scott, who cofounded Philadelphia Fashion Week 19 years ago, praised Musk for her elegance and poise throughout the shoot.
“We featured a number of local designers in the shoot, including Brenda Olivis, Jeanette Limas, Jagged Halo, Lagos Jewellery and Autumn Lin,” said Parker.
“Maye was the sweetest ever — so kind and so open to the ideas we had for styling. Her creative team immediately gravitated towards Autumn’s piece, which was luxury and futuristic.”
In the interview, Musk added: “My book is a best-seller and is available in 32 languages and 100 countries. With modelling, I’m doing front covers, major campaigns, runway shows, and travelling the world. I couldn’t have dreamt of this kind of life.
“We should all find a profession or work that we enjoy, that will keep our brain working, and our enthusiasm up, no matter the age. My mother died at 98, she stopped working at 96. She set a good example for me, my siblings and our children.”
TimesLIVE
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