Logo

1 of 7
Madeline Stuart wore separates by Hendrik Vermeulen, walking with two painted male models down the runway.Reuters
Stuart also stunned in a Vermeulen white gown paired with glittery face paint. Reuters
Advertisement
Model Shaholly Ayers, a congenital amputee, wore a bright blue Hendrik Vermeulen gown with sexy sheer paneling.Reuters
Rebekah Marine, a model with a bionic arm, wore Archana Kochhar during the show. Reuters
Paralytic model Leslie Irby sported an Archana Kochhar dress in the show. Reuters
Advertisement

Australian teen Madeline Stuart — who made headlines earlier this year as the first model with Down syndrome to land a fashion campaign — made her New York Fashion Week debut on Sunday in the FTL Moda presentation.

The 18-year-old flew 28 hours from Australia for the opportunity, according to Yahoo, and rocked the runway in two looks by South African designer Hendrik Vermeulen.


 
Surprisingly, Stuart is not the first model with Down syndrome to strut her stuff on the NYFW catwalk. In February, actress Jamie Brewer, famous for her roles in the “American Horror Story” anthology, walked the runway during Carrie Hammer’s Role Models Not Runway Models show.

The Aussie was joined at the show by other models with disabilities, including congenital amputee Shaholly Ayers, paralytic Leslie Irby and Rebekah Marine, a model with a bionic arm.

Fashion producers FTL Moda partnered with the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and Global Disability Inclusion to conceive Sunday’s show, hosted at Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Station.

Comments
anonymous profile image
Powered by RoundtableBuilt on infrastructure designed for real-time media. Learn more at RTB.io.© Roundtable 2026. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy