Trans model Aariana Rose Philip makes history as first wheelchair user to attend Met Gala
Aariana Rose Philip at the 2026 Met Gala (Getty Images)
Model Aariana Rose Philip has made Met Gala history by being the first wheelchair user to attend the event in its 78-year history.
Philip is an Antiguan-American model and musician who has quadriplegic cerebral palsy. In 2018, she became the first-ever Black, transgender and physically disabled model to be represented by a major modelling industry.
Since the start of her career, she has modelled in a number of major high-fashion photoshoots and campaigns, including Moschino’s spring/summer 2022 fashion show. Her appearance made her the first model to use a wheelchair to walk for a major luxury fashion brand.
Philip shared her experience of attending the Met Gala as a disabled person with Vogue on 4 May.
“For so long, disabled people were not represented anywhere,” she said. “The thought of even being able to exist at an event like this… nobody even went there. To go from that to now, somehow finding myself there, I can’t say how blessed and honored I feel attending.”
The model made her debut at the Met Gala in a look by designer Louise Linderoth, who is also disabled and a wheelchair user.
Philip continued: “I think that for a long time, it’s been easy to see a disabled person in the public eye and label them an activist because we have no other choice but to speak up for ourselves in the spaces that we inhabit, because other people are not familiar with our bodies or how to accommodate us.
“We’re given the title of activist because we are challenging a social system. I think that people realize that there’s no choice but to do that if you have a disability in a major public space, because we have been so historically marginalized and pushed aside.”
She also shared that the “fascist shift” in global society has meant that many people are returning to ableism as well as “eugenics and harmful rhetoric” toward disabled people.
“However, it’s also so important that we’re showing disabled people as a part of the fashion industry – as models, as talent, as photographers versus purely just activists and advocates,” she said.
“It shows that there is more variety to the disabled experience, and desires of disabled people, beyond challenging big social causes. At the end of the day, so many of us are just people who maybe feel passionately about something and want to contribute.”
Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.
