Before Gigi Hadid walked Tommy Hilfiger’s runway at New York Fashion Week on September 10, she made an even more important stop first, dropping her 5-year-old daughter, Khai, off at school.
“I dropped my daughter off at her second day of school this morning and came straight here,” Hadid told E! during Live From E!‘s coverage of the Tommy Hilfiger Spring 2027 show.
“So it’s definitely a new version of Fashion Week for me.”
Despite the shifting logistics of motherhood, returning to Hilfiger’s runway still carries deep meaning for Hadid.
“To come back to do the Tommy show is so nostalgic and means a lot,” she said, reflecting on the relationship the two have built over the years.
“Starting the kindness from the top trickles down,” she said of Hilfiger. “I think that people can feel that from the world that he’s created, and I am really lucky and proud that I’ve gotten to be part of that.”
Khai, it turns out, has developed her own appreciation for what mom does for a living.
“She definitely understands the job now,” Hadid said.
“She loves a Tommy show, something that’s uplifting and fun, and she’s very creative. So anything with not just fashion, but drawing, colour, fabric, and performance, she loves that.”
That enthusiasm has translated into imaginative play at home, with Khai staging her own mini fashion shows and assigning her mom a very specific supporting role.
“She gets into her own little catwalks,” Hadid revealed, “but then she’ll be like, ‘Mom, you be security.’ So then sometimes I pretend to be the security at the top of the runway.”