Transgender trailblazer Laverne Cox is used to making headlines on the Met Gala steps, but one of her most unforgettable fashion memories has nothing to do with what she wore and everything to do with Naomi Campbell’s legendary froideur.

In a candid conversation for Bronwyn Newport’s “Walk-In” Substack series, the Emmy-nominated actress and author of “Transcendent: A Memoir” recounted the moment the supermodel appeared to brush off a request to pose with her on fashion’s biggest night.

Cox recalled standing beside Bella Hadid on the Met’s carpet as photographers shouted for a three-shot. “Naomi! Take a picture with Laverne and Bella!” they called. Campbell paused, Cox said, looked her up and down, and then simply turned and walked away, leaving the photographers’ request hanging in the air.

For many, that might have been a mortifying snub. For Cox, it was instant fashion folklore. “It was the greatest honor in the world,” she told Newport, relishing the memory. “The fact that I got to see that live? She was like, ‘Hmmm, no.’ And walked away.”

Cox admitted she hesitated before sharing the anecdote publicly, aware of Campbell’s long-standing reputation for imperious glamour. But she ultimately framed the moment as a kind of rite of passage. “She knows she did it!” Cox joked, adding that to be on the receiving end of a Naomi Campbell brush-off is, in its own way, a badge of fashion-world legitimacy.

Crucially, Cox stressed there is no bad blood. “Naomi and I are cool,” she said. “I’ve met Naomi many times. She’s always sweet to me. [At] that moment, she just wasn’t feeling it.”

What lingered for Cox was not hurt, but awe at Campbell’s unshakeable persona. “That look she gave me was so iconic,” she said. “Like, to be shaded by Naomi Campbell?”

Cox, who made her Met Gala debut in a dramatic Christian Siriano gown and has since become a fixture on best-dressed lists, now counts the incident among the stories that chart her ascent from television groundbreaker to fashion insider. It is, she suggests, proof that she has entered a rarefied orbit where even a snub can feel like a coronation.