Front rows at fashion week are always over-crowded with celebrities, influencers, and brand ambassadors—but there’s a few celebrities who can make an entire room go silent when they enter. Oprah is one of them, though she’s hardly a fashion week regular. Which is precisely why, on the rare occasion the media mogul does take a seat at the shows, the moment is worth paying attention to.
Over the years, Winfrey has made a handful of memorable appearances at the shows, often in support of designers she personally admires and, usually, with her bestie Gayle King as her seat mate. In the 2000s, it was Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel, Valentino Garavani, and John Galliano at Dior. Nowadays, the mogul keeps her appearances to a minimum, opting to support designers close to her heart—mainly, Stella McCartney and Ralph Lauren.
Here, a guide to Oprah’s time on the front row.
Oprah paired a peach double-breasted suit coat with brown parachute pants to attend McCartney’s equine-themed fall 2026 presentation.
Winfrey and King stepped turned Ralph Lauren’s spring 2026 show in a girls night out.
Back in 2025, Winfrey took a seat between pals Gayle King and Whoopi Goldberg to watch Christian Siriano’s spring 2026 runway, held at, of all places, Macy’s iconic Herald Square store.
In 2019, Winfrey took in McCartney’s fall presentation next to Edward Enninful and Karlie Kloss.
For Ralph Lauren’s 50th anniversary event at New York Fashion Week in 2018, she kept it simple in a black sheath dress.
After John Galliano’s spring 2005 show for Dior, Oprah took a nearly two decade-hiatus from sitting on the front row.
She was a lady in pearl and Chanel tweed for the label’s 2005 catwalk.
Backstage, she met with the late Valentino Garavani following the designer’s 2005 presentation.
Vera Wang’s spring 2003 collection was Oprah’s first time on the front row. Naturally, she took in the show in between Anna Wintour and Gayle King.
