Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen made a rare joint appearance at this year’s Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards.
The 39-year-old twins dressed alike, both wearing long black coats as they accepted the award for American Accessory Designer of the Year. It was the latest honor they’ve received for The Row, the quiet luxury label they launched in 2006.
Mary-Kate gave a speech with Ashley by her side, thanking their “amazing customers” who “truly give us the opportunity to do what we love — from the bottom of our hearts, thank you.”
She also thanked their “friends and family. Without your support, we would not be here today. Thank you for giving us the love and kindness that allows us to show up to work each day.”
The sisters smiled at each other before walking offstage. The fashion-forward crowd clapped with approval.
“OUR GIRLSSSS 🖤🖤 It’s not often that we are blessed by a public appearance from Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, but if it’s going to happen anywhere, it’s at the @cfda awards,” The Cut gushed via Instagram, sharing footage of Mary-Kate speaking.
The Olsens make headlines whenever they step out together. In September, they attended W magazine and Bloomingdale’s New York Fashion Week event at the swank Eleven Madison Park in Manhattan. Mary-Kate wore a gray blouse over black trousers, while Ashley sported a pair of jeans with an oversized black coat. The minimalists accessorized with colorful scarves that chicly nodded to their mid-Aughts boho phase.
When they were little girls, Mary-Kate and Ashley shared the role of Michelle Tanner on the hit sitcom Full House, then starred together in a series of movies, including their final film, 2004’s New York Minute. They eventually pivoted to fashion, full-time, and retreated from the spotlight.
“We were raised to be discreet people,” Mary-Kate told i-D magazine in 2021. “I think we’re very much perfectionists. We’re hard workers and we’ve always been hard workers.”
She explained, “I think the reason we do fashion is to constantly try to fix our imperfections. And you have next season to do that. But it’s also our job to find every imperfection in there to make sure that we’re constantly pushing ourselves and training our eyes and making sure everyone is served. Just evolving and learning.”
Ashley, for her part, said that when it comes to designing The Row, season after season, “Our instincts are kind of the same. But I think what’s great is that we have each other to lean on.”
In a July 2024 cover story, Us Weekly spoke with multiple sources for insight into the siblings’ professional and private lives.
“Being in the spotlight as little kids really seems to have impacted how Mary-Kate and Ashley live their adult lives,” one friend of the duo told Us, while a former nightlife promoter noted: “For being child stars, they have come out of [all] this pretty well. It could’ve been so much worse.”
A source told Us at the time that Mary-Kate and Ashley are “very low-key and kinda boring nowadays. They’ve given up smoking and stopped going out for a while. Ashley also had a baby, so her priorities are different; nobody sees them as much as they used to.”
As another insider put it: “They’re homebodies who would rather go over line sheets for The Row than be out on the town. And they’re extremely cautious of who they let in and what they divulge in public.”
