Stella McCartney is officially a knight. The British designer was made Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur at an award ceremony held at the Élysée Palace’s winter garden on Thursday. The Légion d’Honneur, created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, is France’s highest distinction and can also be given to non-French citizens for actions that benefit the country.
It was an intimate ceremony with around 50 guests. With McCartney, “friends and family” naturally means a gathering of influential figures, including her father Paul McCartney, Bianca Jagger, Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Naomi Watts, Baz Luhrmann, Anna Wintour, Delphine Arnault, Antoine Arnault, Natalia Vodianova, and Charlotte Casiraghi. McCartney’s husband, Alasdhair Willis, and two of their four children also attended, as did her siblings.
For the occasion, McCartney appeared in the second look from her fall 2026 show: a navy skirt suit with a peplum and a faux-fur trim made of recycled polyester. The faux fur at the beginning of the show was a reference to McCartney’s early days, when she interned at Christian Lacroix. “I cannot promise it will match your outfit,” France’s President Emmanuel Macron told McCartney before pinning the red-ribboned cross on the designer’s left pocket. During a 15-minute speech, he praised her contributions to fashion, sustainability, innovation, animal welfare, and France.
Macron spoke about McCartney’s graduate collectsion at Central Saint Martins, handmade in the family garage, featuring tailoring sourced from vintage markets. Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and Yasmin Le Bon walked the show, and Paul McCartney was behind the music. “It made headlines and sold out almost instantly. Not so bad for a graduate collectsion,” Macron noted.
McCartney’s connection to France and French fashion has played a key role throughout her career. After her internship with Christian Lacroix in Paris and her appointment as creative director at Chloé in 1997, succeeding Karl Lagerfeld, she founded her namesake label in 2001 and has ensured it has remained a fixture on the Paris calendar since then. Her brand developed through a 17-year partnership with Kering before entering a strategic collaboration with LVMH in 2019, and in 2025, she repurchased LVMH’s minority stake to return to full independence, while remaining as a global ambassador on sustainability to advise LVMH’s executive leadership on environmental strategy. “That thread between you and France never broke,” Macron said during his speech. “You love France and our country loves you back.”
“I came for this,” said Winfrey after the ceremony. “I might get in a couple of shows, but I came to see her get this award. It was more emotional than I thought. I’d heard about this award many years ago, when my friend Quincy Jones received it, and he was so proud of it. He would walk around, showing me the pin all the time. And I didn’t know if we were supposed to bow. But the fact that Stella was getting it and was getting it for being, in my opinion, this warrior for ecology and… an independent woman running her own company, was worth me flying all the way from Maui.” Winfrey received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the United States in 2013, but not the Légion d’Honneur yet. “I haven’t done enough for France yet. I have to figure out what I need to do for France. I need to do more shopping in France,” she said jokingly.
In 2013, McCartney received an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) medal from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, and in 2023, she was presented with a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) medal by King Charles III. How did these honors compare to today’s ceremony? “It’s the first time my dad, my sister, and my brother could see me get that kind of honor and obviously to have a private room and have a lengthy speech,” McCartney said. “The queen doesn’t talk.”
When the President of France awards the Légion d’Honneur, the recipients do not speak. “Stella had to stand there and be celebrated, and that moved me,” Luhrmann said. “She couldn’t deflect the praise with humor and had to accept it. To stand there and be reminded of her story and so many of the tremendous things she has achieved — we take it for granted now, the whole idea of sustainable fashion and that you can make amazing clothes but also be less damaging to the environment. But that aside, it’s just her journey. She comes from a great pedigree, but she has always stood alone. It’s lovely that her dad is a rock star, but I think of her as Stella.”
“The whole thing is so special,” Watts said. “What an honor. I knew it was of high-level importance, but when you get here, it’s quite emotional.” First Lady Brigitte Macron wore a custom Stella McCartney black suit with a draped black top, large belt, and high heels. “Stella wants me to be more rock ‘n’ roll,” she said. “I am always OK with that.”
