Kate Mara spent September on red carpets, and she ended the month in the front row. On September 24, 2026, she attended the Max Mara show during Milan Fashion Week, which means a woman named Mara turned up in Max Mara. I refuse to believe nobody in that building enjoyed it.
The Look: A Graphic Max Mara Mini Set
The outfit is a tan-and-black Max Mara jacket and matching mini skirt, cut from a small geometric check that repeats tightly all over. The jacket has a high collar, long sleeves and little black toggles down the front. The trick sits at the waist: a wide black belt knotted into a big, stiff bow that spills across one hip and breaks up the busy pattern with one large solid shape.
Everything else stays black and simple. Pointed black pumps, a structured black top-handle bag and dark square sunglasses, which stayed on in the front row, plus hair pulled straight back so nothing competes with the collar. It’s a short, compact silhouette with one loud detail, and from across a runway it reads instantly.
The End of a Big Festival Run
Milan was the last stop on a month that started in Venice. On September 3 she and her sister Rooney premiered Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard at the Venice Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Lion and drew a six-and-a-half-minute ovation. The sisters play Jean and Joan Holbrooke, twins in a story loosely based on the Chaplin twins of 1980s Britain, and it’s the first time the two of them have shared the screen. Kate wore custom Armani Privé for that premiere.
The film went on to Telluride and Toronto, where the sisters posed together at PEOPLE’s TIFF portrait studio, and then to San Sebastián, where Orlando Bloom’s comments about a love scene he shot with the two of them drew a backlash covered by the Daily Beast and Newsweek. What it still doesn’t have is a release date, so for now the red carpets are the only place to see it being talked about.
Where You Know Her From
For most people she’s still Zoe Barnes, the Washington reporter in House of Cards who traded stories with Frank Underwood and earned her an Emmy nomination in 2014. The role came with some famous scenes, starting with the season one bedroom scene. Her first nude scenes that were entirely her own came later, in My Days of Mercy, the 2017 death-row love story she produced with Elliot Page. We wrote up her My Days of Mercy love scenes separately.
This year has also brought The Dutchman in January and Imperfect Women on Apple TV in March. Every scene we cover, ranked, is on our Kate Mara hub.
Kate Mara at the Max Mara Show: Photos
FAQ
What did Kate Mara wear to the Max Mara show in Milan?
A tan-and-black geometric Max Mara jacket with a matching mini skirt, an oversized black bow belt, black pointed pumps, a black top-handle bag and dark square sunglasses.
When is Bucking Fastard coming out?
There’s no release date yet. So far it has only played festivals: Venice, Telluride, Toronto and San Sebastián.