Matt Damon and Daughter Isabella Swap Advice at 2026 CFDA Awards

Matt Damon had the best possible date for fashion's big night: his daughter.

The actor, 56, walked the red carpet at the 2026 CFDA Fashion Awards with his 20-year-old daughter, Isabella, on Monday, Nov. 2, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

And when the father-daughter duo stopped to chat with People, they had a lot of fun teasing each other about who gives the advice in their family.

"We both have trouble answering questions seriously"

Asked what advice they give one another, Damon admitted the two share a very specific habit.

"We both have trouble answering questions seriously," he joked. "And so I think we advise each other to try to answer questions more seriously."

Isabella then flipped the script on her famous dad. She said she has been "teaching" him and giving him advice "for a long time."

Damon didn't argue. "For a long time. Yeah, for a long time," he replied.

"And this is part of the natural progression," Isabella added.

Damon summed it up with one more joke: "This is where it was bound to wind up."

"A wonderful young woman"

Behind the laughs, Damon made it clear how proud he is of his daughter.

"No, she's a wonderful, wonderful young woman and I don't give her advice in the sense that I worry about her," he said. "But I'm really excited to see what she does with her life."

That's a lot to look forward to. Isabella signed with IMG Models in August, one of the fashion world's top agencies, which also represents Gigi and Bella Hadid. She is also studying at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study while she builds her modeling career, according to EntertainmentNow.

Their red carpet looks

Here is what the pair wore on the carpet.

Isabella wore a floor-length crocheted white gown with long fringed sleeves, according to EntertainmentNow, which said the dress featured spade-shaped sheer cutouts. Entertainment Weekly described it as a vintage-style sheer silver gown.

Damon kept things classic in a Ralph Lauren Purple Label double-breasted cashmere tuxedo, which he paired with a black turtleneck and black calfskin shoes, according to EntertainmentNow. Entertainment Weekly noted the white pocket square.

Isabella also shared a post from the night on her own Instagram, keeping her caption simple: "cfda."

A big night for Ralph Lauren

Damon wasn't just there as a guest. He also took the stage as a presenter, handing the American Menswear Designer of the Year award to Ralph Lauren alongside Tremaine Emory, according to the CFDA.

He wore Lauren's Purple Label line for the occasion. Lauren founded his company in 1967, starting with a line of neckties, and built it into one of the best-known names in American fashion.

Inside the event, Isabella shared that she was excited to be seated next to Anna Wintour, according to Entertainment Weekly.

The CFDA Fashion Awards, sometimes called the Oscars of fashion, are presented each year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America to honor the top talent in American fashion. The organization was founded in 1962, and the awards have been presented since the early 1980s.

Read more: Glenn Close Twins With Look-Alike Alexis Stone at NYC Premiere

Matt's girls are growing up

Damon and his wife, Luciana Barroso, have four daughters: Alexia, who is Luciana's daughter from a previous relationship, Isabella, 20, Gia, 18, and Stella, 16.

Damon met Luciana in 2003 in Miami, where she was working as a bartender while he was filming the comedy Stuck on You. The two married in New York City in December 2005, and Isabella was born the following year.

The actor has been open about watching his daughters grow up. At the London premiere of The Odyssey in July, he told Entertainment Tonight, "They're all having fun while I'm working, but I'm so happy they're here." Asked how it felt to see them all grown up, he said, "It's a lot. It's wonderful, but it's a lot."

On Halloween, the Damons stayed in. "The kids ditched us this year, so we stayed in," he told Vanity Fair, according to Entertainment Weekly.

When Isabella left for college

Damon has talked before about how much his household changed when Isabella moved out.

Back in September 2024, when Isabella was 18 and had just left for college, he admitted the transition was hard on everyone.

"We have a 26-year-old, so we've been through this once before but it's still a major adjustment for us and for her sisters," Damon said at the time, according to People.

"It's a different household with one less person there," he added. "So, it's a big adjustment."

Damon made those comments at Stella Artois' Let's Do Dinner event. The Damons had been through it before with Alexia, the oldest, but as he explained, it was still a major adjustment.

Now, about two years later, the father and daughter are side by side at one of fashion's major events, trading jokes about who advises whom.

A busy year for Damon

It has been a big year for Damon on screen. He starred as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's epic The Odyssey, which hit theaters on Friday, July 17. The star-studded film also featured Tom Holland, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson and Lupita Nyong'o.

The movie marked another collaboration between Damon and Nolan, who previously cast him in Interstellar and Oppenheimer. Earlier in 2026, he also reteamed with his longtime friend Ben Affleck for the Netflix crime thriller The Rip. Directed by Joe Carnahan, the film follows a team of Miami police officers whose trust in one another starts to crack after they find a huge stash of cash. It's the latest in a long line of projects the two friends have made together, including Air in 2023.

Damon has been a Hollywood star ever since he and Affleck won the Oscar for best original screenplay for Good Will Hunting in 1998. The two childhood friends from Cambridge, Massachusetts, wrote the script together and also starred in the film. He went on to star in hits like the Bourne franchise, which began with 2002's The Bourne Identity, along with the Ocean's Eleven films and The Martian, and he earned an Oscar nomination for best actor for The Martian.