Who Is Ashley Avignone? All About Taylor Swift's Best Friend and Super Bowl Companion (2024)

Taylor Swift brought some of her closest pals to watch her boyfriend Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs compete in the 2024 Super Bowl, including her best friend Ashley Avignone.

The “Cruel Summer” singer was joined by Blake Lively and Ice Spice, as well as her family at the big game. Cheering next to them was Avignone, a stylist and designer who has been friends with Swift for years.

The two reportedly got close through their mutual friend, Emma Stone, when they were still teenagers and have stayed friends since. Apart from the Super Bowl, Avignone has attended events with Swift for years, including earlier games in the 2023 NFL season.

“30 years of life for you, 11 years of friendship for us,” Avignone wrote on Instagram in honor of Swift’s 30th birthday in 2019. “Thanks for being the bestest friend, listener, dance party-starter, story teller, haircut enthusiast, with the biggest, warmest, and most generous heart. Happy Birthday Tay!! Love you to pieces ❤️.”

So who is Taylor Swift’s close friend? Here’s everything to know about Ashley Avignone and her relationship with the pop star.

She went to college in Los Angeles

Avignone first found her passion for fashion when she attended the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles. She graduated in 2006, per her LinkedIn, and began working as a stylist shortly after.

“I went to school for fashion design when celebrity styling was first getting a name,” she said in a 2016 interview with School of Doodle. “I started seeing that and thought I could do that, I can pick outfits out for people, I’ve been doing it for my friends for years.”

Now, Avignone mainly lives in New York City.

She appeared on The Rachel Zoe Project

In 2010, Avignone joined season 3 of The Rachel Zoe Project, the reality TV show that followed stylist Rachel Zoe as she dressed various celebrities. Avignone replaced Taylor Jacobson as Zoe’s style assistant.

The show was eventually canceled in 2013, but it helped Avignone on her way to becoming a successful stylist herself.

She is a stylist and designer

Avignone always knew she wanted to work in fashion since she started drawing and designing her own clothes as early as 4 years old, she told the blog Neely and Chloe in 2019. However, by the time she graduated from college, she said, she was burnt out and looking to pivot into something other than design.

“Two weeks after graduation, I started assisting one of the top celebrity stylists in L.A. and it just stuck with me,” she told the blog. “After years of assisting various stylists, I ventured out on my own. As I mentioned I don’t do so much red carpet work, I now focus more on the brand side.”

In 2012, Avignone signed with The Wall Group, which she credited for helping her find her big break as a solo stylist.

“I assisted the best stylists in the game for about 6 years, and when I decided to break out on my own I was nervous,” she told the blog Simply in October 2013. “I was extremely lucky in finding representation right away. You have to believe in yourself, but it also helps when others believe in you too.”

She became friends with Swift through Emma Stone

Swift and Avignone first became close through Stone, who has been a longtime friend of both women. The three attended the premiere of Easy A, Stone’s breakout movie, in 2010 together before also accompanying the Poor Things actress to the 2011 Vanity Fair Oscars party.

Swift wrote a hidden message to her in the Red album booklet

When the booklet for Red came out in October 2012, fans saw Swift had written a hidden message, naming four of her friends. “Ashley, Dianna, Claire, Selena,” the message read, referring to Avignone, Dianna Agron, Claire Winter and Selena Gomez.

The four pals even appeared in Swift’s music video for “22,” dancing alongside her as she enjoyed her 22nd birthday celebration with cake.

She is part of Swift’s inner circle

Since the two became friends, Avignone has remained in Swift’s close inner circle, spending time with the pop star's other pals like Lively and Gigi Hadid. She joined Gomez and the Haim sisters at Swift’s Independence Day party in 2023, and in 2019, she posted snaps on Instagram with Swift’s friends — including some of the cast of Queer Eye — at her 30th birthday party.

She attended multiple football games with Swift during the 2023 season

As Swift ventured into the football world while supporting her boyfriend Kelce at games, she brought along some of her closest friends for the ride. Avignone was cheering alongside Swift and Brittany Mahomes, quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ wife, at a December 2023 game against the New England Patriots.

She also joined Swift in her suite at the Super Bowl where the two were stressing and rooting for the Chiefs as they went up against the San Francisco 49ers. During a commercial break with eight minutes left in the second quarter of the game, the jumbotron panned to Swift and Avignone while they both chugged their drinks to fans cheering them on.