In just the few days since Kamala Harris announced her run for president, the ‘meme-ification’ of her campaign has quickly painted her as a quirky, ‘hip’ candidate for the Oval Office—one in tune with young voters both in terms of the issues and the vibe. And the kooky, all-too-cool creativity of her stepdaughter, 25-year-old Ella Emhoff, helps prove that, well, the coconut didn’t fall too far from the tree.
Ella—the daughter of Harris’ husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff and his former wife, film producer Kerstin Emhoff—is a hustling multihyphenate, like so many of her generation: Fashion designer, model, “multidisciplinary artist” and yarn enthusiast. Though she was raised in California, she is now a graduate of the elite Parsons School of Design and affectionately known as “The First Daughter of Bushwick,” in a nod to the hipster-filled Brooklyn neighborhood she reportedly calls home.
The Gen-Z creative first burst into the public eye when she appeared at President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021 dripped out in a sharply tailored and ornately bedazzled Miu Miu coat, alongside her older brother Cole, who works for a Los Angeles production company.
The youngest Emhoff was also spotted rocking a look by the high-end preppy fashion brand Thom Browne the night before Biden’s inauguration. Michelle Obama had commissioned the same New York City designer for a dress to wear to her husband Barack’s second inauguration in 2013.
Ella signed to the fashion powerhouse IMG Models shortly after the inauguration; the agency also boasts supermodels including Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid, and Gisele Bündchen as clientele. She’s since graced the runway for fashion labels such as Balenciaga, Miu Miu, and Proenza Schouler (as well as landing on the front row at shows she’s not walking in).
Ella made her Met Gala debut in May 2021, alongside Inventing Anna star Julia Garner, in baggy trousers and a bejeweled ruby red mesh cutout top that masked the tattoo sleeves circling her arms.
(“With hair and tattoos and things like that, I think they’re all in the realm of like, ‘I don’t understand it, but I want you to be who you want to be,’” Ella said of her parents in a 2021 interview with The New York Times.)
And she was included in the 2022 list of “Bazaar Icons” curated by the fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar.
“These days, I think it’s harder to feel iconic,” she told the fashion magazine—angst and ennui are, after all, hallmarks of the 20something existence. “But I felt really iconic when I was a kid. I really had a lot of confidence, and I would do things that just felt like I’m the boss bitch of this world. I think whenever I try to feel iconic, I think back to little Ella and what would she do?”
Today, Ella she runs her own knitwear brand and crew, the Soft Hands Knitting Club. The often sold-out club meetings teach NYC residents how to create their own designs, and are frequently held at sustainable pop-up shops and women-owned businesses.
In June 2024, she signed with the Hollywood talent agency UTA, with The Hollywood Reporter noting her hopes to “do more knitwear collaborations with fashion brands.”
“Knitting and textile art in general has and always will be a therapeutic practice for me. I treat it as something to calm my anxiety,” she explained in a 2023 interview. “I feel very lucky that I’m able to mix what keeps me feeling centered and grounded as a human with my career.”
Ella was in high school when she was first introduced to Kamala. She’s said her parents and her stepmom have a healthy dynamic and operate like “a three-person parenting squad.” Ella and Cole have been affectionately calling the vice president “Momala” long before Drew Barrymore hard-launched the nickname during an effusive interview on her show this past April that soon went viral.
Ella has had a few of her own forays into politics, having stumped for her stepmom in previous campaigns. She also (briefly) sought to raise money for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in March, after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and ensuing war in Gaza sparked a humanitarian aid crisis.
She posted a sign of support for Harris’ presidential candidacy on Monday, amplifying another viral trend: The “brat” meme popularized by British pop singer Charli XCX. (“Brat” is also the title of the musician’s recently-released album.) Shortly after President Biden endorsed Kamala as the Democratic nominee over the weekend, Charli tweeted that “kamala IS brat,” a laudatory term that means someone unafraid to buck conventional trends. Ella doubled down on Charli’s characterization of her step-mom, sharing the post in an Instagram story on Monday with the caption: “@charli_xcx gets it.”
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