Ella Emhoff, the stepdaughter of Vice President Kamala Harris, spoke onstage at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday evening, alongside Meena Harris, Ms. Harris’s niece, and Helena Hudlin, whose mother introduced Ms. Emhoff’s father, Doug Emhoff, to Ms. Harris over a decade ago.
Ms. Emhoff and her family have been fixtures at this week’s events. Her brother, Cole Emhoff, introduced their father before his speech on Tuesday evening. Their mother, the film producer Kerstin Emhoff, has also been in attendance. (The couple divorced in 2009; Ms. Harris and Mr. Emhoff married in 2014.) In his speech, Mr. Emhoff proudly described his “big, beautiful blended family.”
Ms. Emhoff discussed her father’s speech on Instagram earlier in the week, writing “if you saw me cry on tv NO YOU DIDNT.” She continued, “Just kidding I was crying like a little baby.”
In the post, she included a photo of herself kissing her purse for the evening: a black leather bag with a fake chocolate chip cookie affixed to the front from the designer Puppets and Puppets that she paired with a plaid suit from Thom Browne.
Ms. Emhoff, a textile artist and knitwear designer, has become known for her style since she first grabbed national attention during the inauguration of President Biden in 2021 sporting an embellished plaid Miu Miu coat on the steps of the Capitol.
On the first night of the convention, Ms. Emhoff wore cream trousers and a drapey top from Helmut Lang topped with a camouflage hat with “Harris Walz” emblazoned on it in neon orange letters. The sold-out hat has become a popular piece of campaign merchandise in recent weeks. (She also posted photos from that evening, including a shot of Tim Walz’s children putting up bunny ear fingers behind their unknowing dad’s head during an interview with NBC’s Jacob Soboroff.)
Shortly after Mr. Biden’s inauguration, she signed a contract with IMG Models, one of the world’s most prestigious modeling agencies, and has since walked runways for designers including Proenza Schouler, Prabal Gurung, Balenciaga and, fittingly, Miu Miu.
A 2021 graduate Parsons School of Design, Ms. Emhoff’s senior thesis was a collection of candy colored, whimsical knitted and crocheted garments. More recently, she founded Soft Hands Knit Club, a pop-up where she teaches people the craft.
Earlier this summer, Ms. Emhoff responded to past criticism of her stepmother from Senator JD Vance of Ohio, who is former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate in the election. In a years-old interview on Fox News, Mr. Vance claimed the country was being run by “childless cat ladies,” like Ms. Harris, who had no “direct stake” in the future of the nation. The interview began recirculating after Mr. Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Ms. Harris.
“How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I,” Ms. Emhoff posted in an Instagram story at the end of July.
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