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Ella Emhoff
American fashion designer (born 1999) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Ella Rose Emhoff (born May 29, 1999)[1] is an American artist and fashion designer. As the daughter of former U.S. Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and stepdaughter of former Vice President Kamala Harris, she was a member of the Second Family of the United States from 2021 to 2025.
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Early life and education
Emhoff was born to Douglas Emhoff, an entertainment lawyer,[2] and Kerstin Emhoff (née Mackin), a film producer.[3] She was named after the jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald.[4] Although her father is Jewish, Judaism is "not something she grew up with".[5][6] Her parents divorced in 2008, when she was 9 years old.[2][7][8]
In August 2014, when she was 15, her father married Kamala Harris, a lawyer then serving as Attorney General of California.[7][9] Emhoff and her brother coined the term "Momala" for their stepmother.[4][10] Emhoff, whose family members belong to the Democratic Party, was raised around politics.[11][12] She and her family, as supporters of same-sex marriage in California, were active in fighting against the 2008 California Proposition 8.[11][12] In 2016, when she was 17, her stepmother was elected to the United States Senate, representing California.[13]
In 2017, Emhoff graduated from Wildwood School, where she was a member of the swimming and basketball teams.[14][4] She was a student at the Parsons School of Design in New York City, where she majored in fine arts with a concentrated focus in apparel and textiles and graduated in 2021.[14][10]
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Career
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In 2014, Emhoff made a cameo appearance in the music video for Bo Burnham's song "Repeat Stuff".[14]
Emhoff designs jackets, hats, coats, and knitted shorts, which she sells from her Instagram account and her website.[11][12][15] She also sells ceramics, paintings, and drawings from her website.[16][17]
In January 2021, Emhoff signed with IMG Models Worldwide, an international modeling agency based in New York City.[10][18][19] She has gained attention from the BBC and the New York Times for having tattoos and not shaving her armpit hair.[3][20] The agency announced her contract on Twitter.[21] Earlier, she was featured in an editorial for the independent fashion magazine Buffalo Zine.[10][12][22] Viola, her modeling agent, signed her to his agency in September 2019.
Emhoff is a member of The 3% Movement, an organization focused on increasing the number of women creative directors in the United States.[23]
In 2021, she founded Soft Hands, a company focused on exploring "opportunities in fashion, design, creative consulting, and hosting events."[24] Her mother taught her how to knit at age six.[25] In 2023, she debuted "Ella Emhoff Likes to Knit," a pop-up presentation at New York Fashion Week. In 2024, she exhibited knit paintings at Gotham, a gallery in New York City.[26] On August 29, 2024, Emhoff announced the temporary suspension of her Soft Hands Knitting Club due to security concerns related to her stepmother's presidential campaign. In a video posted to Instagram, Emhoff explained that she needed to pause the club's activities to protect herself and other members.[27][28]
In 2025 she endorsed Zohran Mamdani in the 2025 New York City mayoral election.[29]
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Public image
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Emhoff lives in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and has been called "The First Daughter of Bushwick".[3][11][21]
She is a supporter of LGBT rights, particularly as an advocate for the rights of transgender people.[12] In 2020, she announced she would support the organization For the Gworls, a black, transgender-led collective that raises money to help black transgender people pay for rent, gender-affirming surgery, travel, and medical care.[12][17][30]
Emhoff spoke in the broadcast of the 2020 Democratic National Convention in August 2020.[3][31] On January 20, 2021, Emhoff attended the 59th U.S. Presidential Inauguration in Washington, D.C., where her stepmother was sworn in as the 49th Vice President of the United States[14][21][5][12]
During the Gaza war, Emhoff encouraged her 318,000 Instagram followers to donate to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund.[32] However, after accusations surfaced that some UNRWA staff participated in the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, she removed the link.[33][34]
Emhoff, along with Helena Hudlin and Meena Harris, Kamala Harris's goddaughter and niece respectively, spoke onstage during the 2024 Democratic National Convention.[35]
Fashion
Emhoff received international media attention at the inauguration due to her outfits, including a dress she co-designed with Batsheva Hay and a jewel-encrusted Miu Miu coat.[3][10][36] Vogue wrote that Emhoff's inauguration outfit "perfectly married her signature Brooklyn quirk with the solemnity of the occasion" and that Emhoff "wouldn't be hewing to any outdated notions of what a White House-adjacent young woman should dress like."[3][37] After the inauguration, Emhoff's Instagram following increased from 50,000 followers to over 300,000 in less than a week.[3][10][38] Fashion retailer Lyst reported that, after footage of Emhoff went viral on Twitter and TikTok,[39][40] Miu Miu saw a 455% increase in internet searches six hours after the inauguration.[41] She also received attention for the skirt, tie, and Thom Browne coat she wore to the national COVID-19 memorial in Washington, D.C., the night before the inauguration.[10][42]
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References
External links
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