Ella Emhoff took to the runway at Coach’s spring 2025 show at New York Fashion Week on Monday.
The stepdaughter of Vice President Kamala Harris wore a custom “I Heart NY” t-shirt under a black blazer, paired with a black miniskirt, black baseball cap, matte black ballet flats, and a chain-link-strap shoulder bag.
Emhoff, 25, is known as a multidisciplinary artist: knitter, designer, social media influencer, and, as of 2021, model. She signed with the prestigious agency IMG Models in January of that year, just days after President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Ella Emhoff walks the runway at the Coach fashion show during the September 2024 New York Fashion Week.
Paul Morigi/Getty Images
“It’s not really about shape, size or gender any more,” IMG President Ivan Bart told The New York Times then. “Ella communicates this moment in time. There’s a cheekiness and a joy she exudes.”
Bart said he’d noticed Emhoff “communicating fashion” at Biden’s swearing-in ceremony. The then-21-year-old wore a Miu Miu tartan coat with a pilgrim collar and bedazzled shoulders over a deep burgundy dress designed by Batsheva, according to the New York designer.
Left to right: Mindy Kaling, Joey King, Lola Tung and Ella Emhoff attend Tory Burch Spring/Summer 2025 during New York Fashion Week in Brooklyn, New York.
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Tory Burch
Emhoff graduated later that year from Parsons School of Design with a degree in fine arts and a focus on textiles. Since then, she has modeled for brands like Balenciaga and collections like Adidas by Stella McCartney.
Ella Emhoff is seen wearing a gray sleeveless crop top, gray skirt and light blue puff bag outside the Proenza Schouler show in New York City.
Daniel Zuchnik/Getty Images
For all her bona fides, though, getting signed to one of the biggest modeling agencies was something of a head trip, she confided to The Washington Post last year.
“All of my life, I had really low self-esteem and self-confidence, so this kind of felt like a way for me to take that back,” she said. “I have body hair, I have tattoos. Like, that’s not crazy in the scheme of things today, but it’s not what you’d consider, like, the most generic-type model.”
Ella Emhoff at New York Ready to Wear Fashion Week 2024, held at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in New York City.
Nina Westervelt/WWD via Getty Images
On the runway, she said, “I just kind of black out and go into, like, a Zen state. Basically, I’m trying not to look at Anna Wintour.”
