As Kamala Harris prepared for a big debate, her stepdaughter graced runways and front rows. Plus: purple hiking boots, the LVMH Prize and browsing for moisturizers.
In the days leading up to Tuesday’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump, as Ms. Harris was hunkering down to prepare, Ella Emhoff, her stepdaughter, was keeping busy herself at New York Fashion Week.
A model, textile artist and sometime knitwear designer (her needlepoint artwork is currently on display at a pop-up Barneys New York store in downtown Manhattan), Ms. Emhoff, 25, came into the public eye after Ms. Harris was elected vice president in 2020. She has since steadily worked for domestic and international fashion brands. But this is her first fashion week cycle as the stepchild of a candidate at the top of a major party’s ticket.
Ms. Emhoff, with her Secret Service detail, attended some dozen runway shows and events throughout fashion week in New York, including parties for J.Crew and Refinery29 and shows for Proenza Schouler, Susan Alexandra, Collina Strada and Tory Burch. (She also appeared in a social media video promoting Tory Burch.)
Ms. Emhoff wasn’t made available for interviews, and she declined to comment when approached at the Sandy Liang show on Sunday — where she wore a cerulean skirt set and had a front-row seat to observe the candy-colored mini dresses in the brand’s new collection. She arrived at the show in a black S.U.V. with tinted windows, and was ushered to her seat by two female Secret Service agents in matching navy suits.
On Monday, the day before Ms. Harris’s debate with Mr. Trump, Ms. Emhoff walked in Coach’s runway show. A Coach representative said in a statement that casting Ms. Emhoff was not political. “Ella represents our design aesthetic,” read the statement, “but her participation is not in any way an endorsement of any political candidate or position.”
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