For her first ever Vogue photo shoot, Ella Emhoff offered her thoughts on the hairstyle that took over the quarantine era: the mullet! The 22-year-old designer, who has risen to fame as Kamala Harris‘s fashion-forward stepdaughter, gave herself a mullet while living in Brooklyn earlier in 2021 but was given a “mullet shape up” for her Vogue shoot (courtesy of hairstylist Masami Hosono). “I feel like in the past, the mullet was deemed unattractive and kind of odd, and I’m really drawn to that almost ugly-chic look,” Ella told the magazine, noting how the mullet has finally been embraced in the mainstream (as hundreds of DIY TikTok haircut videos prove).
Well, Ella’s mullet definitely appeared more “mullet-y” as she had her signature curls snipped for the photo shoot. The daughter of the Second Gentleman of the U.S., Kamala’s husband Douglas Emhoff, opted for a whimsical preppy look for this on-camera makeover: a fuzzy ribbed yellow cardigan from Celine by Hedi Slimane, along with a blue and white-striped dress shirt featuring a ribbon-adorned ruffled collar from the same designer collection. Her wide rectangle frame glasses were from Gucci.
Before: Ella Emhoff is pictured here wearing her hair in a longer, nearly shoulder-length style in Nov. 2020. [Instagram/@ellaemhoff]
After signing with the world-renown IMG Models agency in January of 2021, Ella went on to debut her iconic mullet on the runway for Proenza Schouler amid New York Fashion Week in February. It was also Ella’s first time walking on a fashion runway! However, her calling is more behind-the-scenes as a fashion designer: Ella studied textile design and specialized in knitwear at The New School’s Parsons School of Design, where she graduated from in May.
