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Not just the financial, but the personal and emotional costs, too.
you’re able to use many epithets to describeElla Emhoff.
She’s the stepdaughter of Vice PresidentKamala Harrisand come November,potentially the first daughter to POTUS.
She’s a fashion model, with Balenciaga and Miu Miu on her runway resume.
And the internet has crowned the 25-year-old a certified It girl.
My frontal lobe is forming, so I’m doing my own thing now.
‘“but she’s earnest about how meaningful it is to pursue her passion for fiber arts.
“It feels like I’m setting up for a more true-to-myself path.
It’s very liberating.”
Emhoff with a colorful selection of her knitwear art.
She launched her knitwear collective Soft Hands in 2021 and has stayed busy ever since.
“A big part of my ability and inspiration to make knitwear is through community,” she says.
A lot of people coming to the [knit] clubs want that sense of place.”
Emhoff instructing a rapt audience at a June 2024 Soft Hands Knit Club event.
“I can’t stop doing and making things.
My poor dog is always biting my ankles, like, ‘Sit down, hey.
But I can’t help itit’s my brain.
I’m like a rabbit,” she says.
“All I have to say is: get pumped.”
People were interested in them, so I started my business by selling those striped pants.
[Modeling] was not my plan.
I sort of fell into it.
I didnt want to get loans for my business because I didn’t know if I wasinit enough.
So, I kept modeling because it was a good stream to keep pushing through with the brand.
Emhoff at her ‘Ella Emhoff Likes to Knit Pop-Up’ during NYFW in February 2023.
I am a baseline highly anxious and sensitive person.
But then I sell them, and they become a part of someone else’s story.
Having your likeness attached to your work also takes its toll.
[Modeling] is not for the faint of heart.
It’s just so intenseit makesyouthe way you make money.
It’s hard on the self, and I couldn’t handle it.
[Modeling] was not a world that I could comfortably work in.
I developed tendonitis in my wrist because I was knitting so much.
A classic visual is me at my knitting machine wearing two wrist braces.
It brings more baby steps.
And my wrists need the baby steps.
She was so lovely and asked me a lot about knitting.
She was like, Oh, my mom knits!
Katie Holmes was not on my bingo card of people to send me yarn.
At the beginning of Soft Hands, I had a lot of meetings with brand designers.
They told me there are two parts to having a brand.
There’s creating the look, the product, and the brand ethosits identity, story, and character.
[Those conversations] made me restructure what my brand is.
Emhoff sitting in front of two of her knit “paintings.”
I never thought that I wanted to do knitwear professionallyit was something I just wanted to do for myself.
The day I released my first collection online was a little dramatic and tear-filled.
Now, it’s out there.
I’m never going to see it again.
I don’t know where it’s going or if my knitwear will gain momentum.’
I just felt really sad.
That was when I was going to throw in the towel.
But I didn’t.
When I did my Ella Emhoff Likes to Knit presentation at Spring Studios last year.
That moment was really special to me.
My workwhether it’s the knitwear, gallery work, or the knitting clubis inherently very fun.
It brings out positive emotions, and it was so cool to see people react to that.
That’s when I knew that I don’t like themaking a lot of clothingaspect of knitting.
I love theseeing people be happy about things I makeaspect.
That is so much more gratifying and fulfilling to me than selling a thousand units.
Out with the moody basics, in with spring pastels.
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\201cHave we made it?
From the outside, perhaps.
