Meet the TikTok Designer Behind Ella Emhoff’s Iconic DNC 2024 Dress

Ella Emhoff, the stepdaughter of Vice President Kamala Harris, took stage at the Democratic Convention on Thursday alongside Harris’s goddaughter Helena Hudlin and niece Meena Harris to highlight her stepmother’s passion and support, encouraging people to vote.

Emhoff’s pastel blue, off-the-shoulder, drop-waist dress, though, might have stolen the show.

While the Democratic presidential nominee wore a pantsuit by Chloé, Emhoff was able to have a hand in creating her dress with influential TikTok-er Joe Ando-Hirsh.

“Immediately, I was like, ‘This is great’,” Ando-Hirsh told Newsweek. “Being asked to make something for someone that they’re going to wear somewhere concrete and real, even though I’ve done events and I’ve done red carpets, this is just so specific and it’s crazy to think she was so comfortable inviting me into that.”

Ando-Hirsh graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2020. He said he creates content now to get other people enthusiastic about fashion. He has created outfits for stars like Dakota Johnson, Millie Bobby Brown and Rachel Zegler. He’s gone viral multiple times, especially with his catchphrase, “Can I make you a dress?”

“We make dresses for all kinds of moments for people,” Ando-Hirsh said. “This was so great because she’s had other moments in the past, but this was a really, really big moment for her. It was just flattering that she was trusting of me in that process.”

Emhoff, 25, is an artist, model and fashion designer living in Brooklyn. She went to the Parsons School of Design, where she majored in fine arts with a concentration in apparel and textiles, graduating in 2021. She regularly posts her work on social media.

She created the crochet rose embellishment that laid on her shoulder, Ando-Hirsh said.

“We wanted to tie in her background a little bit,” Ando-Hirsh said. “In a playful way, we made it a lot more elegant and toned it down in a way that wasn’t making it stand out too much, which was nice.”

Emhoff was going viral on social media for her outfits prior to the stunner she and Ando-Hirsh created. Her style is sometimes called eclectic or eccentric. On the first night of the convention, Emhoff wore a white tank top that showed off her tattoos and a camo “Harris-Walz” baseball cap. On Tuesday, she switched it up with a blue plaid suit, and on Wednesday, Emhoff wore a blazer overtop a sweater that had the United States flag sewn into it.

“I thought all of her choices were really interesting in the past,” Ando-Hirsh said. “She has a really vibrant appreciation and nice taste for.”

The two were connected through a mutual friend, Ando-Hirsh said.

“We both have been aware of each other’s work for a while,” Ando-Hirsh said.

Ando-Hirsh said Emhoff could have taken a lot of different routes for her DNC dress, especially since big-name brands are “trying to dress people for it.” Emhoff, though, wanted to go with an independent designer.

He brought her some design ideas, and they worked through them together. It took between 75 to 90 hours altogether, Ando-Hirsh said.

“It’s a good amount of work,” Ando-Hirsh said. “I worked for the week straight.”

Ando-Hirsh went through the creative process, the patterning, the draping and problem-solving. He is known for his dresses with a lot of volume and tule.

They picked out the fabrics together, as seen in a TikTok Ando-Hirsh shared. He called the choice “dusty in a good way, in a really pretty way.”

The finished dress was modern and like an “adult outfit that didn’t feel too princessy or costumy,” Ando-Hirsh said.

And he only had about two weeks from that introduction to when Emhoff needed the dress. He posted a video of him looking wiped out, ready to ship off the dress.

“In the studio I’m at, I pump out dresses in three days sometimes,” Ando-Hirsh joked. “A week is actually super feasible.”

Even still, people took to social media to share how amazed they were with Emhoff’s outfit. Commenters called it “gorgeous,” “perfect” and “outstanding.”

“My jaw dropped when I saw her dress because it’s stunning and she looks incredible !!!” TikTok user viennaskye commented on Ando-Hirsh’s post.

And there are potential plans for the two to collaborate again in the future.

“We’re thinking about some stuff. Nothing concrete yet. Obviously we’re waiting for a lot of different thing, but I’m happy to make stuff no matter what,” Ando-Hirsh said. “I feel really, really lucky.”

Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.