Ella Emhoff makes surprise runway debut at New York Fashion Week

Ella Emhoff has made her official runway debut for American label Proenza Schouler at New York Fashion Week.

Like many other brands, Proenza Schouler is presenting its Fall-Winter 2021 womenswear collection digitally this year due to ongoing health and safety concerns due to the pandemic.

Ella Emhoff in Proenza Schouler Credit: Daniel Shea/Proenza Schouler

Their campaign video sees the concrete perimeter of the Parrish Art Museum in New York turn into a makeshift runway. According to the show notes, the range aims to “comfort, inspire, and empower the modern-day woman.”

The collection blends sharp, structured tailoring with cocooning knitwear and an array of playful statement features from long fringed sleeves and soft padded slippers to leather socks under structured stilettos.

Proenza Schouler

Plans for creating a brand of her own seemed to be on the horizon, too. “For a really long time when i was younger I wanted to be a designer,” she said. “Then I took it a little more seriously, I started taking courses at Central Saint Martins over two summers…It definitely exposed me to the intensity of design school.”

Emhoff has been knitting for thirteen years and envisions her designs as unisex. “I want to see guys, girls, people, everyone wearing striped colorful pants or my dresses,” she said. “I think that’d be great.”