The luxury fashion label has been under fire in recent weeks over two separate ad campaigns. One ad, for its holiday campaign, featured children holding handbags shaped like teddy bears wearing leather bondage gear. The other ad, for a purse, showed a printout of a Supreme Court decision on child pornography laws.

Following days of criticism last month, Balenciaga brand ambassador Kim Kardashian said in a statement on Twitter that she was “disgusted” and “shaken” by the images and that she was “re-evaluating” her relationship with Balenciaga.

Balenciaga has since apologized for and removed the campaigns’ images, though a growing number of detractors have continued to criticize the brand.

With the conversation surrounding Balenciaga continuing, some self-styled internet sleuths have looked into any links that people and entities might have to the company, often erroneously suggesting sinister ties when a new name pops up.

In recent days, one of the new people discussed online is Ella Emhoff, the daughter of Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff. Photos of her modeling for Balenciaga have been shared on social media alongside baseless claims that President Joe Biden’s administration is keen to hide her work for the label.

Ella Emhoff’s Balenciaga Relationship

Emhoff, 23, has walked the runway for the brand, with her inaugural outing taking place in July 2021, when the brand held its first haute couture show in more than 50 years.

Emhoff, who after Biden’s inauguration signed a deal with powerhouse agency IMG Models, took to Instagram after the hot-ticket show to share a photo of herself posing in a long, black, double-breasted coat teamed with a satin stole.

In an accompanying caption, she congratulated Balenciaga’s creative director, Demna Gvasalia, “and the whole Balenciaga team” for a fashion presentation that she called “truly amazing.”

In October 2021, Ella Emhoff modeled for the brand once again. With her star on the rise, she took part in a video blog for Vogue and gave a brief explanation of her relationship with Balenciaga.

The model—whose father is a lawyer and her mother, Kerstin Emhoff, a film producer—said before getting ready for the show: “All I know is that Balenciaga does the most interesting and creative shows of the season.”

As her hair and makeup were done for the Paris show, she said: “My relationship with Balenciaga started for the couture show back in June, early July, which was super exciting because it was Demna’s first couture collection, and it was the first overall Balenciaga collection. So it was a really momentous way to start off.”

She also said about the brand, “They’re always creating new ways to see fashion and to do shows and to just perceive this world that he’s created.”

As with her previous Balenciaga show, Emhoff marked the moment on social media with another Instagram post.

She was seen posing in a black-knitted, loose-fitting roll-neck sweater with matching wide-legged trousers while toting a large handbag.

Captioning the image, in which she sported shades, the model wrote: “Thank you to the amazing team and Demna for bringing me back for another amazing show.”

Emhoff’s work and Instagram posts have since shown her posing in offerings from a range of high-end and popular labels, including Mulberry, Louis Vuitton, Simone Rocha, Calvin Klein, Miu Miu, Lacoste, Stella McCartney and Proenza Schouler.

During her interview with Vogue, she spoke about her low-maintenance approach to makeup. “My makeup look is basically no makeup,” she said. “When I was younger, I would pluck my middle-brow area, but I recently stopped and it’s amazing. I think everyone should just embrace their little unibrows.”

Speaking about her relaxed approach to shows, she said, “I’m a very big adapt-or-die type of girl because if I get overwhelmed about it, it just then stresses me out.”

Emhoff and her older brother, Cole, refer to their stepmom as “Momala.” In a New York Times interview after Biden and Harris won election in 2020, Emhoff described the relationship between her parents and her stepmother as positive.

“They have good communication between the three of them. They are really a unit, like a three-person parenting squad. It’s really cool,” she said.