Meet the TikToker Behind Ella Emhoff's Revolutionary DNC Dress

(CNN) — “It was cool,” said Joe Ando, a 28-year-old TikToker and Fashion Institute of Technology graduate, after seeing his creation live on television at the Democratic National Convention last week. “I wish I had a better word to describe it than cool.”

It was the dress of the evening — a pale blue silk off-the-shoulder bodice and a hand-rubbed tulle midi skirt. The wearer, of course, was Ella Emhoff: Vice President Kamala Harris’s daughter-in-law and a potential first daughter of the United States. “My brain always assumes that it’s not that big of a deal,” Ando told CNN via Zoom from her home in Brooklyn, New York. “She needs a dress and she’s wearing it, and people will watch this event but it’s not really about what she’s wearing. But it was so public.”

The dress was deemed “White House-worthy” by streetwear and fashion blog Highsnobiety, while Vogue wondered if it solidified Emhoff as one of “America’s next fashion ambassadors.” The 25-year-old’s gown seemed to embody a new era of power dressing, one where women no longer need to dress masculine to look and feel strong. “I wanted it to stand out, but in a way that was still very elegant and ladylike, and not obnoxious,” said Ando, who said the dress took between 70 and 90 hours to make. “We wanted it to feel like an elegant tea party… a modern princess moment.”

But Ando didn’t get to see the final result until it aired live on television because his and Emhoff’s schedules coincided for a single midnight fitting before her morning flight to Chicago. “She did the fitting with us at midnight, and then there were about four hours of alterations,” he said. “I went back to my studio, brought it to her at 7 a.m., and I didn’t really get to see if those alterations were working until she got on stage.”

Independent designer looks are occasionally a fixture on political campaign trails, for those keen enough to spot them. Eschewing traditional names like Ralph Lauren, Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta, smaller brands can help those in the spotlight communicate nuanced messages by championing emerging talent. At President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, Harris arrived in a camel Pyer Moss coat by Kerby Jean-Raymond, a young Black designer who is rewriting social narratives around race. First lady Dr. Jill Biden has regularly made a point of wearing designs by smaller New York designers like Markarian and Adam Lippes as the industry recovers from the fallout of COVID.

Not only did Emhoff, a knitwear designer herself, choose to wear an independent brand on the final day of the convention, but she also played a big role in the finished product. “It was a very close collaboration,” said Ando, who typically gets little feedback from his customers. “But with her, she was very involved.” He sent her multiple variations of skirt silhouettes and all the fabric options, no matter how small. “She wanted to see everything. She put a lot of time into it and was a big part of the design, honestly.”

Before he was designing dresses for a presidential candidate’s family member, Ando was making one-of-a-kind gowns for any celebrity he could find. Armed with a tiny microphone, a shy demeanor, and an impressive 2.9 million followers on TikTok, Ando filmed himself approaching celebrities to ask if he could make them a dress. His videos feature everyone from actors Dakota Johnson to Rachel Zegler and Keke Palmer. What follows is a handcrafted montage of his sewing process, often followed by a rewarding fitting.

While he still posts his couture blunders online, most of Ando’s designs these days come from direct commissions from movie studios and record labels. He also has plenty of clients he can’t talk about. “A lot of celebrities have a lot to worry about,” he said. “(They) have contracts with big fashion brands that often prevent them from wearing other brands because they’re going to get sued. There’s so many pieces at stake.” Not all celebrities are up to the task of appearing in one of his TikTok videos, either. “Those people, no matter how nice they are and no matter how gracious I am for hiring me to do things, they might not want to dance in front of a camera. And that’s totally reasonable.”

Most young designers get their start through traditional runway shows, and only a few dress celebrities for the occasional red carpet event. Ando, by contrast, built an impressive roster of A-list clients and millions of followers before he even launched his brand. (His namesake label will eventually launch in spring 2025.) “Yeah, we did it backwards,” he said.

While Emhoff’s princess gown made headlines online, many simply attributed the look to “that TikTok guy” — a reduction that Ando doesn’t seem to mind. “I don’t need to be Rick Owens,” he said. “I don’t even need you to know my name. I just want you to see it and I hope you enjoy it.”

“People don’t necessarily take me seriously. I’m very self-conscious about that. But that’s also the most important thing, because the fact that people don’t take me seriously allows me to go all in. If they don’t respect me seriously, I have nothing to lose.”