The Sweet Detail About Kamala Harris' Great Nieces' Leopard Coats You Totally Missed

While history was being made at the Capitol on Wednesday and politicians' fashion choices symbolized a unified fresh start, the coats Kamala Harris' great nieces wore on Inauguration Day paid homage to the new vice president's childhood. Years ago, Harris was photographed with her younger sister Maya in an adorable leopard coat and one fashion company replicated it for her littlest super fans to wear on their great aunt's big, historic day.

On Jan. 20, Meena Harris' daughters, Amara and Leela, were spotted wearing two faux fur plush leopard coats that the NYC-based fashion brand iloveplum had custom made for the girls. As the female-founded startup shared with Romper, Meena, the vice president's niece who is also a civil rights lawyer and children's book author, "loved" the sketches iloveplum's designer sent to her and the company quickly got to work. And just days before the inauguration in Washington, D.C., iloveplum's designer stitched the coats together by hand and the results were adorable.

"Special coats, just like aunties! (made by yours truly!) congratulations madame Vice President @kamalaharris," iloveplum captioned a photo of the girls in the coats on Instagram. "thank you @meena what an honor, and what a great day to be a GIRL!"

While the coats Amara and Leela wore to watch Harris' swearing in were custom made, they'll soon be available to purchase on iloveplum's website — just look for the "Kamala."

Meena herself shared a photo of the girls rocking the coats. "Special coats to look just like Auntie’s," she wrote on Twitter.

The coats were inspired by a childhood photo of Vice President Harris as a little girl. In September 2020, in honor of National Grandparents Day, Harris shared a photo of her with her mother, the late Shyamala Gopalan, her younger sister Maya, and her grandparents.

"My grandparents were phenomenal. My grandfather fought for and was a defender of the freedom of India, while my grandmother traveled across India — bullhorn in hand — to talk to women about accessing birth control. Their passion and commitment to improving our future led me to where I am today," Harris captioned the photo.

A four months later, a small but stylish detail from that touching photo was resurfaced through her great nieces.