Ashley Biden first came into the public eye with a chat about dolphins. Concerned about the very real issue of tuna bycatch, she ended up, with the help of her father Joe Biden (then a Democratic senator in Delaware), on the floor of Congress talking to Republican senators about the environmental problem. She was about eight or nine. Still, it seems, Congress listened and soon the Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act (which aims to minimise dolphin fatalities during fishing) was passed.

One of Ashley Biden’s hoodies for Livelihood. Photograph: Livelihood

Fashion might seem like a leap from tuna, but it chimes with an interest in welfare which has led her into social work as an adult. She is currently an executive director for the Delaware Centre for Justice, an organisation that rehabilitates victims of crime and former offenders. She has now turned her hand to athleisure, launching a line of six organic cotton hoodies. All proceeds go to Livelihood, an organisation that aids economic development across various low-income areas. And if there’s any worry that the products might not get the Trumpian endorsement, they are all made in the US.

Biden’s father, the much-loved, gaffe-prone former vice-president, would be proud of course – “and he is,” she says. “He spent much of his early career campaigning for financial reform and I’ve been campaigning with him since I was two.” Indeed, Joe has been very present on Ashley’s promotional trail – perhaps not surprisingly, considering that he now has more time on his hands. But might he be a little, well, bored, and would he perhaps consider a bid for the White House? “If he feels as good as he feels now …” his daughter replies. “Four years is a long way off, so it’s one day at a time. But I do think he would make a fantastic president and be exactly what this country needs.”

Ashley’s story is not a simple one of privilege, or of the need to “give back”. Her work reintegrating prisoners back into society has been hands-on (at one point she was dealing directly with 1,000 people a year) and admirable. “Returning to the economic mainstream is very hard,” she explains, decrying the “abysmal” turn out (“33%!”) at the last election. “And even if people can get work, the minimum wage is $8.25, which simply cannot sustain a person. The irony of it – that we are one of the wealthiest nations in the world, yet there is such a gap in economic equality … The justice system in this country is not just.”

She talks shop, works hard, won’t discuss Ivanka Trump (the first daughter whose fashion label has been especially divisive). Bur Biden is also a “regular girl” who likes clothes, likes fashion and had noticed a sizeable demand for a top you could wear to the gym, for drinks or for a walk. Athleisure, I remind her, soldiers on and these hoodies, in Hygge-friendly shades of stone and green, come with gunmetal zippers, “which is like a piece of jewellery”, and pockets big enough for an iPhone. “Yeah. I did my own market research,” she laughs.

Gilt x Livelihood organic cotton hoodieare available at Gilt.com/Livelihood