At a PinkPantheress concert last week in Brooklyn, a camera panned across the crowd, projecting the faces of cheering fans on a giant screen behind the singer. Eventually the camera came to rest on a pair of hands that were joined at the wrist and held open to reveal a get-out-the-vote message written in black marker on both palms.
The hands — and the words — belonged to Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York. In the flash of the camera light, his silver rings glinted in the dark.
Mr. Mamdani’s three silver rings — two on his right hand, one on his left — are a conspicuous presence on the campaign trail, where male politicians typically shy away from adornment. The rings are among the most distinct facets of Mr. Mamdani’s personal style, which often features a dark suit and tie.
“This is just who I am,” Mr. Mamdani said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “It’s who I’ve been before I decided to run for mayor, and who I’ll be after I’m the mayor of New York City.”
Mr. Mamdani, a state assemblyman representing parts of Queens, started wearing jewelry after his grandfather died in 2013, as a way to remain connected to him.
The ring he wears on his right index finger is an heirloom from his paternal grandfather, who acquired it during a trip to Syria in 2007.
“It is something that was blessed and something that I continue to wear,” he said, adding, “It was my way of keeping him in my life.”
The other ring on his right hand is a silver ring that his wife, the artist Rama Duwaji, bought during a trip to Tunisia. On the ring finger of his opposite hand, he wears a simple wedding band. (Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Duwaji were married this year in a ceremony at the city clerk’s office in Lower Manhattan.)
In New York City, a mayor’s hands can be part of the story that he tells constituents about himself. Fiorello H. La Guardia had thick, burly hands that helped cement his image of being of and for the working class. Edward I. Koch’s hands were often fisted, his thumbs protruding from the top — to signal approval, something the city desperately needed during his time as mayor. Robert F. Wagner Jr.’s hands were memorably photographed clasped and raised above his head in victory — something that was not promised after he broke with Tammany Hall.
Mr. Mamdani is not the only person in the race with a signature accessory. Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee for mayor and founder of the Guardian Angels, a volunteer subway patrol group, normally sports a sateen bomber jacket and a red beret. The beret is so married to Mr. Sliwa’s image that when he takes it off to appear more statesmanlike, an indentation remains. For his part, Andrew M. Cuomo, Mr. Mamdani’s chief rival, typically sticks to tailored suits and large watches.
Mr. Mamdani used to wear a fourth ring, on the pinkie finger of his left hand, that his wife designed for him.
“That, to me, was a representation of that love, and carrying it with me every single day, and her having designed it for my finger,” Mr. Mamdani said.
Recently, it began to cut into his finger and he started to take it off more often. He hoped to have it resized, but before he could, he lost it down a drain.
“We now mourn that ring,” Mr. Mamdani said with a laugh.
When the day is over, Mr. Mamdani does not store his rings in a jewelry box.
“I just take them all off every night when I go to bed, and I put them right back on every morning,” he said.
Sandra E. Garcia is a Times reporter covering style and culture.
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