“I think there are different ways to be first lady, especially in New York.” So said Rama Duwaji, a 28-year-old artist and the wife of the city’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, in an interview with New York magazine in December — her first official interview since her husband burst onto the political scene last summer. Ms. Duwaji is New York City’s youngest first lady, as well as its first Gen Z and first Muslim first lady.
What exactly Ms. Duwaji meant by that statement (at least in terms of her actions) is yet to be determined. But as she took her place next to her husband for his public swearing-in ceremony on New Year’s Day, what it might mean in terms of her looks started to become a bit clearer. Even in subzero weather, amid a sea of puffer and overcoats.
She wore a funnel-necked chocolate-brown princess-line coat trimmed in — presumably faux or shearling — fur at the cuffs and skirt, with matching high-heeled brown boots and dramatic earrings. She looked a little funky, a little vintage, a little Tolstoy, entirely proper and unlike anyone else on the stage.
Rather than leaning away from her youth and singular status or shrouding them in the primary-colored costumes of convention, she illustrated them. Ms. Duwaji might be new at the game of politics, but understanding the role of symbolism, detail and consistency in shaping perception is, after all, also part of her day job as an artist. She is as deft at it as is Mr. Mamdani, with his suits and social media savvy.
She helped her husband develop his campaign logo, and she understands that every choice she makes is going to be scrutinized — and that rather than complain about it, she can use the attention to support other designers and artists who are in much the same position as she was, starting out. She posts images that inspire her for her 1.6 million Instagram followers, and happily admitted to New York magazine, “I love fashion, and I love being creative and putting things together and styling things.”
That’s indicative of a different kind of generational shift, one Ms. Duwaji has been modeling since election night last November, when she joined Mr. Mamdani onstage after his victory wearing a black denim boat-neck top by the Palestinian designer Zeid Hijazi and a black velvet skirt from the independent New York-based designer Ulla Johnson. Then, during the private swearing-in ceremony just after midnight on Jan. 1, she wore very pointy black ankle boots, a black skirt and a black, funnel-neck coat, which also matched the black turtleneck dress she had worn to cast her vote. All of it suggesting, as USA Today called it, “art world chic.”
For more on what that means, see the clothes that Ms. Duwaji wore for the New York photo shoot by Szilveszter Makó, which looked less like a typical portrait of a political wife, with its pearls and chintz, and more like a fashionable, surrealist take on playing house. She looked less like she was welcoming everyone to a dinner party, and more like she was having fun, trying something on for size.
Indeed, the shoot was literally framed, as if to underscore Ms. Duwaji’s identity as an artist as opposed to simply a political spouse, a role she admitted to New York was an adjustment, and the clothes involved (all identified as “on loan”) were highly sculptural.
But together with her mostly black wardrobe, her inaugural coat tapped into age-old associations with the downtown of the mind and the creative class, and gave shape to her husband’s promise: This is not going to be the same old Gracie Mansion anymore.
Vanessa Friedman has been the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The Times since 2014.
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