New year, new mayor.
Zoran Mamdani’s inauguration took place Thursday afternoon at New York City Hall, with guests including Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Attorney General Letitia James, and former mayors Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams braving subzero temperatures for the outdoor event.
Artist Rama Dowaj, Mamdani’s wife and the city’s new first lady, dressed the role in a high-collared brown coat with fur trimmings on the cuffs and hem, and tall lace-up boots with sturdy block heels.
Sculptural silver earrings, subtle makeup, and maroon nail polish completed the first lady’s look.
It complemented the Dhwaj attire during Mamdani’s swearing-in during the first minutes of the new year. Standing alongside her husband in an abandoned subway station near City Hall, the Syrian-American creative wore a similar funnel-neck, button-front black coat, a matching knee-length skirt, some bold gold jewelry, and what appeared to be Mr. boots laced in the back.
Duwaj, 28, is not only New York’s first Gen Z first lady, but also the city’s first Muslim first lady. And during Mamdani’s campaign, she chose to eschew established fashion brands in favor of smaller, independent brands that communicate her values and align with her husband’s democratic socialist platform.
For example, at Mamdani’s election night victory party at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater in November, Dowaj wore a laser-cut denim top by Palestinian designer Zaid Hijazi, paired with a lace velvet skirt by Manhattanite Ulla Johnson and silver spike earrings by New York jeweler Eddie Borgo.
The dress she wore to last year’s courthouse wedding – a vintage ivory lace slip paired with battered black riding boots and $122 earrings by Indian designer Bhavya Ramesh – also defied conventional wisdom for the future first lady.
Perhaps in an effort to keep the public’s attention firmly on politics and away from her fashion choices, Dhwaj exclusively wore muted colors and simple silhouettes during the Mandani campaign. That strategy extended to her first (and so far only) major interview, a cover story for a series of subduedly posed illustrators from Marc Jacobs, Jacquemus, Diotima, Ashlyn, and Peter Doe (all of whom, as noted in the credits, were loaned out for the shoot).
Now that she’s officially the city’s first lady and has made the jump from Astoria to the Upper East Side, how will Dowaj’s wardrobe evolve? One thing’s for sure: You won’t be seeing her wearing a plain designer pantsuit any time soon.
