- - The Inauguration Style of New York City’s New First Lady

Brooke BobbJanuary 1, 2026 at 11:21 PM

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The Inauguration Style of New York City’s New First Lady ANGELA WEISS

At the stroke of midnight on the first day of the new year, Zohran Mamdani officially became the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of New York City. Joined by a small group of close family and campaign members in the City Hall subway station, Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, who is also one of the city’s youngest mayors to ever be elected, was sworn into office by State Attorney General Letitia James, joined by his wife, Rama Duwaji, an artist and illustrator whose chic style has quickly become a point of focus of Mamdani’s run and his win–a signifier of a “out with the old, in with the new” mentality. Mamdani, dressed in a suit and printed tie, used his grandfather’s Quran for the ceremony, held proudly by Duwaji who was dressed in a tailored black coat, culotte-style shorts, and a pair of boots from cool shoe label Miista, similar styles of which have been worn by the likes of other women in her generation like Charli XCX and Kendall Jenner. Her earrings were chandelier style and gold.

Pool

Pool

To greet the public after the ceremony, Duwaji changed into a chocolate brown, A-line coat with a funnel neck and faux fur trim. She swapped her gold earrings for a pair that were silver, sculpted into the shape of a thick tusk. Both of the First Lady’s looks were ones you might see someone in downtown New York wearing for a dinner with creative friends at a Manhattan hotspot, or to an independent gallery opening in Tribeca. Maybe she’s meeting a date at a natural wine bar in Brooklyn. To analyze Duwaji’s fashion is to say something about how a large chunk of urban-dwelling, current generation (she is Gen-Z) New Yorkers like to dress. They favor a mostly-black palette, crop their tops, buy a lot of vintage, and wear, like the Miistas, sharp little boots made for kicking through the political bullshit of our time. Duwaji is dressing like herself, she has been throughout the campaign and the election, but she is also smart and keenly aware that, no matter how staid a lot of political fashion cues may be, the cues still exist, and, especially in the age of social media, they matter.

When Mamdani won the election, Duwaji, as a sign of support, chose to wear a laser-cut denim top by the independent Palestinian designer Zeid Hijazi, and she has since posed for an editorial in New York Magazine's The Cut, wearing several independent and local New York City brands including Diotima (she attended the fashion show back in September). She dresses radically different than first ladies who have come before her, which feels fitting for the incoming administration that has promised to bring revolutionary change to New York City. Gone are the strict dress codes and the boring dresses and pantsuits of yore. Her fashion, and her approach to dressing, is entirely owned by her and that is what is inspiring. At the start of the 250th anniversary of this country in 2026, when political hope has been hard to come by over the last few years, a little inspiration can go a long, long way, even in manners of style.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”