In Rama Duwaji’s New York, everyone is entitled to a little glamour

 

On a frigid New Year’s Day, New York’s new democratic socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani was sworn in, with his wife, Rama Duwaji, alongside him, grabbing attention for her romantic brown frock coat, trimmed at the hem and cuffs with chocolate faux fur.

For political wives, the inauguration coat is an agenda-setter – the first statement on how someone who may or may not have aspired to be a public symbol will navigate the always-tricky, often exasperating act of using clothes to elucidate or complement her husband’s administration.

In 2009, Michelle Obama wore a chartreuse coat and matching dress by the Cuban-American designer Isabel Toledo – hardly a household name like first lady go-tos Oscar de la Renta or Ralph Lauren, and a signal that Obama would direct the inevitable attention on her wardrobe to smaller-scale American designers, often people of color and small business owners. In 2017, Melania Trump chose a powder blue cashmere Ralph Lauren sheath with a 1960s feel, perhaps a gesture of unity through a bit of Kennedy-esque glamour.