Rama Duwaji, the newly minted First Girl of New York, made her debut look at husband Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral election evening — and it wasn’t simply her presence that drew consideration. Her understated black ensemble, a mixture of velvet and complicated embroidery, quietly stole the highlight.
Duwaji wore an embroidered prime by Palestinian-Jordanian designer Zeid Hijazi, paired with a velvet lace skirt from Ulla Johnson. The look was elegant but layered with intent — a personal-political assertion as a lot as a method selection. Her jewelry included sculptural earrings by New York-based designer Eddie Borgo.
Decoding her outfit
An animator and illustrator by occupation, Duwaji has emerged as a Gen Z vogue icon whose wardrobe typically displays her activism. By selecting to highlight a Palestinian designer at such a major political occasion, she signalled solidarity amid ongoing world conversations round identification and resistance.
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Vogue, lengthy used as a political language, has all the time served as a strategy to reclaim historical past and make seen the unseen. From Princess Diana to Michelle Obama, First Girls have mastered the artwork of turning public appearances into refined statements — and Duwaji’s debut follows that lineage.
Palestinian girls as soon as embroidered their thobes (conventional attire) with motifs that instructed private and collective histories. (Supply: Instagram/@thetatreezcollective)
Her black costume featured Tatreez embroidery, a centuries-old Palestinian craft wealthy with coded symbolism. Greater than ornamentation, Tatreez capabilities as a document of resistance — stitching tales of survival and reminiscence into cloth. Duwaji’s selection, then, grew to become a gesture of remembrance and quiet defiance, honouring the Palestinian group’s endurance within the face of displacement and loss.
In response to a weblog put up by The Met Museum, Palestinian girls as soon as embroidered their thobes (conventional attire) with motifs that instructed private and collective histories. “Till the mid-twentieth century, Palestinian costume kinds mirrored a person or a spot — a spouse, a mom, a daughter, a household, a village, a city, a discipline, a market,” the museum notes. “The thobe marks the proprietor’s life and holds a girl’s biographical particulars by way of her selection of thread, color, and sample — a narrative instructed in stitches.”
Whereas Duwaji’s ensemble carried layers of which means, Mamdani, now New York Metropolis’s first South Asian mayor, additionally introduced symbolism to his look. He wore a darkish swimsuit complemented by a trio of silver rings — heirlooms and presents that, as he instructed The New York Occasions, replicate his lineage and love. One was handed down from his grandfather, one other gifted by Duwaji, and a 3rd, his wedding ceremony band.
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The couple’s story, fittingly trendy, started on the courting app Hinge earlier than resulting in a Metropolis Corridor wedding ceremony — and now, to the steps of historical past.
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