HIGH FASHION, ON LOAN: RAMA DUWAJI’S FASHION POLITICS

Having rewritten the style game, the First Lady of New York is now acing sustainability in fashion

- Navya Sharma

Power dressing has long been tied with customisation and ownership, where the higher the price tag, the more authority the look is presumed to command. But the new generation is quietly disrupting this idea, with the new Gen Z First Lady of New York, Rama Duwaji, emerging as its torchbearer.

On the first day of 2026, as Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as the city's first South Asian and Muslim Mayor, all eyes were on his wife, Syrian-American artist, Rama Duwaji. Instead of buying a closet full of expensive new clothes, she chose to borrow and rent her outfits. This move has turned the tradition of power dressing on its head.

STYLE ON RENT

The most interesting thing about Duwaji’s look was a small note in the fashion credits: “On loan.” For her first appearance at the midnight ceremony in an old subway station, she wore a vintage wool coat by Balenciaga, which she rented from the Albright Fashion Library, and finished the look with borrowed shorts from The Frankie Shop and vintage earrings. However, she briefly found herself under scrutiny for wearing Miista Shelley boots, which retail for $630 (around ₹56, 800), before it was later clarified that those, too, were borrowed.