Earlier this month, when Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral race in New York City, there were just as many eyes on Rama Duwaji. She has noticeably captured attention across socials, and while I do think her haircut looks stunning, that’s not all the inspiration we can take from her.
From a 20-something brown girl’s lens, I don’t see her as just the first lady of New York. I see her as a passionate, talented woman of colour, like so many other beautiful girls with stories, art and opinions to share with the world. There is so much more to her than the scratch-the-surface fashion inspiration of being a “Gen Z first lady.”
Here are a few things she has put into the world that speak to me, from the lens of the illustrator and artist that she is:
Art Rooted In Politics and identity
The Syrian illustrator’s work beautifully confronts everything from mental health to misogyny to the beauty standards imposed on women of colour. She has often spoken about how her visuals emerge from the stages of her life: the people she meets, the stories she inherits, and more.I don’t think it reaches outward to “represent” communities, it kind of grows from within them. The Middle Eastern textures and emotions are inheritances she is interpreting. Her work becomes a meeting point between her own lived memory and the stories entrusted to her that are simply translated with remarkable care. And in her protest-driven pieces; the ones standing with Palestinian and Sudanese women, you can feel a certain rage and collective strength rendered in lines soft enough for anyone to understand. You don’t have to be fluent in art to feel what’s happening on the page; the intention comes through. To me, her illustrations feel like a space where memory, and anger blur into each other, with sisterhood at it’s very core.
Beyond just Personal Style
On the night Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race, I half expected a traditional “victory look”. Something along the lines of a sheath dress, a silk pantsuit, the kind of soft, polished uniform we’ve see on political spouses. But we got, Zeid Hijazi’s denim: a sleeveless, laser-etched top with tatreez-inspired detailing. It honestly felt like a breath of fresh air. I see a difference between liking clothes and really understanding fashion. It is social. It is political. In choosing a piece by Palestinian designer Zeid Hijazi on election night, she extended that space beyond canvas, into the public eye. And not to forget my personal favourite; the Bhavya Ramesh jhumkas.
Earlier this year, she illustrated a Vogue story about New York’s garment workers, the people whose hands make the clothes everyone posts online. During fashion week, when everything looks hyper-manufactured and distant from the human labour behind it, her artwork brought the focus right back to those who stitch, cut, mend, and make. So when she chooses what to wear in a moment as public as an election win, it doesn’t feel detached from that awareness.
Her.. photo dumps?
We all love a good photo dump on Instagram. But what I like about Rama Duwaji’s feed isn’t that it’s cute or curated. It’s that she actually talks about what makes her want to create. Every month, she shares these little things that sparked something in her. She’ll write things like:
“The shape of this block of cement I came across while walking around in Astoria.”
“Anna Mills’ animated typography.”
“The incredible sketches of a security guard I met at the NYPL.”
It’s small stuff that you might never notice unless someone pointed it out. But that’s what makes it feel honest and refreshing. Instead of pretending inspiration comes out of nowhere, she shows us the tiny moments behind it. She once posted an animation of a flower blooming into a very angry woman, captioned: “How it feels to enjoy spring while raging at the state of the world.” I’ve never related to anything more. It’s a feel-good reminder to me that social media can still be about what you actually care about, not just the highlight reel.
At the end of the day, I don’t just think she’d make a very cool first lady. I think she’d make an even cooler friend.