Duwaji, who did not respond to a media request, has worked for such companies as Vogue, The New Yorker, the Tate Modern, The Washington Post, the BBC, Apple, Spotify and Vice. She has also taught workshops on both illustration, animation and ceramics.<\/p>\n
Last month, when her husband was squaring off against his opponents Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa in the final 2025\u00a0mayoral debate, Duwaji was hosting a workshop in ceramics at Huda, a new\u00a0Levantine bistro\u00a0in East Williamsburg. The restaurant planned to host a \u201cZohran for New York City Watch Party\u201d on Nov. 4 \u201cuntil Z wins.\u201d A media request for comment from Huda\u2019s owner Gehad\u00a0Hadidi, (who also owns La Bonne Soupe in Manhattan) was acknowledged, but unreturned Tuesday. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Duwaji\u2019s most recent work includes imagery for Vogue that was titled, \u201c\u2018The Cutter, the Sewer, and the Grommet Queen\u2019 \u2013 Meet 9 of New York City\u2019s Garment Workers.\u201d She shared a glimpse of that in an Instagram post to her 182,000 followers. In her own words, Duwaji illustrated a piece \u201con highlighting\u00a0the people behind the craftsmanship of Fashion Week and how labor visibility is so important when so much of everything else feels so extractive and non-human!\u201d<\/p>\n
She also noted how Ryan Phyn\u2019s quote \u201cCraft elevates notion of care\u201d is \u201cbasically\u201d her mantra for art. Duwaji also thanked American Vogue\u2019s head of editorial content Chloe Malle, fashion writer Hannah Jackson and art director Hazel Zavala in her post. Malle said via email Tuesday, \u201cWe are all fans of Rama\u2019s work and loved collaborating with her on the garment workers story. We look forward to working with her again in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
More from WWD<\/p>\n
Asked if Duwaji could land a Vogue cover, a Cond\u00e9 Nast spokesperson did not respond immediately Wednesday night, prior to the race having been called.<\/p>\n
Spokespeople for The New Yorker and Spotify declined to comment about her work as an artist. A staffer at the Tate Modern also declined to comment about her work, in keeping with the museum\u2019s policy of only commenting on artists\u2019 careers, which are represented in the Tate\u2019s collection.<\/p>\n
Duwaji graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in Communication Arts in 2019. She later earned a MFA in\u00a0Illustration as Visual Essay\u00a0from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2024. Duwaji\u2019s digital \u201cBook Yallah, Eat!,\u00a02023,\u201d\u00a0was exhibited at \u201cThe Book Show\u201d at SVA. Faculty at both\u00a0schools were unavailable to discuss her work as an artist this week.<\/p>\n
She and Mamdani, who reportedly met on Hinge, celebrated their engagement in Dubai with a rooftop party and Nikkiah celebration last year. This year they made their marriage official with a trip to the City Clerk\u2019s office in lower Manhattan for a civil ceremony. Le Marche des Fleurs, the events company and wedding planning business, described the couple\u2019s subsequent Dubai event in an Instagram post as having \u201ccascading florals, soft ivory roses, lisianthus and fresh ruscus [that] danced in harmony with the golden sunset. Each petal was placed with intention, from the grand floral arch framing the breathtaking Dubai skyline, to the lush garden-like tablescapes that spilled over with romance and detail. This wasn\u2019t just decor; it was design with heart. A quiet kind of luxury.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company did not respond to a media request.<\/p>\n
With a pixie cut, Duwaji\u2019s personal style leans toward the understated, including her pairing of long shorts with an oversize buckle, midriff-skimming one-shoulder top and cowboy boots. On Election Day, she went to cast her ballot with Mamdani at the Frank Sinatra School of Arts, wearing a short-sleeve semi-sheer black top with a belted black skirt and black knee-length boots.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Instagram, Duwaji periodically lists things that make her want to create art<\/a>. In October, Lily Fine\u2019s paintings, the engraved facade of a West 29th Street building,\u00a0Hawa Al-Najjar\u2019s \u201ceye for beauty in everyday objects,\u201d Rania Kadafour\u2019s \u201cbeautiful piece \u2018Mosquito,’\u201d and Lenz Geert\u2019s style were among the things that intrigued her.<\/p>\n Democratic Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani (R) and his wife, Rama Duwaji (L), votes at The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts on November 04, 2025 in the Queens borough of New York City. Voters in NYC are voting for who will be replacing Mayor Eric Adams between the front runner New York Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani and New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa. More than 735,000 people have voted early, according to the Board of Elections, more than four times as many as in the 2021 contest. This election also has other city offices on the ballot, as well as six proposals.<\/p>\n At the time of a 2019 interview with Shado Magazine, Duwaji was dividing her time between Dubai and Washington, D.C. While Duwaji\u00a0works mostly in digital now, she also creates ceramics, including handmade illustrated plates, according to her site.<\/p>\n In the interview, Duwaji spoke of wanting to \u201copen up conversations about mental health\u201d through her art. As for what she wanted viewers to take from her work at that point in her life, Duwaji said, \u201cThe goal is to dismantle beauty conventions, but also it\u2019s more about the individuals who interact with my work, and their slow but steady growth as they see more unapologetic women of color in media. I think as more artists\/designers\/filmmakers aim to represent a diverse range of people in their work we\u2019ll hopefully normalize unconventional beauty standards for children and women alike.\u201d<\/p>\n Although New York City\u2019s first lady is not an elected role, it is one that inevitably comes with scrutiny. However, that position has evolved, with a break from the historic norm,\u00a0\u201cwhere women were present and although they had advanced from being the ceremonial to take on initiatives, those initiatives were mostly philanthropic, children and education,\u201d according to\u00a0University at Albany SUNY lecturer Lauren Kozakiewicz.<\/p>\n Speaking of Duwaji, she said, \u201cFor someone to have their own activist identity is really a nice 21st-century development. We haven\u2019t really had many those.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Rudy Giuliani\u2019s second wife Donna Hanover was a television\u00a0broadcaster while acting as the city\u2019s first lady from 1994 to 2001, there were also \u201cmarital difficulties and a lot of family\u00a0drama that could be difficult for a mayor. The couple divorced in 2002,\u00a0Kozakiewicz said. While former New York City mayor John Lindsay\u2019s \u201cmore polished\u201d\u00a0wife Mary was more visible than her predecessors, due to her stylishness, \u201cnow there is an opportunity for any [mayoral] first lady to be substantively involved, if she wants to alongside her spouse or to continue her initiative. I know Rama is an artist. For her, that is like a political statement. So, she doesn\u2019t need to stop that as someone would have in the 20th century,\u201d\u00a0Kozakiewicz said.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Note: This article was updated on Nov. 4 at 10:30 pm EST.<\/p>\n Best of WWD<\/p>\n Sign up for WWD’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that the Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani has been elected as New York City\u2019s mayor, his wife Rama…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,7242,93,61,60,73042,6107,73041,20922],"class_list":["post-122935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-chloe-malle","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-media-request","tag-new-york-city","tag-rama-duwaji","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Democratic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/9fda9345165f316da62c3079d41ad2a1.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n