Throughout his campaign, Zohran Mamdani, who was elected mayor of New York on Tuesday night, dressed his age.
Yes, he wore a suit every day, not the norm for most of the city’s 34-year-olds. (Millennial New Yorkers in quarter-zips probably outnumber those in suits.) But the suit he wore was the quintessential entry-level suit for a 30-something striving to be taken seriously.
“It’s his first interview suit, which is really what this was for him,” said Michael Hainey, an author and editor. For years, Mr. Hainey worked at GQ and Esquire, men’s fashion publications that directed men of Mr. Mamdani’s age to suits with this distilled, Italian-inflected image.
“It’s a millennial’s version of ‘OK, this is what I need to look good to get the job,’” Mr. Hainey said.
Mr. Mamdani’s jacket is soft at the shoulder, with modest lapels no wider than a Democratic Socialist’s membership card; the pants are tapered, reflecting the slender cut that blew into fashion in the aughts and has idled since. Mr. Mamdani also tends to wear lace-up leather boots, a further giveaway that his taste in clothes has likely been informed by the pages of GQ circa 2018.
Delivering his acceptance speech in Brooklyn just after 11 last night, Mr. Mamdani was dressed, as he had been for months, in a dark blue suit, white shirt, and blue tie. It got him to that stage, why swerve now?
The suits are, critically, inexpensive. In an interview with the men’s fashion podcast Throwing Fits, Mr. Mamdani said that his midnight blue suit, one of “about four or five” that he owns, was from Suitsupply, an economical Dutch brand with five locations in New York.
“I wear it a little too much, honestly — it’s the workhorse,” said Mr. Mamdani, who added that he tries to “flip up” the look by changing his reedy ties, a giveaway that Mr. Mamdani matured in the shadow of Don Draper.
Beyond his progressive policies and Instagram dexterity, it’s the slender suit that delineates Mr. Mamdani as a member of an age group that has barely broken into politics in America and has until now not crossed the threshold of City Hall.
“Suitsupply suits are more for, like, young guys,” said Sam Wazin, a tailor on 57th Street in Manhattan, describing the look as modern and not too tight.
“I’m not going to say this is a bad suit,” he said. “It’s a nice suit.”
On the Throwing Fits podcast, Mr. Mamdani mentioned that he used to wear a gray cashmere suit, purchased for $100 “at a fully illegal street fair on 30th Avenue.” He has also been photographed in a J. Crew “English wool tweed” Ludlow suit, its brown flecks and open patch pockets emitting a professorial look.
The candidate occasionally shed his jacket when meeting potential voters, revealing the Suitsupply tag inside. Credit…Adam Gray/Bloomberg
But it’s the Suitsupply one that the mayor-elect seemed to wear most through the campaign’s final stages. A photo from June 23 shows Mr. Mamdani shedding his sports coat against the New York swelter to reveal a white “Suitsupply” label inside.
Similar suits retail for around $600 at Suitsupply, which manufactures its suits overseas in countries including China. It’s a price point that made the brand a perennial recommendation for a young man in need of a workaday suit. Suitsupply is the recommendation that populates on Reddit when searching “Best suits under $1,000.”
“I think about my brother who’s a professor, and if he wasn’t related to me, he’s probably going to feel really like he’s getting the coolest thing around by getting a J. Crew or Suitsupply suit,” said Jake Mueser, a tailor in Manhattan, specializing in suits pricier than the ones worn by Mr. Mamdani.
For men of his generation, suits are seen as a means to an end, not a passion. The choice lacks the sartorial flourish shown by past mayors, including Michael R. Bloomberg, who purchased his suits from Martin Greenfield, a custom tailor in Brooklyn, or Eric Adams, who once wore 19 different ties over the course of 30 days.
To Mr. Mueser, the mayor-elect’s commodified suits struck the right tone for a candidate running on a platform of affordability.
“It would be too much if he were wearing something that was super-stylish,” he said.
Could he have gotten away with a statement accessory like the signature on-again, off-again red beret worn by the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa? Likely not. Mr. Mamdani similarly didn’t follow Andrew Cuomo in shedding his tie. For good reason: If Mr. Cuomo, at 67, suffered to appear more relatable to voters, it was Mr. Mamdani’s burden to appear up to the task. (On election morning, though, Mr. Mamdani did go tieless when he, joined by his wife, Rama Duwaji, voted in Astoria, Queens.)
When his nascent campaign appeared to be a long shot, Mr. Mamdani was more flexible in his style, wearing a zip-up work jacket from the New York streetwear label Only, traditional kurtas, and a favored sweater in mustard yellow. As he rose in the polls, Mr. Mamdani embraced a softly preppy dress code that seems to channel John Lindsay, the WASPy mayor who led New York in a slim tie throughout the late ’60s and early ’70s.
“You’ve got to dress to show everyone over 40 that you’re serious,” Mr. Hainey said. Based on Tuesday’s results, that strategy worked.
Now that he has been elected, though, observers wonder if Mr. Mamdani can continue to wear a suit manufactured abroad.
“He should support some locals,” Mr. Wazin offered.
Mr. Mueser agreed, suggesting Mr. Ned, a custom tailor in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, and Franco Ercole of Brooklyn as options — though those, of course, would be pricier than his current choice.
“If you’re the mayor of New York, really, you should buy stuff that’s made in the five boroughs.”
