Knicks fans, including Spike Lee, showed up in all kinds of creative combinations of orange and blue during Thursday’s ticker-tape parade, but no one made the merchandise as much of a fashion statement as Rama Duwaji, the city’s first lady.
Making a rare public appearance with Mayor Zohran Mamdani – himself in a Josh Hart sweater under his suit jacket, with an orange polka dot tie – Duwaji chose a one-shouldered peplum top borrowed from Claire Sullivanan emerging designer from New York. It was made from recycled Knicks T-shirts in white, orange and blue, and she wore it with a full black skirt, orange pom-pom earrings and black lace-up sneakers with ankle socks. But the top, which was a sort of Les Miz-meets-DIY-meets-team spirit downtown confection, was what mattered.
In terms of clothes and content, she has game.
Not only was Duwaji’s modeling fandom for all to see, she did it while using her profile to shine a light on a largely unknown young designer, give a nod to sustainability, and underline her own fashion cred in her twenties.
This approach to public image is becoming something of a signature for the first lady, who skipped big-name shows at New York Fashion Week in favor of Diotima, the independent brand designed by Rachel Scott, and who wore a rented coat from the Fashion Library for her husband’s inauguration. It seems that she chooses her clothes for public appearances with the same consideration as she chooses the actual performances.
Sullivan, the former co-creative director of downtown label Vaquera, founded her own label, Miss Claire Sullivan, in 2021. Addison Rae is a fan and wore Sullivan during performances at Coachella in 2025 and 2026. Most recently, Rae wore a giant gray tulle skirt over a micro mini dress to the music festival. (Tulle, or rather, punk princess, is one of Sullivan’s signatures.) She was just named a finalist for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund this year.
Gabriela Karefa-Johnson, a stylist who has been advising Duwaji since the inauguration, said she had been trying to connect Duwaji and Sullivan for some time. “They just needed their moment,” she said, and the Knicks’ win provided that.
“Call it kismet,” Karefa-Johnson said.
Or call it shared fandom. A Knicks watcher himself, Sullivan made the dress in honor of the NBA Finals and posted it on the dress Instagram atop one of her signature tulle skirts before Game 5. One of her followers suggested that Timothée Chalamet could wear this during the game. That was most likely a joke, but at least Duwaji beat him to it.
Not only that, but, Karefa-Johnson said, Duwaji “styled herself,” swapping the tutu for something from her own closet and adding pom-poms — just in case anyone had any doubts about how consciously Duwaji was with her public wardrobe.
Basketball and realized dreams unite not only the city, but also designers and the political figures who wear them.
