Knicks fans, including Spike Lee, showed up in all sorts of creative combinations of orange and blue during the ticker-tape parade on Thursday, but no one turned the merch into quite as much of a fashion statement as Rama Duwaji, the first lady of the city.
Making a rare public appearance with Mayor Zohran Mamdani — himself in a Josh Hart jersey under his suit jacket, with a polka-dot orange tie — Duwaji chose a one-shouldered peplum top borrowed from Claire Sullivan, an emerging New York designer. It was made from upcycled Knicks T-shirts in white, orange and blue, and she wore it with a full black skirt, orange pompom earrings and black lace-ups with ankle socks. But the top, which was a sort of downtown Les Miz-meets-D.I.Y.-meets-team spirit confection, was the point.
As far as clothes and content go, she’s got game.
Not only was Duwaji modeling fandom for all to see, she was doing it while using her profile to shine a light on a mostly unknown young designer, give a nod to sustainability and underscore her own 20-something fashion cred.
This approach to public image is turning into something of a signature for the first lady, who skipped big name shows during New York Fashion Week in favor of attending Diotima, the independent brand designed by Rachel Scott, and who wore a rented coat from the Fashion Library for her husband’s inauguration. She picks her clothes for public appearances, it seems, with the same consideration she picks the actual appearances.
Sullivan, the former co-creative director of the downtown label Vaquera, founded her own label, Miss Claire Sullivan, in 2021. Addison Rae is a fan and wore Sullivan to perform at Coachella in 2025 and 2026. Most recently, Rae wore a giant gray tulle skirt over a micro-minidress to the music festival. (Tulle, or more specifically, 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 a while. “They just needed their moment,” she said, and the Knicks win provided it.
“Call it kismet,” Karefa-Johnson said.
Or call it shared fandom. A Knicks watcher herself, Sullivan made the dress in honor of the N.B.A. finals, posting it on Instagram atop one of her signature tulle skirts before Game 5. One of her followers suggested that Timothée Chalamet might wear it to the game. That was most likely a joke, but, in any case, Duwaji beat him to it.
And not only that but, Karefa-Johnson said, Duwaji “styled herself,” swapping the tutu for something from her own closet and adding those pompoms — in case anyone had any doubts about how deliberate Duwaji was being about her public wardrobe.
Basketball and realized dreams don’t just unite the city, but also designers and the political figures who wear them.
