We think there are numerous benefits involved with being mayor of New York City. For Eric Adams, it was suspected unauthorised luxury excursions to Turkey. Zohran Mamdani, the current top dog, looks to have a large collection of ill coats. This came in useful over the weekend, when the northeast was slammed by a major snowstorm—the first weather emergency Mamdani has faced since taking office on New Year’s Day (in a Kartik Research tie, incidentally).
In the days leading up to the storm, Mamdani was spotted at news briefings for various New York City agencies wearing prominently embroidered apparel. During a Saturday press conference at the Spring Street Salt Shed, he wore a green techy “Department of Sanitation” jacket and proclaimed the city’s preparations for the impending snow, wind, and extremely cold weather.
Then there was the “Emergency Management” jacket he wore when he told New York City public-school students that a Monday snow day meant they’d have to attend virtual classes—a harsh decree he softened by allowing them to pelt him with snowballs if they saw him on the street. And on Sunday, during another press conference amid the snowfall, Mamdani recommended New Yorkers to stay home (and read the Heated Rivalry novel from their local library) while dressed in an exceedingly GQ garment: a monogrammed Carhartt jacket.
Arena Embroidery, based in Bushwick, Brooklyn, customized the jacket, which features a curlicued midcentury “The City of New York” insignia on the chest and “Mayor” in bold across the left arm. (The typeface and logo were created by Noah Neary, senior advisor to the First Lady of New York City, Rama Duwaji.) Rocco Arena, who established his company in 2018 after working at Nike manufacturing one-off clothes for special clientele, tells GQ that he met Mamdani’s office through a common connection and learnt about a chance to create an embroidered jacket. What about the caveat? He just had one week.
Arena, who is presently in California to finalize setting up an office of his company in Los Angeles, said it was a “team effort” for his New York crew to complete the embroidered job on time. The mayor’s office had complete creative freedom over the jacket, including the request to include a phrase on the inside of the corduroy collar: “No problem is too huge. “No task is too small,” a play on a statement from his victory speech and an attitude he has expressed in other public contexts, such as his appearance on The View. Later that day, Mamdani donned the jacket outside while shoveling snow in several neighborhoods.
And if you’re wondering why the mayor’s administration would go to such lengths to get eye-catching new gear for Hizzoner to wear during a January blizzard, it’s because extreme weather has been linked to high-profile political events before. Snowstorms have historically been an aptitude test for New York City mayors, and this one tested Mamdani’s ability to cope with large challenges. John Lindsay’s political career ended after the 1969 blizzard, which killed 42 people and injured hundreds more; in 2014, Bill de Blasio declined to give a snow day, forcing parents and children to travel over perilous wintery terrain to school. Mamdani, on the other hand, received widespread plaudits for how well he managed the storm. He also owned the narrative. To round out his snowstorm-related press obligations, Mamdani made a surprise visit on Monday’s broadcast of The Tonight Show, where the mayor completed the loop on host Jimmy Fallon’s months-long joke about it being cold outside.
And Mamdani isn’t the only Democratic politician to wear tough workwear in times of crisis—or when they want to connect with their constituents—in recent years: Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman wore Carhartt hoodies, and Minnesota governor Tim Walz mixed Carhartt with camouflage during his vice-presidential campaign.
The mayor wore the brand’s “Full Swing Steel” canvas jacket in black, which he purchased from Dave’s New York, a workwear and uniform shop in Manhattan’s Chelsea area that has been operating since 1963. Its water-resistant shell and storm flap make it an ideal choice of gear for a snowfall, however we’re surprised the mayor didn’t use his jacket’s detachable hood, because, as many New Yorkers pointed out to him this weekend, “Where was his hat?”
In terms of future jacket embroidery, Arena—who has also adorned garments for A-list stars such as Drake and Billie Eilish—hopes that the mayor’s office will not lose his business card anytime soon.
“I definitely have a meeting or phone call ahead of me to discuss new, exciting stuff,” Arena tells me. “We would love to be, you know, his guy.”
This article was originally published in GQ’s The Must Read, a newsletter in which GQ editors select one must-read story each everyday. Sign up here to receive it in your email. Savannah Sobrevilla provided reporting.
