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    Zohran Mamdani’s Winning Style

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    In all the post-mortems that have appeared since Zohran Mamdani upset the political apple cart to potentially, if unofficially, clinch the Democratic nomination for New York mayor, one particular aspect of his appeal has been largely overlooked: not how Mr. Mamdani conducted his campaign but how he looked while conducting it.Put another way: Mr. Mamdani didn’t just record himself for his various social media platforms running into the freezing Atlantic on New Year’s Day to publicize his pledge to freeze rents; he recorded himself running into the freezing ocean not in a wet suit or a bathing suit, but in a suit and tie.Sure, it was funnier that way. But it was also tactical. For a 33-year-old progressive and democratic socialist trying to be the city’s first Muslim mayor, whose opponents are painting him as a “100 percent Communist lunatic” and a “radical leftie” (that from President Trump on Truth Social), not to mention trying to other him because of his racial and religious identity, dressing like an establishment guy offers a counterargument of its own.Leaving a Passover rally in April.Andres Kudacki for The New York TimesOn election night.Shuran Huang for The New York TimesAs Mr. Mamdani walks the tightrope between embodying change, generational and otherwise, and reassuring those who may be leery of such change, his clothes have played a not insignificant role. His mouth may be saying one thing, but very often his outfit is saying another.This is a man, after all, who appeared in Vogue India as long ago as 2020, when he won his seat in the State Assembly, and whose mother is the film director Mira Nair. He has long understood that costume is one way to convey character.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Melania Trump Suits Up for the Military Parade

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      The first lady’s outfit was fully in line with the controlled and contained public image she had been crafting since the end of her husband’s first term.It wasn’t exactly dress whites, but it was dressy and white, with thin blue pinstripes and shiny silver buttons. And while it may not have had epaulets, it did have shoulder pads.As Melania Trump took her place next to her husband in the presidential viewing stand to watch the Army’s 250th anniversary parade, her suit suggested that if he was the commander in chief, she was his general. As he has his own uniform of Pavlovian patriotism (navy suit, white shirt and red tie), she has hers. Regalia takes all forms.As such, the suit was something of a riposte to those who would still see her as a reluctant political spouse: Whether or not she spends all her time in the White House, she’s there, and appropriately costumed for key scenes like this one.And it was fully in line with the almost militantly controlled and contained public image Mrs. Trump had been crafting since the end of her husband’s first term, when she wore an army green Alexander McQueen skirt suit to give her speech at the Republican National Convention in 2020. She even wore a trench coat, a garment originally made for British soldiers in World War I, to the White House Easter Egg Roll in April.Politics is a battlefield, she has always seemed to be saying, and you have to armor yourself accordingly. Even if only in a buttoned-up skirt suit, with stilettos on your feet instead of in your pockets.If this particular skirt suit — a double-breasted cotton twill blazer with a matching high-waisted pencil skirt — was a little more navy (or country club navy) than army, it still had an awfully regimental vibe.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sly Stone Had a Whole New Look

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      In 1974, decades before Ye, then known as Kanye West, packed Madison Square Garden for a twin album-fashion spectacular, Sly Stone, the cosmically groovy singer-songwriter who died on June 9, offered his own extravaganza of dance, funk and flash on New York’s biggest stage.The occasion was a sold-out Sly & the Family Stone concert in front of more than 20,000 fans, and the centerpiece was Mr. Stone’s wedding to Kathy Silva — a gold and black display of fabulosity. The bride and groom (and the whole wedding party, band included) wore coordinated Halston looks. Mr. Stone wore a gleaming cape and jumpsuit, the waist cinched with a big gold belt buckle, so he looked like a cross between a disco superhero and a sci-fi lord come lightly down to earth. Behind them, a dozen models in black dresses carried gold palm fronds.It was, The New Yorker declared, “the biggest event this year.”Sly Stone and Kathy Silva during their wedding in June 1974.Oscar Abolafia/TPLP, via Getty ImagesMr. Stone in a signature crochet cap in Los Angeles, circa 1970 …Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images… and befringed at Woodstock, 1970.Warner Bros/Kobal, via ShutterstockMr. Stone in London, 1973.Michael Putland/Getty ImagesIt was also seven years after Mr. Stone arrived on the music scene promising “A Whole New Thing,” and boy, had he delivered. He introduced not just a whole new sound but a whole new kind of style to the stage. Like his music, it crossed genre, race, gender and audience, offering unity in a psychedelic stew of fringe, rhinestones and lamé that was sometimes celebratory and sometimes chaotic, often outrageous, but almost always impossible to forget — whether it was on “The Ed Sullivan Show” or the Woodstock stage.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Tony Awards Unforgettable Looks: Cole Escola, Nicole Scherzinger, and More

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      On Sunday night, some of the biggest names in theater gathered at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan to celebrate the Tony Awards.From Hollywood royalty like George Clooney to Broadway legends like Audra McDonald — neither of whom won in their categories — there was no shortage of stars at this year’s awards.There was also no shortage of fashion. On the red carpet, there were sartorial references to past Tony winners and nods to current roles, all conveyed through cloth, beadwork and color.And, of course, it wouldn’t be live theater without at least a few costume changes.The event’s host, Cynthia Erivo, slipped in and out of at least a half-dozen outfits before the curtain closed as she belted out a parody version of a “Dreamgirls” song in a purple sequined number. That was another homage, lest you forget, as Ms. Erivo won a Tony in 2016 for her star turn in “The Color Purple.” Showbiz — it isn’t always subtle!Of all the stars who graced the seats of Radio City on Sunday, here are a dozen whose attire stood out among the ensemble cast.Cole Escola: Most ’90s Nostalgia!Evan Agostini/Invision, via Associated PressWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jane Larkworthy, 62, a Top Magazine Writer and Editor on Beauty, Dies

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      She made her mark in publications like Glamour, W, Jane and Mademoiselle. In 2007, she was on the receiving end of media attention, testifying in a sensational trial.Jane Larkworthy, a veteran beauty writer and top-ranking editor during “The Devil Wears Prada” era of influential print fashion magazines, died on Wednesday at her home in New Marlborough, Mass. She was 62.Her sister, Kate Larkworthy, said the cause was breast cancer.Ms. Larkworthy’s work began appearing in magazines in the mid-1980s; her first job was at Glamour, followed by a stint at Mademoiselle. By 1997, she was the beauty director of Jane, a popular magazine aimed at young women. (It was named after another journalist Jane — Jane Pratt.)Later moving on to W magazine, Ms. Larkworthy became its executive beauty director. She was active online, too, writing for websites like Air Mail and New York magazine’s The Cut, where for a time she was beauty editor at large.Ms. Larkworthy in 2015, when she was executive beauty director of W magazine.Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Saks Fifth AvenueMs. Larkworthy looked the part of an editor at a glossy fashion magazine, the kind satirized in the 2006 movie “The Devil Wears Prada,” with her straight long hair in a refined shade of celebrity-colorist-applied straw and, more often than not, polished outfits that might have well brought Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy to mind.But while her fields of expertise might seem superficial, her views on fillers and face creams were infused with industry knowledge and a large dose of well-grounded skepticism.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Meaning of a Trump-Inspired Style

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      The Times’s chief fashion critic unravels the Trump-inspired style that has spread quickly across Washington.President Trump has changed a lot about Washington over the past four months, including how it looks.I’m not talking about the city’s architecture, although he has made clear his disdain for the brutalism of many federal buildings (an aesthetic that I’m personally quite fond of).I’m talking about the city’s style.Trump and his inner circle of aides and family members cannonballed into Washington’s ocean of understated suits and blouses with a bold and strikingly consistent approach to clothing, cosmetics and, well, personal enhancements. (Nothing points up its consistency so well as the occasional departure, like the T-shirts and blazers Elon Musk has worn to the Oval Office, including today.) If style is a way to send a message, and politics is largely a matter of communication, the maturation of a “MAGA style” in Trump’s second term is a development worth understanding.So I reached out to our reigning expert: Vanessa Friedman, The Times’s chief fashion critic, who has covered political image-making for years (and who, as it happens, writes an excellent newsletter). We discussed the language of Trumpist fashion, the way it has evolved since Trump’s first term and what it means for men as well as for women.OK, let’s start with some visual aids. Who, to you, really embodies the aesthetic of the people around President Trump?Why don’t we take a look?Clockwise from top left: Maansi Srivastava for The New York Times, Sarah Blesener for The New York Times, Doug Mills/The New York Times, Haiyun Jiang/The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Farewell to the New Look. Or Ghosts of Dior Past

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      Assessing Maria Grazia Chiuri’s likely final collection — and how she changed Dior.The fog drifted in over the manicured lawns of the Villa Albani Torlonia in Rome just as the Dior cruise show began, lending what was already a somewhat surreal moment an extra-otherworldly air.All the female guests wore white, even Natalie Portman and Rosamund Pike; the men, black. As they entered the verdant inner courtyard of the private manse, with its collection of Greco-Roman antiquities, they walked past dancers posed like moving statuary. When the first models appeared, to the strains of a live orchestra, light rain began to fall.Along with the mist, it made the clothes, almost all ivory and often so light as to be practically transparent, seem ghostly (even for someone like me, watching through the computer screen): an ethereal stew of references in lace, silk and velvet — with the occasional tailcoat — to different periods in history and imagination.In a video call before the show, the designer, Maria Grazia Chiuri, said she had been after what she called “beautiful confusion,” the phrase Ennio Flaiano originally suggested as a title for Fellini’s “8½.” It was an apt description, not just of the collection itself, which seemed made for phantoms slipping from one era into the next, but also of the question mark surrounding her own situation.Ms. Chiuri had nominally brought Dior back to her home city to celebrate the romantic spirits that formed her (and helped shape fashion), from La Cinecittà to the director Pier Paolo Pasolini and Mimì Pecci-Blunt, an early 20th-century patroness of the arts who built a private theater Ms. Chuiri recently restored. But she also brought herself and her audience full circle, back to the place she began.Maria Grazia Chiuri called her show a “beautiful confusion.’Guglielmo Mangiapane/ReutersWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Tommy Dorr, a Veteran Vintage Dealer, Brings His Shop Mothfood to Manhattan

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      Tommy Dorr, the owner of Mothfood, has been in the business for more than two decades. But it wasn’t until this month that he brought the shop to his most discerning shoppers: New Yorkers.“The New York eye is the best,” said Tommy Dorr, the owner of Mothfood, a vintage clothing business that this month opened a showroom in Lower Manhattan. “I mean, people here have the best taste in clothes.”Mr. Dorr, 43, is originally from Michigan, where he got his start as a vintage seller working at a bowling alley turned flea market in the late 1990s. Since then, he’s started a few of his own ventures, including Lost and Found, a shop he has kept open just outside Detroit since 2003.Mothfood is probably the project for which New Yorkers know him best, largely because of the Instagram account Mr. Dorr used to establish the brand more than a decade ago under the same name.“I don’t even remember why I picked it, but it’s just a great tongue-in-cheek kind of name,” said Mr. Dorr, who considers it a good litmus test for customers. Are you in on the joke, or do you find the notion of moth-eaten clothing kind of, well, gross?He likes garments that are well worn — sun-bleached jackets, paint-splattered denim and hole-y T-shirts. Historically, they have not been everyone’s thing. But over the years, Mr. Dorr has found a devoted following that counts celebrities, stylists, designers and everyday vintage hunters among its ranks. They are accustomed to ordering from his e-shop or visiting him in Los Angeles, where he opened the first Mothfood showroom in 2015.“I’ve been wanting him to come to New York,” said Emily Adams Bode Aujla, a New York designer and friend of Mr. Dorr’s who has been buying vintage pieces from him both for personal use and for her brand, Bode, for longer than either of them can remember. “I think that I always have thought his business would do so well here, but I’m selfish,” she added with a laugh.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How to Store Your Winter Clothes Safely

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      Fashion archivists, designers and home organizers share their best advice for keeping moths, stains and other wardrobe nuisances at bay.Packing away wool knits, silky tops and other cold-weather pieces is an annual rite of spring for many New Yorkers, who often lack the luxury of ample closet space. While making room for the season’s linen shirts and breezy dresses is a necessity, long storage of natural fibers does come with risks, including stains, odors and those dreaded moth holes. Here, a handful of wardrobe experts share their advice for avoiding those pitfalls and ensuring that, come September, you’re all set for sweater weather.Start with a clean closetDust can attract moths and even stain silk so “vacuum your closet frequently,” says Julie Ann Clauss, 45, the founder of the Wardrobe, a clothing storage service used by collectors and museums. “If you have a wood floor or baseboards, get in all those little cracks and seams because moths hide their eggs there.” For similar reasons, Clauss advises against carpeting in closets. If you’re moving house, Elizabeth Giardina, 45, the creative director of the fashion label Another Tomorrow, suggests having an exterminator treat the closets before you unpack. “You don’t really know what you’re coming into,” she says.Illustration By Ilya Milstein. Animation By Jonathan EdenWash and dry clothing thoroughly“We dribble a little ice cream on a sweater and that becomes food for the moths,” says Brian Maloney, 61, a co-founder of the New York City-based home organizing company S.O.S., adding that pheromones in sweat — even when undetectable to our noses — can attract bugs. After laundering clothing, make sure it’s completely dry before packing it away. Moisture can stain or even distort the shape of a garment and also draws moths. The stylist Alexandra Mitchell, 31, a partner in the online boutique Arbitrage, which specializes in archival designer vintage, recommends dry cleaning newly purchased vintage pieces to ensure that no small creatures are hitching a ride.Fold and checkWool and silk are especially prone to stretching out. So instead of hanging clothes, fold them loosely, layering in acid-free tissue paper “wherever the garment touches itself” to avoid deep creases, says Mitchell. And even if pieces are stored in pristine conditions, don’t forget about them indefinitely. “About once a month, take the items down, refold them and restack them,” says the Arbitrage founder Ian Campbell, 30, pointing out that regular repositioning is one of the most effective defenses against damage.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More