For Mamdani and Cuomo, It Was Tie vs. Tie in the New York Mayoral Debate

“Curtis Sliwa looks very mayoral tonight.” Such was part of the headline that Mr. Sliwa, the Republican candidate for New York City mayor, chose for himself when asked, in the opening question of the general election debate on Thursday night, to imagine what his banner accomplishment might be after his first year.

Admittedly, the answer didn’t exactly respond to the question. But whether or not you agreed with him, it was an overt acknowledgment of just how much the look of electoral candidates matters when it comes to how voters decide — and, as a result, how much candidates themselves pay attention to what they wear when it comes to major public moments. Which explains the ties worn by Mr. Sliwa’s opponents, Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani (it did less to explain the somewhat bland light blue tie worn by Mr. Sliwa himself, which faded into the evening’s background, though perhaps that was the reason he decided to forgo his signature red beret onstage).

After all, in a world where ties of any kind are increasingly out of fashion (at least for men), the choice of that particular accessory is more symbolic than ever.

On the one side was Mr. Cuomo, now running as an independent and famously the candidate of the New York establishment. He chose a precisely tailored blue-gray suit with a royal purple tie done in a chunky Windsor knot and set off by a spread-collar shirt: the uniform of the boardroom and the C-suite.

It was the kind of tie — and knot — that traditionally suggests power, decisiveness, wealth and achievement. The kind of tie worn by moguls and empire-builders and much of the Trump administration. The kind of tie that says to those moguls and empire-builders: I see you and, also, I can go toe-to-toe with the rest of these tie-wearers in D.C.

On the other side: Mr. Mamdani, wearing one of the three ties he likes to rotate for big public appearances, a narrow black style with lighter diagonal stripes, tied in a small and not particularly centered knot. It was the same tie he wore during a town hall with Bernie Sanders in September and in a portrait for this newspaper (the other two ties are one red style — the tie he wore for the primary debate and on Stephen Colbert’s show — and one polka-dotted). With it, a black suit with less structured shoulders.

That telegraphed: I do care about what I wear, but just enough, and I am on a budget — like all the voters out there struggling with theirs. It walked the fine line between convention and insurgency that Mr. Mamdani has navigated so effectively throughout his campaign, in part through presentation.

That was of a piece, in other words, with the silver rings Mr. Mamdani always wears and the string bracelet peeking out from under the cuff of his classic white shirt, and they provided yet another contrast with the large watch Mr. Cuomo wore on his right wrist (he was known to favor a $15,000 Breguet Marine 5817 that his father gave him for his news conferences during the pandemic).

In both cases, the jewelry was impossible to miss as Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Cuomo gesticulated dramatically to emphasize their talking points. And their very different viewpoints.

This was the whole point. Sure, the ties, the watch and the rings are just accessories. Sure, it’s what a mayor says, and does, that should matter when it comes to the voting booth. But on whatever screen people were watching the debate, whether they tuned in to the full two hours or simply for the sound bites, it was in part those small things that made the big choice between the candidates immediately, subliminally, clear. By design.