Designer Wilglory Tanjong, founder and CEO of luxury leather label Anima Iris, says she was threatened and verbally assaulted while riding the New York City subway.
She said the attack left her “heavy, exhausted and terrified” and underscores what she calls a citywide failure to protect riders and treat people with serious mental-health needs.
“This man just like appears out of nowhere and he’s wearing like a red like Santa-ish Christmas kind of coat. He comes over to me, a huge guy, he stands over me, he’s looking down at me and he’s like I’m gonna f**king kill you. He’s like they, ‘call me death’ and he’s like speaking like really slowly which makes it like even more terrifying and all I can think about is the fact that like he has this cane in his hand like he really could honestly beat me to death; and…then he’s like, ‘you’re gonna get cancer, you’re gonna die’; he’s like how are you gonna escape me and then the men on the train completely useless,” she narrates in a now-viral video.
In the emotional Instagram post accompanied by a longer video, Tanjong urged New Yorkers to vote for mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani this November, saying the city “desperately needs everything he has planned.”
Tanjong — whose colorful, handmade bags have been widely publicized and described as “Beyoncé-approved” — detailed the August incident while on the New York Fashion Week circuit and returning from work in Senegal.
In the Instagram video, Tanjong said she feared for her life as the train doors remained closed and bystanders did not intervene.
“It really pinpoints why New York City needs a new mayor and why this city is truly failing the people that live here,” Tanjong says in the video, calling out Mayor Eric Adams by name and faulting city leaders for not balancing public safety with care for people suffering from mental illness.
She urged riders to carry pepper spray or tasers and said she would rely on family prayer and community for emotional support.
Tanjong’s account plugs into a larger, heated debate about transit safety and mental-health services in New York. She frames the attack not only as a personal trauma but as evidence of systemwide breakdowns: a lack of rapid, effective responses on trains; insufficient preventive mental-health care; and a criminal-justice and social-services approach that leaves both vulnerable people and ordinary commuters at risk.
Her comments also folded into an explicit political appeal: she urged followers to back Zohran Mamdani in November, saying his platform offers the kind of changes the city needs. Mamdani is the Democratic nominee for mayor in 2025 and has campaigned on public-safety reforms as well as transit and housing policies.
Anima Iris, which Tanjong founded and markets as handmade in Africa, has drawn attention from fashion circles and high-profile supporters. Tanjong referenced the intense workload of NYFW and international travel in her Instagram post, saying she had not expected to experience “emotional trauma” that would “wreak havoc” on her body during what should have been a career high-point.
The brand’s Instagram describes the label as “Colorful leather handbags for the vibrant and the bold. Beyoncé Approved x2.”
Public reaction to Tanjong’s video has been swift: followers and fellow designers sent messages of support and concern, while the post has reignited calls for faster police response on transit, more robust mental-health interventions, and better protections for riders — particularly women traveling alone.
Tanjong’s message also contained practical safety advice for riders and a plea for community vigilance: “Stay safe girls & carry pepper spray / tasers,” she wrote.
City officials and law-enforcement spokespeople were not quoted in Tanjong’s post; the video instead centers her first-person account and emotional response.
“Sending love & peace of mind your way. So glad you’re safe and here to share your story.🤎,” one of her followers commented under her post.
The incident highlights the real-time tension between calls for compassionate mental-health care and demands for immediate public safety — a central theme of the mayoral campaign season and one that candidates across the political spectrum are trying to address.
Polling this month suggests Zohran Mamdani is a leading figure in the race, giving new urgency to endorsements from cultural figures and entrepreneurs like Tanjong. For New Yorkers and visitors riding transit, the Tanjong episode is a reminder that personal safety remains uneven across the system.
Whether it will reshape debate or policy in the final weeks before the election remains to be seen, but for Tanjong, the event has been traumatic enough to pause normal life and seek refuge in family and prayer.
“I feel so heavy & exhausted & terrified,” she wrote. “The outpouring of love reminds me how much people care for me and that’s enough to hold me tight tonight.”
