We have so much to thank our mothers for. In addition to birthing us, feeding us, and bathing us, they've also been our most influential style icons. As a small token of our affection, we're counting down to Mother's Day (this Sunday, heads up!) by celebrating our moms' style, swagger and grace.
What did your mom like to wear? This is not a picture of my mom getting married, just her as the prettiest high school bridesmaid at her brother's wedding. I like to think, on the day of the wedding, her own mother had to wrestle her out of her normal bohemian rags to wear a tart, proper dress like this. She had long, straight, dark hair just like Cher and I'm pretty sure she preferred outfits seen on the back of Rolling Stones records to formal '60s wedding wear. My mom is cool. By the '80s, when I was a kid, she wore her hair curly and wild. She loved flannel shirts paired with Levi's or long flowy skirts, and she always wore big straw hats at the beach. She'd dress up for parties in Kimonos and beads that she'd sometimes make herself from clay. Mom loves classy Campari drinks and generous spritzes of, to this day, my favorite smell Joy by Jean Patou, which my grandfather would smuggle back for her from European vacations. We both wear a piece of yellow Citrine crystal around our neck.
What music did she listen to? Groovy shit! My mom loves the Kinks. Calls Ray Davies by his first name, just "Ray." She's sentimental about music, too, just like me. She always tells a story about going to see George Harrison in the '70s when The Beatles had kind of fallen out of favor, and she couldn't get any of her friends to go with her. She went by herself, and remembers him coming out on stage, looking sad until he finished singing "Here Comes The Sun" and she and the entire audience beamed and applauded until George finally let out a smile. I think cheering up a Beatle is one her happiest memories. She loves Aretha, said her ears went crazy the second she first heard "Respect" on the radio, and prefers Martha Reeves over Diana Ross, resentful that Ross got ahead with her pretty face when Reeves had the voice.
What would she say? Does she have a fave phrase or saying? Something anecdote-ey. She calls me honey and sweetie, which I love, and is always worried that I'm not getting enough sleep.
