• Patterned Blouse: 3.1 Phillip Lim, via Nordstrom’s, gift from Mom
• Black Tank: Gap Maternity, via Gap.com
• Black Ponte Trousers: Ann Taylor Loft Maternity
• Nude Cork Wedges: Jones New York, via DSW
• Necklace: Gifted

Remember my shopping trip with Mom a few weeks ago? I finally picked up the last of the pieces I’d had altered last week, including some very special items I’ve been really excited about wearing. They included this 3.1 Phillip Lim blouse, which, other than my wedding dress and the first time I’m able to button my pants again, may mark the high point of my anticipatory joy in wearing an article of clothing. I’m not entirely sure why: the detailing, the gorgeous drape, the construction quality, the fact that I’ve never owned anything even in this stratosphere before, let alone something that was purchased new and altered to fit me…but I was, in fact, so excited that I got all dolled up…to go to the library.

While I’ve always admired women with a well-edited closet of designer duds (Sarah is a great example), I’ve never considered myself in that category. Over the years, I’ve acquired a decent number of quasi-vintage designer items from my mother’s hand-me-down pile, but they aren’t things I would have had the means or inclination to buy myself. And while it’s possible that I should be embarrassed or circumspect about, in my state of being closer to thirty than twenty, accepting so much of my mother’s sartorial generosity, I’m just not feeling it today: I’m just humbled by and appreciative of her thoughtfulness. There is, of course, a fraught and complicated language implicit in this fabric-woven dialogue about labor and value and self-respect and shouldn’ts and shoulds, but allow me to take this opportunity, for once, not to be quite so over examined and just say, thanks, Mom. Even though we may not always use the same language or attach the same values to every signifier, I can’t thank you enough for all the things you’ve shared with me in all these years. So, happy mother’s day, to the best-dressed woman I know, a great lawyer, a feminist fashion role model and a constant reminder that, well, a serious job is no excuse.

Have a great weekend and a happy mother’s day to all the moms, grandmothers and moms-to-be out there!