She Got It From Her Mama

Parents can heavily influence style and inspire their children’s fashion choices

It was the end of senior year of high school, and the stress of finding a prom dress was on the rise for many graduating girls. One of them was Emma McCormick, a current third year at Northwestern. Between wrapping up school, social obligations and preparing for college, looking for a prom dress was an added burden. She became so frazzled that she thought of calling off the event, as the hours of dress shopping had led to nothing. One day, she wandered into her family storage closet and a sheer blue fabric wedged between the clothes caught her attention. She pulled out an elegant blue dress with a fitted bodice made of delicate shimmering layers that hinted at a not quite purple. The striking sheen of the dress, she decided, was perfect. 

“The thing that I loved the most was that it had like this really pretty beading that was the exact same color as the dress, and it was something that you don't see now because it was too ornate to be a dress you buy in 2017,” McCormick said.

The perfect dress that she found happened to be her mother’s from twenty years ago. She decided to try it on, finding it to be the first dress that fit her just right, and went to go show her mom. She asked her mom what she thought, and her mom responded that it looked even better than it had on herself.

Today, McCormick has noticed that a lot of what she sees people wearing is “fast fashion,” and it’s not quite made to last. This dress that she found from her mother was evidently built to make it through the test of time, and she appreciated how well this dress was made.

Today, at 20 years old, she has noticed the fads that come and go, and while she appreciates classics, particularly pieces coming from her mom, her style hasn’t always aligned with her mom’s. Although she has now developed a stronger connection to her mother’s taste, she still remains true to her differences and growth as she makes fashion decisions of her own. Tradition and bloodlines are often ingrained into the way that we unconsciously make decisions. For McCormick, she realized herself coming into her own style more after leaving home.

She laughs now about how when she lived at home, she would get worried every morning about whether her mom approved of what she wore to school, so going to a private school was a huge relief because she got to wear a uniform. 

“And then when I went to public school, I would freak out like every morning. I would try on seven outfits because like my mom’s approval meant so much to me,” McCormick said.

Around this time, McCormick would dress very simply and similarly to her mother for so many years. “It hasn't really been until I got to college where I started kind of trying to break out of what she wore and try and make it my own,” McCormick said. “And that's a transition that I'm going through constantly.”

When she has kids, she wants to give them more freedom to experiment. Growing up, she felt her fashion choices were guarded by a fear of disapproval. She recalls being accustomed to a mindset where dressing up was for other people’s opinions. She felt that what she accentuates should focus on parts of her body that other people find attractive. In 2019, McCormick believes that women are dressing not only to look good for men, but rather to feel comfortable and exude confidence. 

“And that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s flattering,” McCormick said.

McCormick mentions how her mother was taught to wear tight clothes and that being thin was a way to show off beauty. Today, McCormick is headed in a different direction.

“I’m wearing a pair of jeans that don’t highlight my butt and that go down and you don’t really know what my legs look like. But it makes me feel super confident to wear them because I feel fashionable and Parisian and cool.”

“While breaking from tradition is a part of transitioning into independent college life, the other end of the spectrum involves acceptance.”

Still, though, body image and appearance is something that she struggles with on a daily basis. It’s difficult to completely ignore that aspect of fashion and the expectation that everything looks good on a skinny body. That being said, she believes her mom has impeccable taste. She marvels at her moms unique and careful eye seen in her collection of spectacular bags. She doesn’t buy for name brands but rather for decisive stylistic choices. She has learned from her mother that being simple does not have to be boring. McCormick finds that personal style is built off of the pieces that mean a lot to you and become your staples. While McCormick admires her mom’s careful eye for quality classics, her own style gravitates towards some more contemporary twists. She has recently gotten into a brand called Min and Mon. She likes their bags and their handmade designs with little monsters and quirky designs on them. One that stood out to her was this small light pink wallet with a little winged tiger on it. Leaving the store after buying it, she felt proud to have found something different and her own. 

While breaking from tradition is a part of transitioning into independent college life, the other end of the spectrum involves acceptance. Rising senior at Northwestern Hannah Brown grew up in Florida where she was used to her mom, an elementary school teacher, dressing in carefree florals and funky patterns on a daily basis. Brown called them the “Miss Frizzle Wardrobe,” full of bright colors and expressive prints. Throughout highschool, Brown was vocal about her beliefs that her mother’s wardrobe would keep her mom from being taken seriously. 

When she would come back home from college, though, she found herself raiding her mom’s closet.  

“I inherited this really cute velvet top. It is actually from the ‘70s.” Brown said. “I'm pretty sure she wore part of it in her costume to some protesting rally, and then I wore it to the Women's March.”

She eventually took in some dresses as well. Since she has been in college, her and her mother go back and forth with their closets. 

Growing up, Brown wanted to be seen as a professional, and she didn’t see that her mom’s closet fit the conventional expectations. As Brown got older, she was able to see the way that her mother interacted with her peers in the workplace despite her traditionally “unprofessional” clothing. 

“Her costume is more of an expression of who she was and what she wore every day was very transcendental to how people viewed her, and how all the hard work she did,” Brown said.

Brown notices that as her style has developed, there have been more and more similarities between her and her mother. She has one dress that she took from her mom that she later learned was from her mother’s time as a student teacher in Edinburgh. Her mother has a photograph of herself wearing the dress at the Christmas market there in December of 1980, and Hannah later took a matching photo at that same market in 2018. In retrospect, Brown notices that her younger self’s decision to push back against her mother’s look was because she wasn’t sure how she wanted to be perceived yet. What she thought was lame as a kid is actually what she really appreciates today.

Brown has always strived to be independent when it comes to self expression, a personality trait shared with her mother. Though she thinks that clothes are physically different, Brown notices that they both like to take unique spins on generational trends. Today, Brown likes to keep up with modern trends but will also go back to her mom’s closet for a top or a fun pair of pants to pair with her more recently bought clothes. 

It wasn’t until college that she noticed parallels between their tastes. When she left home, she began to miss parts of her mom’s style.

“The things I would kind of gravitate towards when I would walk into a store would be things I could definitely see her wearing,”said Brown.

By wearing her mom’s things, she has begun to see herself as a reflection of her mother, especially as she gets older and more distant from home. Wearing these physical garments gives her a sense that she is taking the memories or experiences that the clothes have been a part of. 

Often times, tradition becomes a tool to build new creative directions in style. Both Brown and McCormick are examples of how breaking the mold may also still include some of the original material.

“I think it's a piece of someone you can wear,” Brown said. “You can have those connections with people even when they're not physically with you.”