Being a mother is a full-time job. Just ask the one who raised you. Between school runs, football practice and holding down a nine-to-five, the modern-day mum has a lot on her plate, especially when toiling against the hetero-patriarchal superstructure that has defined the nuclear family since time immemorial. As such, she’s developed something of a uniform for the role. With car keys and iPhone balanced in one hand, packed lunches in the other, she sports a frazzled but resolutely chic getup that carries from ‘The Big Shop’ to parents’ evening. But, like much of the unpaid labour women carry out daily, her influence on the catwalk has only recently been given its dues.
And no, we’re not talking about last year’s micro-trend, when fash-packers hailed pregnancy as the ultimate runway flex, citing Sinead O’Dywer and Di Petsa’s shows alongside Rihanna’s maternity fits. After all, unless you’re a TERF, being a mum isn’t exclusive to those with a womb. It’s a way of being, where cosiness, scattergun styling and glasses permanently rested on the tip of her nose reign supreme. In fact, the likes of Phoebe Philo, Marni and more have all been leaning into the look.
Of course, SS24 isn’t the first time we’ve seen mum-core (it’s a thing) on the catwalk. Miu Miu nailed it for AW23, with the frazzled Englishwoman par excellence; Dior presented its Maman for SS18 via hoicked-up denim and a pop-feminist sloganned breton combo; and Frida Giannini’s Gucci was always replete with floaty floral summer dresses ideal for Sunday BBQ slays. Now, though, mumsy garb is less a footnote in fashion week, and instead part of its very fabric, offering a welcome note of womanhood in an industry still headed up by male creative directors and CEOs.
Take, for example, Marni’s SS24 collection, where suede pencil skirts paired with ribbed, v-neck sweaters, both in the drabbest shades of beige or moss green. This late-90s blast from the past sounds anything but chic, but the cropped midriffs and severely dropped hemlines made the dowdy matriarch of summer’s past fresh again, as if to say she’s a mum that does both: parent-teacher association’s AGM at four, facial and tweakments on Harley Street at seven.
Even the Chanel mum, with an au pair on speed dial, needs a look rooted in the practicalities of mothering life. As such, her SS24 eyeglasses came primed with a gilded chain straight from the 2.55, primed for any situation she might need them. Sewing the name badge on her son’s prep-school uniform? Check. Doing his math homework for him? Double check. As for her off-duty-on-duty look, this could be found in the archetypal ‘mum jeans’, complete with whisker fades on the thighs and a boxy waist for utmost comfort. On foot, the double-C flip flip-flops are perfect for popping outside to sort the recycling. Sure, it’s not right that she bears the brunt of familial household chores, but she’s adamant that however mundanely domestic life gets, she looks fashun at all times.
Perhaps then, mumswear is about the heroinism of mothers. Spinning plates, mums embrace the chaos they soldier through, teaming Miu Miu’s SS24 woollen knits and thick-lens specs with something akin to their husband’s old polo shirt below. Ideally, they would piece things together slowly, but there just isn’t time when Dad insists on working late, expecting a meal on the table every evening. Even in a lovingly leftie family, where everyone does their bit and hubby takes parental leave, we all know socialism has never quite reckoned with the demands of second-wave feminism. Certainly, Das Kapital never broached who did the washing up chez Marx.
Over at the newly launched Phoebe Philo label, the celebration of motherhood took a literal turn, arriving as gold-plated jewellery, cast in a repeating chain of “MUM” letters. Perhaps, first and foremost, this was a wink to Phoebe’s status as one of fashion’s favourite mums, not to mention her record as the first major creative director to take maternity leave in the history of Planet Mode. Otherwise, it made for a not-so-subtle nod to the hyper-British “MUM” rings that could be found in any Argos catalogue circa 2001 or indeed any pawn shop across Britain today. Combining this with a wardrobe of West London mum essentials – suitably quiet and suitably luxurious – Phoebe ticked the box for her ladies that brunch and ladies that serve lunch.
But across class lines, one thing holds true: mums are overdue a break. Nowhere was this call for a cosy day – cup of tea in on hand, television remote in the other – better catered to than at Loewe’s latest exercise in elevating the provincial mum’s longline cardi, specced with jumbo gilded buttons and uber-thick cable knitting. With washed-out, oversized bootcuts below, and a set of bedazzled pumps, it embodied the thrown-together but seamless blend of homely loungewear and ‘proper’ clothes that women need when they’re unwinding but on standby for any emergency car lifts from their inebriated teenager.
All things considered, the mum look might not scream glamorous at first glance, but it’s real. If there’s one good thing to come out of the norm-ification of fashion, it’s the representation of mothers – single, happily married, holding down a mortgage, with or without birds in the nest. If last season brought an essentialist celebration of motherhood, positioning women as child-bearers, then this season, reminded us that being a mother is so much more. Keeping it together in man’s world and looking fabulous? Now, that’s mother.