| Yo Fab Momma |
| Written by Nicola Hyland | |
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Oh, Mother! Ask Bronny celebrates Mum's Day by taking her fashion advice seriously. Clean nails, nickers and nice manners please!
My Mum is pretty cool. Yeah that’s right, she's a hot Mama. While it has taken me until the rough end of my twenties to accept it, I am pretty lucky to be just like her. As each year passes, I can marvel at her good genes – and how I'll fit them when I'm her age! And, after a lifetime of cringing, I've finally accepted that the fashion advice given from this most unlikely source is possibly the best. Me and my mum are polar opposites when it comes to fashion tastes. She likes baby blues, dusky pinks and lilacs, Jackie E, frilly blouses and delicate heels with sequins. I like blacks and reds, chocolate lip gloss, Kinki Gerlinki and red patent ballet flats with white spots. She has a fabulous relationship with her hairdresser. My fiancé cuts my hair over the sink in the bathroom. Mum would prefer my clothes with cleaner hemlines and feminine hues. I tend to only like her clothes when they become retro. But then, she’s my mum, right? There should be a generation between our outfits. Otherwise everyone would think we were sisters and I still recoil over that confusion… Here are a few of the greatest gems in the vast collection of motherly advice: Wear a good bra Blessed with a generous chest I would myself inherit, my mother has always lectured me on the importance of a well-fitted bra. While other girls ran about in their cool Hey Sister cotton numbers, my mother warned me to strap myself into a secure Berlei or face the wrath of an unsightly droop in latter years. Mum was also, predictably, a fan of a more demure cleavage display. One of her best pieces of advice was to draw less attention to the décolletage in situations where you want people to take you seriously. There is nothing worse then being constantly interrupted by your own magnificent breasts. Keep your nails clean My mother has amazing smooth and shiny talons. Ever since year dot, I can remember Mum whittling away with her four-sided filer/buffer to achieve ten fingernails of distinction. "People always look at your hands" she says, gesturing wildly "So why not make them look nice?". Unfortunately I have never had the willpower. After years of horse-riding and blood sport netball, I was left with a sorry set of paws. Now about to brandish a rather expensive rock on my left hand, I am almost too ashamed to show it to anyone because of the horrific state of my nails. If only I'd taken better care. Colour your world When I was seventeen, my mother treated me to an invaluable bonding experience: we had our colours done. I don’t even know if anyone this side of the nineties still does this, but it is basically having a complex colour palette -like paint samples – held to your face and then being matched to a certain 'season' of colours. Then you get a little book of colours which 'suit' you, along with a list of colours you should avoid. Mum embraces her blues and lilacs because they look amazing on her. They bring out all of her best facial features – such as her eyes and the colour of her hair. Luckily I'm still "allowed" to wear black. But the most helpful advice from this experience was that I should try not to wear warm-shaded colours: i.e. I can wear a cool red, but not an orange-toned red. So even now I know what colours to look for to look my best - and no, it is definitely not that nasty mustard colour, blerch. Slap on the Sun block Mum is much fairer then I am and burns up like a sizzling lobster in the first glimpse of sunshine. But one look at her beautiful skin and you realise the benefits of a good relationship with sun block. Mum also taught me the merits of using a good toner. Which is why I still steal hers. Sew much better Sewing is becoming a bit of a lost art amongst my generation. So many of my friends would throw out clothes after a little hole appeared, or when fashion changes overnight and they decide they are too daggy to merit a place in their wardrobes. Mum taught me how to sew – and even though she still doesn’t trust me with her precious Bernina, seeing a way to rejuvenate clothes has saved my fashionable life. Mum showed me how to turn a pair of jeans into a stylish jean skirt (whose hem I then amended to illegal heights). Mum also told me that it is always important to keep a jar of odd buttons. Particularly when you are as sloppy a sewer as I am… The irony is that my Mum now looks to me for fashion advice. "What do you think of this?" she asks, "On me, I mean". My mum always looks great - I only hope I look as great as her when I’m a mum. Happy Mother’s Day! |
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