Lulu De Kwiatkowski

Textile Designer
Best advice my mother gave me: To be in love with life.
Favorite childhood memory: Lying next to my mother as she stroked my head.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Collecting shells on the beach together.

Adam Glassman

Creative Director, O, The Oprah Magazine
Best advice my mother gave me: Look in the mirror and really see yourself.
Favorite childhood memory: Lying on the roof of our porch and just looking up at the sky, watching clouds. I am cloud-obsessed!
Favorite thing to do with my mom: While growing up, it was going to Syms and Loehmann’s. Now it’s going to visit with my nieces and nephew together.

Arianna Huffington

Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Huffington Post
Best advice my mother gave me: Failure is not the opposite of success. It’s the stepping-stone to success. Don’t ever be afraid to fail.

Mario Batali

Chef
Best advice my mother gave me: Always finish what you start.
Favorite childhood memory: Picking blackberries on Dash Point Road.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Going to museums—she knows all art.

Francesca DiMattio

Contemporary Artist
Best advice my mother gave me: My mom always told me to pursue something that I loved. She also stressed that work was no more important that your home, your friends, your family, even your closet.
Favorite childhood memory: Dressing up in elaborate costumes and playing pretend while my mom gardened in the country. My favorite was to dress up as an old lady. I would follow her around for hours talking nonsense. She would respond every so often, just enough to keep me going.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Since I was little, we walk around attempting to hit all the thrift stores in the city. That is still how we catch up now.

Sally Singer

Fashion News/Features Director, Vogue
Best advice my mother gave me: While teaching me how to sew, she trained me to make every garment as perfect on the inside as on the exterior. I think this holds true for everything one attempts in life.
Favorite childhood memory: A day in San Francisco when I was nine and about to start acting lessons at the American Conservatory Theater. My mom walked me through the BART trains and bus rides that I would have to navigate without her a week later. We had lunch together and went shopping at Macy’s on Union Square. I felt very special, very grown-up, and oddly glamorous.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Picking out fabrics together for quilts (hers) or clothes (mine). And I still love going to lunch with her. Just last month, we went to Rudy’s Can’t Fail Café, the vegan-option diner in Emeryville, CA that is co-owned by the bassist in Green Day. Gave me lots of cred with my eldest son!

Bonnie Morrison

Fashion Consultant and Publicist
Best advice my mother gave me: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. I only just started to believe it, but she was absolutely right.
Favorite childhood memory: Singing in the car on the way to school, starting very young—everything from The Isley Brothers to Donna Summer to Evita. She’s responsible for at least two-thirds of my musical taste.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Taking her places. The torch has been passed!

John Derian

Founder of John Derian Company
Best advice my mother gave me: Sit up straight.
Favorite childhood memory: Visiting my mother’s aunt, a wee Scottish lady about 4’7”. They were so sweet together.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Playing cards and Scrabble. Plus, she was always up for a drive into town (Boston) for lunch.

CHRISTENE BARBERICH

Editorial Director, Refinery29
Best advice my mother gave me: Always check the seams of a garment to see if it’s made well. And always be responsible with work. I think it’s why I have an insane work ethic, and feel guilty calling in sick.
Favorite childhood memory: One that sticks out is my mother chaperoning me and a few friends in the first grade on a trip to the Empire State Building. Unlike the other young moms who wore skirts and dresses, she wore really tight leather blazers and bell-bottoms. All my friends wanted to be in our group because my mom was so cool.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Going thrifting or to yard sales on the weekends. My mother is a genius at sniffing out really amazing finds.

KRISTINA O’NEILL

Executive Editor, Harper’s Bazaar
Best advice my mother gave me: Trust your instincts.
Favorite childhood memory: Summers on Hilton Head.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Shop! Eat! Drink! And watch Law & Order: SVU.

Amanda Brooks

Fashion Consultant and Author of I Love Your Style
Best advice my mother gave me: Don’t forget your manners.
Favorite childhood memory: Our summer in Quogue when I was six. All of our best friends came to stay. We had big clam roasts, rode our bikes everywhere, played ping-pong in our living room and built sandcastles on the beach.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Walking on the beach near her house in Wainscott, New York.

AIMEE BELL

Deputy Editor, Vanity Fair
Best advice my mother gave me: EVERYTHING.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: ANYTHING.
Favorite childhood memory: Running wild with my five younger siblings.

Alexandra Kotur

Style Director, Vogue
Best advice my mother gave me: Family always comes first.
Favorite childhood memory: Helping my parents with spring planting in the garden of their country house.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Traveling together to Hong Kong to visit my sister and her four boys.

Fiona Marin Kotur

Designer
Best advice my mother gave me: She taught us to value and pursue creativity, imagination and inspiration—in whichever field we chose.
Favorite childhood memory: Afternoons in the country—my mother gardening in her Pucci shirt and shorts, Elton John playing on our outside speakers.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Working together. She illustrates all of Kotur’s seasonal collections.

K. Cooper Ray

www.socialprimer.com
Best advice my mother gave me: My mother is a real Southern belle. When I first told her I wanted to leave Alabama and move to New York, I knew it would be tough on her. Even though I know it killed her to have her oldest son leave her, she said that she always knew the day would come and that I was too restless to stay close by. She hugged me at the airport and sent me off with these words. “I am proud of the man you’ve become and know you will do well no matter what you choose to do. Always remember who you are and where you came from and that you always have a home to come back to.”
Favorite childhood memory: Mother has a knack for making every little moment fun. She wakes up every morning with a song and it’s a great way to start the day. Then at some point in the day she will find her way to the piano and play out a little tune. All of my fondest memories are associated with certain songs that she played or sang and when I hear any one of them today, I will stop in my tracks and call her.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: My mother is a terrific gardener and she gets to practice her passion on a 5 acre garden at our home in the country. When I was living in New York, I would fly home three times a year to help her put in new beds, return home for her annual July Fourth garden party and then back in the fall for maintenance and storing everything away for the winter.

Kathy Freston

Author
Best advice my mother gave me: If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
Favorite childhood memory: Raiding my mother’s closet.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Always about clothes! Now, because I’m vegan, we go to Payless or Target because they have non-leather shoes, which is good for me… and my mom loves these stores because she is a true bargain hunter, and totally in her element!

Ken Downing

Senior Vice President and Fashion Director, Neiman Marcus
Best advice my mother gave me: Women love leopard—something to wear, something on a chair. It is a neutral!
Favorite childhood memory: My mother hates to cook but loves to bake. She made crazy Bakers coconut cut-up cakes for all of our birthdays and holidays. One year she made a cake that was a candy-covered house. The cake collapsed while we were singing Happy Birthday. We laughed and laughed. She said it was an earthquake.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Antiquing and flea markets! We love to uncover a treasure. Her house is a jewel box of our finds.

Cindy Weber-Cleary

Fashion Director, InStyle
Best advice my mother gave me: Ask a lot of questions and always admit what you don’t know.
Favorite childhood memory: Mom letting me take an occasional day off from grade school to go shopping at the Short Hills Mall. I still remember the thrill of entering the pre-teen department of, I think, Bloomingdales in the mid ‘60s! I still have my 3rd-grade class photo—I’m wearing a “mod” brown-and-white polka-dot mini-dress!
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Since my early ‘20s, we have spent long hours on the phone every week, talking about everything. She still gives me story ideas for InStyle! She has had so many interesting jobs in fashion and special events. Who else can say their mom took them to parties at Studio 54 and to meet Prince Charles at the 20th anniversary of Lincoln Center? And that’s only the beginning!

Jennifer Livingston

Photographer
Best advice my mother gave me: To follow my dreams and passion. She knew that I wanted to be a photographer from an early age and encouraged me every step of the way.
Favorite childhood memory: Traveling with my parents and sisters.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: My mom is such an amazing cook. Any chance to learn from her is a gift.

Nina Garcia

Fashion Director, Marie Claire
Best advice my mother gave me: Always be a lady.
Favorite childhood memory: I used to love sitting in my mother’s room and watching her get ready. She had an enormous closet filled with rows and rows of shoes, dresses, jewels—it was like Ali Baba’s cave of treasures!
Favorite thing to do with my mom: We went shopping all around the globe! The best day was a girl’s lunch, followed by coffee for my mother and dessert for me, and then an excursion to all of our favorite boutiques.

Harriet Mays Powell

Fashion Director, New York Magazine
Best advice my mother gave me: Consider the source. And always rise above.
Favorite childhood memory: Going to see my older sister in Paris for the first time when I was 10.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Chatting at the kitchen table late at night.

ANA MARIA PIMENTEL

Accessories Director, Harper’s Bazaar
Best advice my mother gave me: You need a little more lipstick.
Favorite childhood memory: Reading magazines with my mother on the terrace of our house in Santo Domingo. She subscribes to over 20 magazines and reads them all back to back.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Antique shopping for old silver.

Kelly Corrigan

Author
Best advice my mother gave me: Make yourself useful. It’s my starting point every day.
Favorite childhood memory: Camp Tockwogh, on the Chesapeake Bay, and a particular camper named Andy Bloom. Every August for nine years. Heaven. But with my mother? Playing backgammon on the porch of Mrs. Moran’s beach house. My mom with her chardonnay, me with my Shirley Temple.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Being alone with her so I can get her talking about her childhood, her friends, her job, and her mother.

Carlos Mota

Elle Décor and author of Flowers Chic and Cheap
Best advice my mother gave me: Smile and be on time—time is precious.
Favorite childhood memory: Playing with my chickens. I wish I could have one in my one-bedroom apartment in NYC.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Watching her cook something delicious just for me, like a chicken fricassee. Back in the day? Making ceramics together.
Best mothers day present: My new book “Flowers Chic & Cheap” or money so she can buy wherever she wants.

Meredith Melling Burke

Senior Market Editor, Vogue
Best advice my mother gave me: Do unto others as you would have done unto you.
Favorite childhood memory: Looooong summer days on the beach in Cape Cod, followed by “circus” performances—including my cousin’s 10-cartwheels-in-a-row floor routine, my brother’s BMX pop-a-wheelie thriller, and my wild-animal-tamer act (tossing stuffed bears and lions through a hula-hoop.) Admission was 25 cents.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Watching obscure international or art house movies together. I also take great joy in watching her play with my daughter, Eloise. They have very compatible imaginations!

Jennifer Rudolph Walsh

Literary Agent, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment
Best advice my mother gave me: Find out who you are and be that person.
Favorite childhood memory: Helping my mother in the garden, planting flowers—not seeds. (I like instant gratification).
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Getting a manicure and pedicure after brunch on Sundays, which I still do with my mother and teenage daughter now.

Amy Astley

Editor-in-Chief, Teen Vogue
Best advice my mother gave me: Think for yourself.
Favorite childhood memory: Christmas morning. My parents really knocked themselves out to make it a magical moment for my brothers and me when we first glimpsed that tree!
Favorite thing to do with my mom: I love to walk on the deserted North Fork beach in the winter with my mom, my kids and our dog. Then we have a cozy fire and some wine. It’s just great.

Constance White

Fashion Journalist and eBay Style Director
Best advice my mother gave me: To remember I am special, and so is everyone else.
Favorite childhood memory: I really look back fondly on how my mum trusted me and supported every courageous or cockamamie endeavor I ever took on. (Not so my dad!)
Favorite thing to do with my mom: As a child, it was traveling around the beautiful countryside of Jamaica with her—the visiting public health nurse—as she administered advice and medicine to patients. During the long day, we’d stop on the roadside or take a break at the clinic to have sandwiches she had packed from home. As an adult, I adore taking my mom for a massage. I think she’s the only person who loves that indulgence more than I do.

Karla Martinez

Market Director, Interview Magazine
Best advice my mother gave me: Lazy people work double—it’s a Spanish saying that doesn’t translate well, but it means to do things correctly and finish what you start.
Favorite childhood memory: My mother would wake up all four of us kids one by one and then run downstairs and prepare breakfast before we’d go to school. Rarely was she not home when we got back.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: When I go home to Texas, we go to morning mass and have breakfast together. Same thing when she comes to NY for a visit. It’s nice to spend time alone with her because I come from a big family.

Samantha Marcus Yanks

Editor in Chief, Gotham and Hamptons
Best advice my mother gave me: You can’t unscramble scrambled eggs.
Favorite childhood memory: Our yearly ski trips with my family. One of the best was to Grunewald, Switzerland. We started the day in Switzerland and skied to the Monte Cervino in Italy, which marks the natural border between Switzerland and Italy. Right over the border, you ski into the Italian area of Valtournenche and have lunch. It’s divine!
Favorite thing to do with my mom: We have girls’ days on Saturday mornings—my mother, daughter and I. We have brunch at Morandi or Balthazar almost every weekend.

Grant Thatcher

Publisher of Luxe City Guides
Best advice my mother gave me: If you can’t afford it, you can’t have it. Work harder!
Favorite childhood memory: Learning to cook—I still make many of my mother’s old recipes.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: My mother lives in the beautiful UNESCO Heritage City of Bath. A Christmas Eve glass of pink champagne at the historic Royal Crescent Hotel Dower House is our secret treat.

Michael Bruno

Founder, 1stdibs
Best advice my mother gave me: Do your own thing.
Favorite childhood memory: So many to pick from—but I would have to say when I won first place for the 50-meter breaststroke in the Junior Olympics. My mother expected nothing less and still does.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Hiking in the Arizona Desert.

BOOTH MOORE

Editor of the Image Section and Chief Fashion Critic, Los Angeles Times
Best advice my mother gave me: Do what you love.
Favorite childhood memory: Going to art museums together. When I was 6, 7 and 8, my mom would take me to the Metropolitan Museum and the Whitney Museum. We would sit in the galleries with Cray-Pas and draw pictures inspired by Calder’s Circus or Jasper Johns’ Flags. It’s undoubtedly how I developed my sense of color and design.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Travel. She’s a type-A traveler who has to have all the latest info on what to see and do (and where to shop) in a new place. I never miss a thing when I’m with her.

Bronson Van Wyck

Event Planner
Best advice my mother gave me: My mom doesn’t just give advice—she participates in acting upon it. When she said we ought to decide what we like to do the most and make sure to do it every day, we ended up starting Van Wyck & Van Wyck together.
Favorite childhood memory: I’ve always been a superhero geek—Wonder Woman, Captain America, Storm, Nightcrawler, Changeling. When I was seven or eight, Mom took me to a store called Heroes World as a surprise. There were capes, utility belts, web-shooters, magic lassoes and bulletproof bracelets. I was in heaven. I must’ve gotten one of everything.
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Throwing a party, of course.

Samantha Gregory with her mother, Jamee and daughter, Carolina.

Samantha Gregory

Best advice my mother gave me: Sometimes in life people can be mean and hurtful and you just have to remember that they are the ones who you should feel sorry for because they must be sad and unhappy to act that way.
Favorite childhood memory: In the summer in Southampton, during the week, when my father was in the city for work, my mother would always let me sleep in her bed. I loved it!
Favorite thing to do with my mom: Take long long walks.