By ELLEN LEWIS
My mom has been gone over 30 years but I still think of her, almost daily. I am older than she was when she passed. I knew she was young at the time, just not this young. Her presence is vivid this week. Yesterday would have been her 97th birthday and Sunday is Mother’s Day. Images seeded deep in my memory murmur: home baked cookies often pilfered by my friends after school, driving her to the hospital before sunrise for her nursing shift so I could use the car, cocktail parties replete with bartender that I spied on from the top of the stairs, the scent of Joy perfume, the roses she was constantly cutting from my yard and reading, always reading, in a zip front caftan that was her at home preference after dispensing stockings, garter and girdle. She was a lady, a woman of her time and despite my youthful efforts to tread a different path, I am blessed with her influence.
Speaking of female influence, particularly whilst writing a lingerie blog, there is no one quite like Josie Natori. Speaking of caftans and my mother, I have no doubt that Natori would be her preference and in fact, I believe it was. The company, born in 1977 is famed for its dynamic, comfortable lounge and sleepwear. But, in sync with current trends it has stoked its heritage and engaged in lifestyle products that even my mother would have willingly worn outside the house. Anchored now by the casual separates that today’s woman prefers, the pajama, is a key piece of the Natori DNA. Trumpeted by multiple trend services, PJ dressing is resurrecting the sleepwear business at retail. And just like the woman who founded the business, this product offspring incorporates every tenet of the Natori brand: definitive design, quantitative quality and functional fit. I wish I could gift my Mom with a Natori caftan. As for me, I’ll take the pajamas (hint)
“For We Think Back Through Our Mothers If We Are Women” ~Virginia Woolf
