During the 1960s, Mom wore the Jackie Kennedy (Onassis) look with varying degrees of success. She just wasn’t a capri-pants kind of Mom, but she wore the pill box hat, and the cutie-patootie suit like nobody’s business.

She was fashion-forward to the degree that was possible in suburban Elmhurst. I, however, proved a fashion challenge. Preschool, wearing brother’s hand-me-downs, I sported a chic ragamuffin look. But life took a turn when I was among six first-graders chosen to be flower girls for an upcoming First Holy Communion ceremony.

Mom went into overdrive. She stitched me a yellow dotted swiss dress with a cummerbund bow the size of a turkey platter. In it, I did a paradigm shift to princess mode and she and I began our fashion friendship. During ensuing years, I came up with special occasions and she came up with custom dresses. This forged what I would term a uniquely feminist point of view.