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Mother, the original multitasker: and she raiseth a designer!
Between cooking and cleaning and chauffeuring and chaperoning, a mother's work is indeed never done. While their primary role is to nourish us, they are also capable of embarassing us, nudging with irrelevant, unsolicited advice — but is it not every parent's prerogative to offer unsolicited advice? (Then again, is it possible to watch My Mom's on Facebook and not cringe for every sweater-wearing mother who ever overshared?) Today of all days, let us forgive them their flaws and their malapropisms and their fashion faux-pas and remember that their hearts, if not their tweets, are in the right place. "Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world," wrote James Joyce, "a mother's love is not." And we agree. Herewith, a Happy Mother's Day to you all.
Now, go call your Mother.
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Allison Arieff with her mother, Carol, 1966
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Julie Lasky with her mother, Ruth Lasky, about 1961
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Alexander Isley with his mother, Jane Isley, 1965
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Adam Harrison Levy with his mother, Lorain Levy, April, 1967
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Nancy Sharon Collins with her mother, Charlotte Kaufman Feldman, about 1956
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Keira Alexandra with her mother, Alexandra Ossipoff, circa 1969
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Peter Mendelsund with his mother, Judy Mendelsund circa 1971
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Carol (Darlow) Wahler with her mother, Dorothy Darlow, June 1946
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Betsy Vardell and her mother, Guyla Vardell, 1972
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Andrew Sloat, his sister Elizabeth Sloat, and their mother, Caroline Sloat, 1978.
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Mark Lamster with his mother, Jane, 1972
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Eric Baker with his mother, Anne, about 1952
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Antonio Alcalá with his mother, Ruth, Thanksgiving, 1969
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Teddy Blanks with his mother, Cindy Hudgins Blanks, 2011
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Nancy Essex with her mother, Jeanne and family (Nancy is second from right, bottom), 1965
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Alexandra Lange with her mother, Martha Scotford and grandmother, Anne Scotford, 1977
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Derry Noyes with her mother, Molly Noyes, and her father, Eliot Noyes, about 1956
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Kali Nikitas and her mother, Catherine Louise, circa 1965
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Stefan G. Bucher with his mother Jutta, about 1978
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"Here is picture of my mom, Anne Marie Campbell Bierut from her days as a freelance product model, about 1955" writes Michael Bierut. "Just pretend that I'm a Western Union Intrafax!"
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Karin Fong and her mother, Sylvia Leong, 1972
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Carl W. Smth with his mother and sister (both named Barbara), Honolulu, 1968
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Gaby Brink and her mother, Rosemarie, 1971
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"The only early picture I have of me with my mother is one in which she does not appear," writes Ralph Caplan, pictured here in an undated photo. "I am on a pony and she crouches behind, invisibly demonstrating that I am brave enough to sit on a steed without an adult holding the reins."
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Jessica Helfand and her mother, Audrey, early 1960s
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Ashwini Deshpande with her mother and father, Sunetra and Shankar Oak, and older sister Rajani, 1969
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Marian Bantjes with her mother June, early 1990s
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Oded Ezer with his mother Lily Ezer, about 1978
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Laurie Rosenwald's father, Robert Rosenwald, was a sculptor: above, an alabaster sculpture that he made of his wife, Ruth, holding Laurie as an infant, about 1955
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Erik Spiekermann with his Mother, Barbara, and family in Northern Germany, summer, 1951
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"How about other designers with your parents," asked Gail Anderson when she received our prompt. "One of my students came to Thanksgiving dinner last year, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of him with my parents (85 and 89). His name is Zipeng Zhu and my parents were totally baffled when he took off his shoes at the door."