(*) This is not regular WIW. I have a whole week of Pink for October stuff which I need to prepare, but this is WIW special edition

I was tidying up my wardrobe when I came across this skirt. It belonged to my late mum and it's one of a few of her things I keep. I decided to see if I can wear it as I have lost some weight since the list time I tried it on. It could be a tad bit roomier, but I can actually wear it.

I happened to be wearing this bright grey turtleneck at the time, so looking at my reflection in the mirror and the two things together I had the flashback: this is exactly what I remember my mum wearing. This exact combination. She had two-tone grey turtleneck, the top part was lighter, the bottom half was darker grey, but that was it - I recall this very shade of grey AND this very skirt.

I rumbled through the drawer searching for the wide belt, as my mum used to wear one with this skirt, probably to add more polish and to match her black boots. And this is it, this is what my mum wore in the 1980s and and what I was looking at as a little girl thinking she looked pretty to me.

Mum had ginger hair that match one of the rusty shades from the skirt, her eyes were dark grey like one of the other shades from the skirt. She was a bit shorter then me, so the skirt would be longer midi length on her. But, 30 years later, I'm figuring out so much more about her dressing choices: how smart she was (little budget, not much clothes, but things that really worked for her), what a savvy shopper she was (the skirt has some traces of mum's fluctuating weight due to effects of post-cancer treatments over the years, but otherwise it shows no signs of wear and tear, and I recall it being in heavy rotation), and finally how feminine her clothing has always been.

Thank you YLF for educating me to be able to understand those sides of my mum even better. And, not to forget - it becomes more and more evident to me over time just how much I actually look back at her as my style inspiration and I can clearly identify what exact elements of her style I am replicating.

ETA: Clothes is just clothes, stuff... and while I do like wearing and remembering mum through clothes too, I still think the most valuable things she had left me - and us - is to not forget there is sunshine after rain and that attitude and optimism are probably the most important things in dealing with obstacles life throws at our paths. In her case it meant that after being diagnosed with breast cancer, the prognosis 5 years of life actually turned out to be good, happy, quality 15 years.

* wearing new shoes (keepers from this thread) and shorter hairstyle