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My Mother's Clothes

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In the fashion Olympics, Eleanor Morgan Montgomery Atuk was a Gold Medalist. She was born with more taste than money. Then she married a successful businessman, and her collecting began. She was beautiful to begin with --- one year, she was praised for "the best legs" in Atlanta --- and the clothes she bought enhanced her beauty, and on top of all of that was her personality, which was effervescent in the extreme.

Wire hangers? Never. Ellie had museum-quality closets. She took inventory often, adding to her collection the way an aesthete might buy art. Then her husband left her --- for a Playboy bunny, yet --- and wasn't it lucky that she had Bill Blass and other designers to fill some of that gap.

Ellie's daughter, Jeannette Montogomery Barron, is a noted photographer. When her mother started losing her memory --- "It was like watching Sandy Koufax lose his pitching arm," Jeannette's husband has recalled --- Jeannette discovered that she still had a firm grip on her closet. All they had to do was stand near a dress or a jacket, and the memories would flood in, and Ellie would tell a story --- a brilliant, stylish personal story, a story only she could tell.

Jeannette lived in Rome, her mother in Charlottesville, Virginia. After each visit to her mother, Jeannette would take a few pieces back to Italy, scout around for the right fabric to use as background, and immortalize a fraction of her mother's collection. She did this again and again, and even when Ellie developed Alzheimer's, she could still identify each piece, where she'd worn it and what she did that day.

Now there is My Mother's Clothes, "an album of memories." It's a smallish book, very much in the spirit of its subject --- tasteful pictures of clothes both classic and outlandish, and a scrapbook of family snapshots, linked by short, evocative paragraphs by the author. Think of it as a visit with a long-lost aunt, who has only an hour to show you her life. She deals the memories and images like playing cards, and almost every one is a winner.

The project began as a way of grieving for her mother, but Jeannette says it quickly became a joyful project. "I don't think of it as a sad thing," she says. "I see it as a celebration of her life."

My own mother is now 93 and still formidable; as she looks back, she sees a laundry list of achievements. But there could have been more of them. And the peaks could have been higher. Why didn't that happen? Because she was a child of the Depression; early on, she had to help support her family. And, back then, many doors were simply closed to women.

Maybe I'm projecting here, but I see Ellie as a woman much like my mother. Burdened by the codes of the South and the strictures of married life in corporate Atlanta, she looked around for a way to burn her prodigious energy and engage her artistic imagination --- and there was fashion, just waiting. "It's easier to walk through doors than walls," the Buddha said. Ellie did.

Clothes are ultimately ephemeral. Good books aren't. Jeannette Montgomery Barron has engineered a small bit of alchemy --- her mother, dead and gone, lives on in these pages.

You will want to know Ellie Morgan Montgomery Atuk, and you'll want to step into the past to visit her in her exquisite life-- to say nothing of her closet. Jeannette's photographs and prose are loving and tender. Her memories, at once personal and universal, make me miss my own mother.

With love and care Jeannette Montgomery Barron shares a portrait of mother and daughter through a book of extraordinary photographs and thoughtful, deeply felt written remembrances. It is hard for me to articulate just how the book touches me. Ms. Montgomery Barron shares her intimate familiarity with her mother Eleanor Morgan Montgomery Atuk and also her curiosity, search and discovery of Ellie, a woman in society outside the context of "family." With her mother and with all our mothers there is always a mystery of this woman we can never know completely.

This book is a visual poem. The photographs of her mother's clothes are "portraits" of her absent mother Ellie. Through these "empty" clothes and the accompanying text, a woman of strength, charm and humor resonates and somehow remains present. Through these images and her words, Ms. Montgomery Barron presents a rich, full and loving portrait of her mother. I am truly moved.

My obsession with clothes started when I was a kid and my greatest passion was going to thrift stores to find
vintage clothes from any time up until the sixties. I loved how they transported me to another world, another time.
Every time I went to visit my Grandma Eldora in Lewiston Idaho I spent hours going through her clothes. I was
disappointed though that they were only from the 70's onward and that she did not have all of her clothes, dating back to the 20's. I felt an enormous loss and could not understand why on earth she had gotten rid of those lovely clothes that I saw in the old photos. Now I understand that one has to deal with a changing figure and space in the closet, as well as things wearing out. My grandmother did have one dress that went back to the 50's, an imitation of Marilyn's famous dress from Some Like it Hot. I still have that dress though I cannot wear it, and feel that I will never be able to give it up for it contains an essence of my Grandmother who has now passed away and whom I miss so much.

Jeannette Montgomery Barron's new book My Mother's Clothes delves into the secret world revealed by clothes and
how they relate to the person who wore them- her mother. The combination of her mother's passion for designer clothes
and how Jeannette photographs them opens up a world of memories for her, including past events, scents, and reminiscences that bring to life an image of her mother's life. Since she started photographing her mother's clothes while she was still alive but with Alzheimer's, the images which had become so vague for her mother as well came to life, triggered by memories of her own clothing and her passion for them. That items of clothing when presented to her opened up a locked door to the forgotten past is a truly amazing thing.

Jeannette's writing is poignant and personal in a way that anyone with a mother can relate to. Her candid documentation of her feelings, insecurities and love are related beautifully in this book which is a true celebration of life with both its joy and difficulties. It made me understand my own fixation with the desire to be able to open up a world into the past through clothing. Thanks to her mother's passion for clothing and the fact that she kept it all, Jeannette was able to fully explore this world and bring it to us in her lovely book.

The loss of any loved one is painful, but the loss of one's mother, the earthly severance from the primal connection to our source of being, is profoundly shattering. Since we are given virtually no guide for dying and death, we cope in various, sometimes surprising, ways.

The origin of this book was the serendipitous discovery of a way to retrieve the increasingly fading memory of the author's mother via her lifelong love of clothes, but to regard it as simply a catalogue of fashion and of one woman's exquisite collection would be a mistake. Rather, the clothes became a provocative and creative vehicle for a daughter to hold onto her mother for just as long as possible. It is through those material objects that she, unknowingly, embarked on that mysterious journey for which few of us are equipped--the earthly release of a loved one. It is through those outfits and personal effects that she was able to cope with pain and fear, to live among the ever-present reminders of mortality. It is through those talismans that the author reached a deeper understanding of her mother-and of herself. Focusing full energy on what became an intimate dance of sorts between herself and her mother, she sparked her mother's memory with favored outfits and recorded her comments, then meticulously--and uniquely--photographed them. The dance continued until the life and spirit of her mother were captured on paper and, wondrously, the source of great anguish and immense pain became the source of joy.

This book is a gift. It's a generous and acutely sensitive account of creative survival and growth through doing the unthinkable--letting one's mother go. By sharing her particular experience--beautiful and rich with painfully intimate moments and photographs--the author reflects experiences that are universal and, thus, speak to everyone. It's a story of the grand triumph of a woman who, through a daughter's devotion, lived life to its very end, remained engaged in things unrelated to death, and, through those she loved, extended her earthly mortality. In some not-so-insignificant way, her mother has become the book.

put this book on your must buy list. one for yourself. one for your mother. or your sister. or a girlfriend.
it truly is one of the most amazing books i own. the pictures are exceptional and the story is sentimental.
i also had the pleasure of meeting the author who was so lovely and warm.
run to your local book store and buy this book now.

...I had a lump in my throat when I turned the last page.

One of the opening comments (by Patrick Kinmonth), describes this book perfectly: "part fashion diary, part personal memoir, part loving memorial and part life celebration".

A loving daughter, the author and professional photographer Jeannette Montgomery Barron, captures the essence of her mother, Mrs. Eleanor Morgan Montgomery Atuk, who loved life and had a true passion for clothes. As her Alzheimer relentlessly progressed, Jeannette started to photograph her favourite clothes and possessions, hoping to trigger her mother's memory by visualizing them. What was initially a project aiming to help her mother's struggles, became, later on, a tender account of her mother's life through some of the clothes and accessories, a delightful collection of photographs and memories. It is through the author's photographs and the straightforward, brief, seemingly unsentimental phraseology that an image of pure daughterly love is perceived, never evanescent, always there, almost palpable.

Another quote from the back cover: "This is a book about the depth of a daughter's love, and the breadth of a mother's life; it is about letting go, but never forgetting". Very fitting words.

The photographs speak for themselves. They are simply wonderful. Elegant. Stylish. And so is the prose. A truly wonderful book.

Can I just say I loved this book? It was poignant and beautiful. My own Grandmother recently died, and I love looking at her silk scarves and scent bottles. This book captures these memories and remind us of how things and objects and clothes can be infused with someone's spirit. The book is truly gorgeous and reflects a daughter's respect for her mother's love of clothing and well, for her Mum in general. The things people love and cherish tell us who they are. Even when they're no longer here. Run don't walk-you need this book.

This book is a moving tribute to a mother. You experience the love of her daughter in every photo. The reader is allow into this special relationship. This is a perfect gift.

My Mother's Clothes: An Album of Memories comes from a photographer who creates a fine portrait and memoir of her late mother through her clothing and personal possessions. Her visual album was intended to spark her mother's memories as her Alzheimer's progressed - and became both a memorial and art work celebrating her mother's love for exquisite clothes. Recommended for art and general library holdings alike!