The Fashion Designer
The Movie Star
The Pioneer
The Singer Songwriter
The Philosopher
WHAT IF
This is about my mother (1934), in which I document her daily life on the one hand, and on the other hand, I want to explore my fascination with what lies beneath the surface with my mother. She grows up in the Netherlands at a time when girls do not receive the same opportunities as boys, and married women are oppressed by the 'incapacity to act' law until 1956. This meant that a married woman had to ask her husband for money and permission, for example, to buy an appliance or to travel. A woman only had control over the household budget. Until 1971, the law stated that the man is the 'head of the marital union,' and the woman owes 'obedience' to the man. In 1971, my mother is 37 years old, married, a homemaker, with a low level of education, and a mother of five children. In the early 1970s, the government subsidizes the course 'Women Orient Themselves to Society' (V.O.S. course) to bring low-educated housewives out of isolation and encourage them to participate in society. My mother takes this course, followed by the 'moedermavo' (a school for mothers). Who could she have been? WHAT IF my mother had been a Fashion Designer? “A fashion designer is someone you’d go to the ends of the world for.”