Wtf is ‘cool mum’ style anyway?

Are those really 'cool mum' trousers or are they just cool trousers?

Excuse the double question in the title but I have noticed that there is a lot of content circulating about being a ‘cool mum’ (or mom if I bring our American - and West Midlands - friends into the fray) and it is quite fascinating. It’s all over the internet, rife on podcasts, and there’s most definitely plenty of it right here on Substack, who could probably introduce a sub-category called Cool Mum/Mom Fashion, such is the appetite (I’m yet to stumble upon a piece called ‘Style tips for pretty regular mums’). Up until two years ago, Vogue had a franchise called ‘I’m A Cool Mom’. The Cut recently ran a story called ‘The Cool-Mom Pants’ about LA brand Donni. Even Forbes put out a story in May titled “13 Fashionable Favorites For The Cool Mom” (although, rather confusingly, it included a golf bag).

And just so we’re on the same page, I’m not talking about being ‘cool’ in one’s approach to parenting, such as letting toddlers run riot around a restaurant (“oh they’re fine”) or allowing a young kid to watch a film too old for them. It’s about the woman in and of herself. Cool mums wear cool clothes and go to cool places and listen to cool music and read cool books.

What’s interesting is our desire for there to be such a thing as a ‘cool mum’, and the thirst to identify as one. Is the label simply an oxymoron? And are these clothes and outfits aimed at mothers really any different to how anyone might dress? Like everything else in motherhood, it’s complicated. So let’s get into it. And I promise to not reference Mean Girls.