Sailor Brinkley-Cook is the 24-year-old daughter of Christie Brinkley. She’s a model, like her mother. For the most part, Sailor seems like a decent person. I don’t know that she’s taking the modeling world by fire, but she also doesn’t seem to be too obnoxious about it. I thought this was a cute story, though. Sailor raids her mom’s closet and hopes Christie forgets about the pieces so Sailor can keep them. There are a lot of reasons I wouldn’t want a supermodel for a mom but having access to their closet would be #1 under the Pro column.
Sailor Brinkley-Cook loves to take a peek at what’s inside her model mom’s closet when she needs something new to wear. The 24-year-old tells PEOPLE that as she grows up, she’s realizing more and more that her style is right in line with how her mom, supermodel Christie Brinkley, 68, dresses. In fact, some of the pieces she’s swiped from her mom’s closet are her most prized possessions.
“Both of us are pretty classic,” she says. “We love a white t-shirt. We love a good pair of jeans. We love a trench coat, good sweater, a good pair of white sneakers, black boots.”
Brinkley-Cook admits that before she found her current classic style, she tried to have an “edgy” vibe before realizing it just wasn’t her. “What was I trying to do? I’m not edgy,” she tells PEOPLE with a laugh. Instead, she finds comfort in classic pieces, like jeans and hoodies, but isn’t shy about grabbing something new from her mom’s wardrobe.
“Sometimes I’ll ask to borrow something, and I’ll be like, ‘Oh my God, this is so cute,’ and she’ll tell me, ‘Okay, but you have to give it back.’ And then she forgets!” Brinkley-Cook says. She admits that she’s held onto a few pieces due to that exact situation, and when she wears them again, her mom remembers where it came from.
“She’ll remind me it’s hers, and I just tell her she never asked for it back!” Brinkley-Cook tells PEOPLE. “It’s always those loopholes with moms, where you’re like, ‘You can’t really be that angry. I’m your child.'”
But some of the clothes Brinkley-Cook has gotten from her mom were actually gifted to her, because the Sacred + Divine creative director admits that she doesn’t shop a lot, as it’s not something she has the budget for.
When she moved back to the city recently to launch her brand, Brinkley-Cook says she asked her mom if she had any “little things” from her closet she might be able to have. “She gave me my grandmère’s old trench coat and it’s this stunning beige trench that’s been in my family for 40, 50 years, so it’s so cool to have that,” she says, adding that she also inherited a navy Isaac Mizrahi jacket that she adores.
“Those are the pieces that mean the world to me because they’ve lived such a life with my mom and now they get to live such a life with me,” Brinkley-Cook gushes. “She’s definitely got those classic pieces, and I always love everything she has because we’re both lovers of those iconic pieces.”
I feel this in my toes. Literally, because my black workman boots are currently on my daughter’s feet. And my daughter does the same thing as Sailor, she buries my stuff so I can’t see it upon first swipe, clever girl. But I don’t have half the clothes Christie does, so I know every item that’s gone missing. Sailor’s right, though. Ultimately, you find yourself realizing the idiom “giving your child the shirt off your back.” And the only thing you’re mad about is that they look better in it than you.
I was on Christie’s side (for the above reasons) but then Sailor won me over when she talked about Christie’s vintage pieces. I love the idea of clothes living lives with each generation. I have my mom’s I. Magnin camel hair trench. When I put it on, I can almost hear the sounds of Union Square in San Francisco. I also kind of love that Sailor admitted she raids mom’s closet because she can’t afford the same clothes as Christie. I mean, even though we’re talking about supermodels, vintage Isaac Mizrahi jackets and closets you can shop out of, there’s something relatable to all of this – sort of.
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