Abeille, Noémie and I were born at 4.5-year intervals, but only one person carried us to term. We all share a link to this small, dynamic woman, Yuki Rioux. March 8 is International Women’s Day, but it’s more special to us because it’s our mother’s birthday. The 8, like the infinity sign, marks the one who gave us life.
Yuki is the name she chose 60 years ago, when she was 16. Strangely enough, she must have had the same face, body and vitality that she had back then. In our dynamic, I’m the eldest one, and when I’m on the phone with her, I catch myself calling her “my girl,” while she calls me her mother. Our roles shift depending on the mood.
Yuki hates having her photo taken these days. The Native blood from our great-great-grandmother is never too far away. In front of a camera, she makes fun of us as we’re trying to find our light and our angles. Yuki prefers to blind, talk at the same time or bear her claws — anything to avoid having some part of her soul plucked away. Her beauty has already been immortalized in many ways, so today, she’d rather break with conventions, and never feel pigeonholed by anyone or anything.
Yuki is like a mirror projecting our proper intentions. Her spirit is never far away, and she’s always in our thoughts. You could put thousands of kilometres between us, and she could still sense how we’re feeling, while giving space to make our own decisions. She raised us as strong, independent women, without any judgment. Life was a skating rink, and an Olympic one right from the start. Everything was possible, and yet we all learned, side by side, what are limits were. Intoxicating? Yes. Disorienting, maybe, but oh, how enriching it was.
To be Yuki’s daughter is to be the beneficiary of confidence and complicit femininity. She’s the one who binds us to each other, oh so infinitely. When I was younger (but the eldest of three), she would tell me “your sisters have to come first.” Before friends, boys, everything. We’re never faltered on that mandate, and that makes her proud to this day.
On this International Women’s Day, we reconnect to our inner desires. Every day is women’s day. For our daughters, but also for the women who gave us life.
Happy birthday, Yuki!
LOOKS INSPIRED BY YUKI
Spring has sprung and so have the colours, so Les Relookeuses have decided to take advantage, and style us each in a different colour. Yuki was the deciding factor: she was asked to describe her daughters with one colour, and they ran with it!
Look Yuki
Look Mitsou
Look Noémie
Look Abeille
MUA : Sophie Parrot
Photographe : Sara Laroche
Vêtements : Simons