The influence of Southern mothers is indisputable. Not only have they given us our recipes, our manners, and our love of entertaining, but above all they've handed down words to live by. In honor of Mother’s Day, we asked several prominent Southerners: What is the best piece of advice your mother ever gave you

Gigi Burris knows hats. A born-and-bred Floridian trained at Parsons the New School for Design, Burris turned her passion for the age-old art of millinery into a full-time career, launching her line of couture hats in 2010. Although she’s now Manhattan-based, Burris's career and identity are rooted in the South. She sources many of her decorative materials from the wild – everything from blue-winged teal feathers from her father’s Florida hunting escapades to gator skins from the swamps of the South.

In her just-released coffee table book Houses with Charm, Southern design writer Susan Sully isolates a crucial component that reconciles the South’s high-end tastes with its laid-back lifestyle: the art of the personal touch. Filled with images of eclectic mountain homes, beach cottages, and brick colonials, Sully’s book highlights the way Southerners seamlessly integrate their interiors with their lives and histories.

A day at the horse races is a springtime tradition down South. Which is why my husband and I let the windows down and drove two hours north to Camden, South Carolina this past weekend to attend the annual Carolina Cup.