The Essential Mom Uniform

Chandra North is remarkably down to earth for a woman who’s spent more than two decades crossing the globe to work with renowned fashion photographers and editors.

Discovered at the Highland Park pool at age 16, the Dallas native has been on the covers of countless magazines and walked international runways alongside the likes of Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell.

After a decade in New York City, Chandra had an epiphany. “I missed having a car, having privacy. I just craved some space,” she says. So she and her husband, artist and fellow Dallasite Daniel Blaylock, moved to the Hudson River Valley in upstate New York, where they created a laid-back, bucolic retreat from the fast-paced glamour of the fashion world. It was there that they also welcomed their son Hayden, now 12.

After almost a decade of agrarian life, they began to entertain a return to Dallas. “I always thought we’d move back at some point,” Chandra says. “I missed the sun, and the winters in New York were hard. Plus, we wanted to give Hayden more opportunities in sports and school, and we knew that Dallas would accommodate that.” So in 2007, the trio piled into an RV and drove from New York to Texas.

Five years later, Chandra’s life is similarly laid-back, if slightly less bucolic. Her low-frills routine is heavy on quality, whether it’s family dinner at Tei Tei Robata Bar followed by hitting balls at the batting cages, her simple but effective beauty routine (she swears by her Clarisonic paired with products by Dr. Samuel Lam), or her arsenal of go-to meals like grilled fish and veggies.

Chandra admits that she misses the East Coast’s landscape and seasons, but she’s grateful for the simple pleasures and family vibe of Dallas. “I go outside and there are five kids’ bikes in my yard. Hayden plays flashlight tag in the school field with his friends. There’s a sort of old-school comfort in that. It’s nice to come back to our roots. Being here just feels like home.”