Mariska Hargitay is honoring her late mother in a way that would have made her proud: through fashion.
The "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" star wore a stunning pink Valentino gown to Glamour's Women of the Year Awards on Monday night and revealed that the feminine frock was a tribute to her mom, Jayne Mansfield, who died when Hargitay was only 3.
"The pink does have great significance because I'm bringing my mother with me tonight, and she's here. She was one of the most glamorous women in the world, and I just hope that I can do her justice," she revealed in Glamour's Instagram story.
Mansfield, an actor and former Playboy Playmate, died in a car accident at age 34. Her ex-husband, Mickey Hargitay, went on to raise their daughter.
Mansfield certainly had a penchant for pink and was often photographed in the rosy hue.
The actor even lived in a "pink palace" that had 25 rooms. Mickey Hargitay also built his wife a heart-shaped swimming pool, and the entire home was filled with pink decor, according to Architectural Digest.
The 57-year-old certainly made her mother proud while sporting her signature color, and the actor recently told Glamour that losing a parent at such a young age taught her some important life lessons.
"I think I learned about crisis very young, and I learned very young that s--- happens and there's no guarantees, and we keep going. And then we transform it," she told the magazine earlier this month. "That's been kind of my superpower, and the gift of having trauma early in life. I've spent the last 50—how old am I?—57, so 54 years sort of trying to figure out what happened and why, and what am I supposed to do with it?"
RelatedDuring the Glamour Women of the Year awards ceremony, Hargitay's "SVU" co-star Christopher Meloni presented her with the honor and described her as "fearless, without the bravado of the warrior stance, but always with the open arms, the open heart."
In her acceptance speech, Hargitay referenced her late mother and said she couldn't help but think of her during the awards ceremony.
"We have many pictures of her in our house, and my God, she is just so unbelievably glamorous. But I think that her glamour, her real glamour, the glamour of her luminous, tender, searching heart, was deeper and more beautiful than she ever knew," she said.
"She would be 88 now, and I think she would have liked this evening very much. I also think that she knows more now than when she died," she continued. "She is here with us, and she is here with me, sitting with us and sitting with me, and I am so happy and grateful that we get to learn these things together."
