Pretty is now passe. Elegant, interesting and offbeat are the adjectives- of-the-moment for ”expecting” clothes.
”I take my cues from the fashion shows in Paris and Milan,” explained Bob Pollack, who supervises four in-house designers at Page Boy Maternity, his Dallas-based firm. ”We don`t have a navy suit in our stores and we`re doing extremely well with these non-traditional looks.”
When Pollack assumed control of the 40-year-old company five years ago, he revamped its focus because ”my predecessors were pushing polyester and Peter Pan collars.” Pollack, who ditched a lucrative Los Angeles law practice, said ”none of my colleagues (lawyers) could find sophisticated maternity styles, so I guided my company accordingly.”
As he sees it, the offerings he turned out shocked the industry and his fashion-forward instincts have proven to be accurate. ”Even in the midst of a recession, we`re having our best year yet,” said Pollack, whose company consists of 26 stores throughout the United States and a mail-order catalog
(it accounts for 15 percent of his business). Plans are underway for a shop in Chicago within the next 18 months, he said.
His spring fashions pay homage to the Sixties with color-blocked clothes and baby-doll or shift-inspired shapes. And Page Boy`s sole suit is a stylish woven rayon pantsuit available only in off-white; it was recently featured during a maternity wear fashion segment on NBC-TV`s ”Today Show.”
But that`s not the first time Page Boy`s designs have been in the limelight or behind the camera. Deborah Norville, Mary Alice Williams, Maria Shriver, Kim Alexis, and Jill Eikenberry have all worn his maternity clothes on the air. Celebrities regularly visit his shops and Pollack reported that Marie Osmond was a recent customer.
The business of motherhood
Motherhood is big business, according to Phyllis Anka, vice president of design and manufacturing for the Santa Monica, Calif.-based Motherhood chain. She said the average woman spends an average of $700 for her maternity wardrobe nationwide, while in urban markets, such as Chicago and New York, the average customer spends between $1,500 to $2,000.
Because the market is so lucrative, Anka said, Motherhood`s in-house designers try to capture the interest of customers immediately by offering trendy fashions, such as Lycra leggings and trapeze tops, at moderate prices. Motherhood, which carries clothes from sportswear to eveningwear, has stores in several suburban shopping centers in the Chicago area.
Why reinvent the wheel?
While Page Boy and Motherhood have focused on clothing that is consummately cool and hip, other companies have paved the way with equally unconventional offerings. MaMe, a New Orleans-based mail-order company founded last fall by Katherine Marrero and Martha Duval, has forged new ground with a catalog that consists of simple and sophisticated ”cashmere cotton”
garments. While these two entrepreneurs do their own designing, their pieces are similar to those of designers like Nancy Heller and Joan Vass.
”I didn`t want to reinvent the wheel,” said Marrero, ”but I took stock of the maternity market and thought these kind of clothes were missing. They`re beautiful and very basic, but offbeat in a classic sense because they`re so pared down. Women can wear them often and add their own
embellishments.”
Marrero also pointed to the great lengths she and her partner went to in translating this particular style into a maternity mode. ”These things look good, feel good and really fit right,” she said. ”They`re proportioned for a pregnant person and offered in a wide range of colors that coordinate well with each other.”
Nothing like personal service
Clothes from all three of these companies could hold their own in any fashion arena, let alone the maternity market. But this phenomenon is in evidence almost everywhere, according to Jennifer Wittleder, owner of I Got You, Babe!, a 2-year-old enterprise with three stores in the Chicago area.
”It`s a very competitive market because women want such fashion-forward styles today.”
While this leaves lots of room for innovation in the mail-order market, Wittleder believes nothing can compensate for the kind of service that can be provided at local stores. ”We have a wide range of very contemporary clothes and it`s easier to put together a pregnancy wardrobe with the convenience of everything at hand,” she said.
Wittleder has designed her stores with oversized dressing rooms and grids to hang separates on so that customers can see how the clothes work with one another.
Wittleder`s expertise in this area was acquired while working as a maternity buyer for Marshall Field & Co. She left the company two years ago to open I Got You, Babe!. She now has shops in Winnetka`s Hubbard Woods Plaza, The Foundry Mall in Barrington and Market Square shopping center on North Clybourn Street.
Double duty
Wittleder also is a firm believer in casualwear. Much of her merchandaise works well for business and pleasure, she said.
And well they should, since ”it`s very important to have versatile offerings when you are dealing with the maternity market,” maintained Leanne Milnes O`Neil, maternity buyer for the Milwaukee-based P.A. Bergner & Co.
(which owns Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co.).
”It`s very important to have versatile offerings when you are dealing with the maternity market,” maintained Leanne Milnes O`Neil, maternity buyer for the Milwaukee-based P.A. Bergner & Co. (which owns Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co.).
As the reigning doyenne of one of the last major department store maternity sections, O`Neil said pregnant ”women still want to be on top of trends. Even though (pregnant) women want trendier creations, they want more mileage out of these clothes and want to be able to wear them day and night.” While Page Boy and MaMe are in the vanguard maternity trendiness, Carson`s also is following suit. ”I shop the markets, buy designer styles and ask our suppliers to translate these samples into maternity specs (clothes),” O`Neil explained. ”But it`s crucial to find the right fit between price and style.”
Every penny counts
More than in any other market, price is important in maternity wear.
”It`s not like you can put these things on again next year,” O`Neil said, even though the most common comment she hears from customers is ”these look like real clothes.”
As a mass merchandiser, her stock covers one of the widest ranges of fashions in the business, and she said she likes to keep prices in the moderate range. Almost all of her offerings can do ”double duty” for day or evening with the right mixing and matching.
On the average, even the most fashionable maternity piece seems to cost less than its regular, ready-to-wear counterpart. For instance, Page Boy`s catalog tops out with a $229 Pucci-esque print silk dress, a mere drop in the bucket when compared to the lower-priced designer lines.
Hand-knit sweaters at I Got You, Babe! sell for $85 to $115 and MaMe`s cotton separates cost less than the attire that inspired them, with most pieces in the $60 to $95 range.
Some of this price differential can be attributed to elimination, claimed O`Neil, who works closely with manufacturers and said that by streamlining the production process she can offer customers better prices. This may mean leaving out a pressing or serging one less seam. But Marrero said if anything, MaMe`s garments are better constructed and sturdier than their non- maternity equivalents. ”They have to be, because women wear them more often,” she claimed.
Whatever style a pregnant women prefers, the evidence is clear that she now has a lot of leeway. The concept of cosmopolitan clothes has begun to jive with the realities of reproduction. –
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To receive the catalogs mentioned, contact Page Boy at 1-800-225-3103 and MaMe at 1-800-638-1986.
