Mom’s the Word : Fashion: Maternity clothes evolve to meet demands of the career-oriented older mothers-to-be.

Maternity clothes are changing, but it has nothing to do with the seasonal whims of fashion. The number of working women over 35 who elect to be first-time mothers is on the increase--they now account for 3.5% of all pregnancies, according the National Center for Health Statistics. And these women have designers hustling to meet their very particular fashion needs.

Today’s pregnant career women tend to continue working into their third trimester. They want well-cut suits and office-worthy dresses in quality fabrics and updated styles.

“Most of this new breed are professional women with plenty of money to spend,” says Sara Pollak, West Coast operations manager for Reborn Maternity, a New York-based company with three stores in Los Angeles. “They come in and buy entire wardrobes, not just an outfit or two. They go for a dignified, expensive look.”

Pollak says the average age of her customers has increased in the last nine years. Shoppers used to be 25 to 30, but today, most of them are in their 30s and 40s.

In part, these older mothers-to-be prefer a more serious dress style because it helps them to maintain a businesslike image.

“Some may be concerned that pregnancy connotes something unprofessional,” Pollak says. “They want to counteract that. The lawyer or marketing executive who comes in here needs to reassure her clients that she’s as capable as ever. So she really goes all out to look serious and impressive and well-heeled. The very last thing she wants is to look cutesy.”

In addition, pregnant women in their 30s and 40s want to dress as they did before they became pregnant. They do not want to change their style simply because they can’t find clothes that suit their tastes.

“One principle everyone in the maternity wear business agrees on is that the 40-plus pregnant woman should not alter her basic look just because she’s pregnant,” says Elsie Frankfurt Pollock, president of the Page Boy Maternity shop in Beverly Hills.

Until the early 1980s, many women found that almost impossible to manage. Most maternity wear looked as if it had been designed for an adolescent. There were inverted-cone shaped blouses with little collars and bows. Floral print jumpers were another staple.

“When you walked into a maternity store you felt like you’d entered a time warp,” Pollock says. “Women would want to say, ‘Hey, I’m having a baby, not becoming one.’ ”

Says Fabienne Struell owner of the Los Angeles maternity wear company, Fontaine Corp., “The whole situation has changed in the last five years. Where you used to use cheap fabrics because these were ‘temporary’ clothes, now you use the best fabrics. You have a more sophisticated buyer who goes for more sophisticated styling.”

Some enterprising owners of maternity shops now enlist cutting-edge, ready-to-wear designers to adapt their collections for pregnant women. Companies such as Sketches, a New York firm, as well as ABS and Urso of Los Angeles, are among those known for their sportswear and separates, and more recently, their limited-edition maternity collections.

At Saks Fifth Avenue, where expectant mothers over the age of 35 constitute 70% of the maternity department’s customers, tastes are conservative. Fashion Director Ginny Sydorick explains: “They tend to prefer subdued colors, black and navy, and to stay away from bright colors. They go for a more tailored look.”

But it seems that pregnant business women are willing to shed their conservative clothes after hours. “For weekend wear they buy the bright colors, wear shorts with overblouses and cotton leggings with overblouses. Thicker cotton leggings, not the skin-tight kind,” says Sydorick. T-shirt dresses and jumpsuits are other top sellers in the Saks maternity department.

Struell concurs that pregnant women in their 30s and 40s tend to lighten up on weekends. Leggings and T-shirts are among her best selling designs.

“Many women want to have fun and continue to show off their bodies while they’re pregnant,” she says. At the age of 35 herself, and seven months pregnant, Struell says that she often exchanges clothing with her 14-year-old. “We’ll both wear miniskirts with big tops or my cotton Lycra leggings with big tops.”

Much as the situation has improved, Ann Stone, a veteran saleswoman in the Saks maternity department, sees the need for additional fashion options for executive pregnant women.

“The area where manufacturers are failing this group is formal wear,” Stone says. “These women have reached the stage in life where they are attending formal functions frequently. They tell me all the time that they can’t find anything to wear.”

Pollak of Reborn Maternity found evening wear in lame and sequined crepe, in sophisticated silhouettes, for her stores. But to do so, she says, “We ravaged the market.”

But professional women aren’t the only influences on maternity wear. Women in all occupations are delaying pregnancy and are helping to revolutionize more moderately priced lines of clothing.

At Motherhood Maternity in Century City, which caters to the middle-level buyer, 25-year-old assistant manager Chris Oswald says, “Nobody my age is coming into the store. They’re all at least in their 30s, and we get quite a few 42-year-olds these days, too.”

Best sellers for the more mature pregnant women who shop at Motherhood Maternity include solid colored conservative styles such as a dignified, pleated black jumper, says saleswoman Christine Few.