Pregnant Women Find New Fashions in Maternity Stores

When Susan Maples set out to buy maternity clothes during her first pregnancy four years ago, she found slim pickings for her expanding waistline.

“I was in a career mode and wanted clothes that looked like the clothes I wore when I wasn’t pregnant,” says Maples, a 35-year-old Irvine resident.

She envisioned the same kind of tailored outfits she wore to the office, only larger. Instead, she found mostly dresses with round Peter Pan collars, empire waistlines and tiny floral prints.

“Back then the stores tended to carry cutesy things,” she says.

Maples, who is expecting her second baby in June, had an easier time shopping for maternity clothes this time around. There were twice as many maternity shops, and they carried more sophisticated clothes.

“I’ve been fairly pleased,” she says. “There’s been a surge in the number of stores and the styles available since my first pregnancy.”

For prospective mothers, being pregnant no longer means being out of style. Or as an owner of a maternity consignment store says, “Just because you are having a child doesn’t mean you should have to dress like one.”

In Orange County, stores that offer up-to-the-minute maternity fashions have boomed, thanks to the area’s large population of young women and its high birthrate.

The median age for women in the county is 34, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency. The county’s birthrate exceeds the national rate and continues to climb. In 1986, it reached 17.3 births per 1,000 population; it was 15.6 per 1,000 for the rest of the country. In 1988, the local birthrate rose to 18.6.

As a result, maternity shops have popped up all over.

South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa has several maternity shops, including Mothers Work, a maternity shop specializing in clothes for career women that opened in the mall in April. A Pea in the Pod, which carries high-fashion maternity clothes, has moved into a store in Crystal Court twice its original size and recently received the mall award for having the highest sales per square foot in 1989.

Retailers have started recognizing that women no longer hide at home during their pregnancies but often work in an office until it’s virtually time to go to the hospital.

Dana Rosen, owner of the Dallas-based A Pea in the Pod, founded the company in 1984 after her first pregnancy. A former model who loves stylish fashions, she remembers looking at maternity clothes and thinking, “This just can’t be true.”

“Everything had bows up to here and waists down to there,” she says.

She decided to “provide pregnant women with quality styling,” clothes that kept pace with fashion trends. This year, she plans to open her 25th store.

“Pregnant women can still be sexy, powerful and fashionable,” she says.

Her stores offer clothes for all occasions, from the board room to a black-tie function.

Instead of pastels and frills, one finds jewel tones and bold designs. The Crystal Court store carries an array of leggings in colorful prints, including a neon leopard, a rainbow tie-dye, bright paisleys and loud florals for $38. The leggings can be worn with big T-shirts hand-painted in bright colors.

For evening wear, there’s a little black dress with sequined-covered sleeves for $275 or an off-shoulder electric-blue dress with an big bow at the neck for $225--hardly the matronly shifts of pregnancies past.

Mothers Work, with stores in MainPlace/Santa Ana and South Coast Plaza, also proves that women can look professional while pregnant.

“We found a lack of maternity clothes for executives,” says Jennifer Christian, manager of the MainPlace store. “These women are used to wearing fitted clothing.”

The Philadelphia-based company specializes in smart suits and dresses that can carry women through to the ninth month.

The styles incorporate boxy-shaped suit jackets, skirts with elastic and drawstring waistbands and dresses with straight lines, adjustable straps at the waist and strategically placed pleats.

One classically tailored dress features a double-breasted front with two rows of gold buttons and pleats that fall from shoulder to hemline, available for $118.

A wrap-style navy blazer ties in a bow at the side to accommodate an expanding figure. The jacket, available for $98, can be matched with an eggshell-colored pleated slip skirt for $56.

When buying maternity clothes, many pregnant women don’t want to spend a lot of money on clothes they’ll only wear a few months.

“Maternity clothes tend to be very expensive,” says Marlene Strauss, owner of Pickles & Ice Cream, a consignment shop in El Toro that carries second-hand maternity wear.

“The manufacturers know they have a captive audience,” she says. “When you need maternity clothes, you need them. It’s not like you can go buy them at a discount store” or wait for them to go on sale.

At her store, one can find everything from shorts and tank tops to formal wear for about half of the retail price.

She also rents formal maternity clothes.

“I heard many women moaning and groaning about paying $250 for an ‘after 5’ dress they’d wear only once,” she says.