With Love, From Japanese Weekend : The San Francisco Firm Has Pregnant Women All Aglow With Its Decidedly Non-Pink, Non-Frilly Cat Suits, Pants and Jackets

Japanese Weekend might sound like a travel agency that arranges quick getaways to the Pacific Rim for well-heeled tourists on tight schedules.

But no. To hear many pregnant women tell it, this oddly named little San Francisco company holds the ticket to the hippest maternity clothing around, sold under the JWO label.

Its cotton-knit cat suits, pants, jackets, dresses and lingerie--primarily in basic solids such as black, navy and red--have won a loyal following among the baby-boom set for their ease of wear, durability and--mostly--style. Frilly, they’re not. Pink, they’re not. Polyester, they’re not.

For Patty Orsini, who is nearing the end of her first pregnancy, Japanese Weekend has been a saving fashion grace.

“When I was first pregnant, I walked into a couple of maternity shops and had to walk right out,” said Orsini, a copy editor for a computer trade publication whose taste runs to casual, simple, sophisticated clothes. “Nothing was appealing. So much of it is just so silly-looking and makes you look so dorky and frumpy. I couldn’t face it.”

But a friend recommended JWO, and Orsini dived in. Her maternity wardrobe now consists largely of JWO mix-and-match pieces, borrowed and owned. Because she watches for sales, Orsini figures she has spent about $200 on separates. JWO clothing is not cheap: The long-sleeved cat suit in solid colors is $99, $105 in houndstooth, pants are $37, and a basic nursing top is $62.

One of Orsini’s favorite ensembles is a black cat suit--something she never would have thought to pick off the Donna Karan rack at Macy’s before her pregnancy--with a short, rose-colored jacket. When a shop owner persuaded her to try the JWO cat suit, “I fell in love with it,” she says.

The name Japanese Weekend was devised in 1979 by Judy Gittelsohn and Barbie White, two Portland, Ore., artists who had migrated to California. They conceived a conceptual art piece in respect of the ancient Japanese tea ceremony. The plan was to serve tea to Gary Miles, a friend and graphic artist, as he lay alfresco on an air mattress at Embarcadero Center, a downtown office and retail complex near San Francisco Bay.

The “Japanese Weekend” art piece never happened, but White and Miles teamed up to silk-screen fabrics for kimonos. White, a dancer and choreographer, tried selling her wares to the Fiorucci boutique in Los Angeles, but the shop instead ordered copies of what she had on: a bubble dress with a boat neck and bands on the sleeves and around the knees.

Later, at the boutique’s Mardi Gras party, she spied a woman in one of the bubble dresses backing out of a restroom stall. When the woman turned around, revealing herself to be several months pregnant, “the bulb went on,” White recalled in an interview at Japanese Weekend’s warehouse offices, which sit on a narrow alley called Isis, after the Egyptian goddess of fertility and motherhood.

Gittelsohn soon signed on as a partner and the two tried to make a go of selling kimonos, knitwear and contemporary sportswear, but found the market too competitive. They started making outfits for a pregnant friend and decided to forsake the crowded contemporary arena.

Ironically, neither woman has ever been pregnant. But after interviewing scores of friends and customers, White came up with a few design innovations--notably the OK waistband, which rests under the abdomen for extra support and comfort. A corollary product, the OK Flip It, which can be adjusted to offer more or less support, is featured on the company’s exercise wear.

White, 36, and Gittelsohn, 38, whose offbeat paintings adorn the company’s offices and its sole retail shop, JWO, near Union Square, depend largely on word-of-mouth promotion by customers and retailers. (The name is pronounced “whoa,” with the J silent. The O , Gittelsohn explains, represents the “circle of life.”) The company also does limited mail-order selling.

Sharon Duffy, a Fountain Valley computer programmer who gave birth to her second daughter in June, buys the JWO label at Style for Two, a Newport Beach shop where the line accounts for one-fourth of sales.

“JWO suited me just fine,” Duffy said. “I don’t consider myself trendy. My standard mode of dress when I’m not pregnant is (Levi’s) Dockers.”

Duffy’s maternity wardrobe consisted mostly of four pairs of JWO pants that she wore throughout her pregnancy.

Carol Ann Friedman, a nurse and lactation consultant who owns the Mothers With Style maternity boutique in Glendale, has carried the JWO line for more than three years. She said she was pleased to find a designer who made practical clothing specifically for nursing mothers as well as maternity wear.

She sells customers on the idea that JWO is ideal for that awkward postpartum phase when women try to regain their shape.

“It’s easy to sell because I know that once women wear it they’ll like it,” Friedman said. “It’s a little pricey for our clients, but we try to encourage moms to buy two or three pieces.”

So far, the clothing has been more popular in Northern California, where Friedman owns the Mother and Me shop in San Jose. While Southern California buyers prefer casual clothing, Bay Area customers tend to like a less trendy, more sophisticated look. Japanese Weekend recently added rayon floral dresses and two- or three-piece career knitwear.

The last few recessionary years have been tough, especially because the baby boom is tapering off. The company’s biggest year was 1989, when it grossed $4 million. This year, it hopes for $3.5 million in sales.

Realizing the road ahead could be bumpy, Gittelsohn and White plan to seek new “micro-distributors,” including midwife networks, fertility clinics and--oh, so California!--sperm banks. As Gittelsohn noted, those customers are really motivated.

“The peak should have been 1991-92,” Gittelsohn said, “but that is when the economy and the (Persian Gulf) war combined killed it. It’s been a hard climb back up.”

Related markets beckon. Infant wear, children’s wear, maternity clothes for large women. But, as long as the audience is there, the centerpiece will be maternity.

“Our consumers are ravenous,” Gittelsohn said. “Getting through to them is our challenge.”