The craze for working out also has shaped maternity clothing. Women don t change, they re still the same people when they get pregnant. If they were going to the gym, keeping in shape, wearing sexy clothes before they got pregnant, they re going to do the same thing after they get pregnant. They re proud of their bodies and they re going to show them off, she said. The proliferation of stretch fabrics has been another major influence in maternity-wear design, she said.
Stretch allows for a better-fitting garment.
It can be body-conscious but still expand as needed. Women are tending to be a little older when they get pregnant. They re in their 30s, rather than their 20s. They ve had time to develop their own sense of style. At the time, women still were having a hard time finding the body-conscious clothing they were seeing on celebrities.