Motherhood reinvents fashion

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Deborah Sharkey likes to say that she started her maternity clothes shop as an act of self-defense.

Deborah Sharkey, in her Mo'ili'ili store with her children Ian, 3, and Holden, says she helps businesswomen who want to retain a professional look during pregnancy. She started out doing trunk shows at the Blaisdell center. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I wanted some maternity clothes that didn't look like they were made by Omar The Tent Man," said Sharkey, 36. "I woke up most mornings going, 'Do I really have to wear that?' "

Sharkey's Makana Mother & Baby started slowly in late spring and the early summer of 2001.

"In many ways it was a defensive measure," Sharkey said. "I didn't want to wear those same clothes if I got pregnant again."

She and her husband, Jerry Linville, spent about $40,000 from zero- or low-interest credit cards to buy merchandise from the Mainland. On Sept. 10, 2001, they were prepared to sign a lease on a store but something made Sharkey hesitate.

Then the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks hit, Hawai'i's economy tanked, and Sharkey and Linville came up with a new idea to rent space out of the Neal Blaisdell Center twice a month and sell clothes as a "trunk show."

"It was Makana Mother & Baby in the O'ahu room or Makana Mother & Baby in the Hawai'i room," Sharkey said.

"It was a decision made out of desperation because we didn't feel comfortable with the economy to commit to a space."

"Have you ever actually touched a cash register?" she said. "Because I haven't."

Linville is the executive director of the Hawai'i Marketing Alliance but on weekends shouldered a new title serving as his wife's "pack mule."

Sharkey describes herself as "5-foot-3 on a tall-hair day" and was pregnant with their second son, Holden. So Linville, who's 6 feet 5 and 270 pounds, rented a U-Haul after work on Fridays, loaded 1,000 pieces of clothes through the night and unloaded everything first thing Saturday morning at the Blaisdell.

Sunday night, he'd pack it all up and stuff it back into their den.

"We lost the den for a year," Sharkey said. "It was so full of boxes and racks that if I wanted to find something, I would have to crawl around on the floor and pop up like a gopher."

She also learned to trust her own instincts instead of taking the advice of wholesalers from Los Angeles.

"If everyone in L.A. is wearing turquoise and lime, that doesn't mean that everyone in Hawai'i will wear turquoise and lime," Sharkey said. "There was a period in time when pregnant women on the Mainland were wearing bikinis. In this entire time, I've only had one woman ask me about a maternity bikini."

Sharkey spent thousands of dollars on merchandise "that have been huge blunders," she said. "In a lot of ways I was lucky because none of the mistakes were so huge that we couldn't recover from them."

The first year, Sharkey pulled in about $80,000 in sales. Then Linville injured his back just before another show.

"It seemed to be a sign from God that we needed to change the way we do business," Sharkey said. No one was happier than Linville when she decided to open a permanent store on South King Street at University Square in Mo'ili'ili.

Just before December, they invested another $10,000 to $15,000 from savings to open Makana Mother & Baby in an 800-square-foot site tucked away in a third-floor corner of the center.

The store has no signs that are visible from the street, has no employees, and opens on Fridays and Saturdays only, when Sharkey assumes most professional women will shop.

Diane Peters-Nguyen, vice president of corporate and public affairs for the Limtiaco Co. public relations firm, became pregnant again after she had given away her maternity clothes from her first pregnancy. Peters-Nguyen not only hates shopping, but also couldn't find anything that fit her career.

"I told Deb, 'You know what I need because you're in the business,'" Peters-Nguyen said. "'I need professional clothes at a reasonable price that will expand with my tummy.'

"You think you can't look nice with this big, fat 'opu out there. But Deb was a lifesaver. It makes a difference when you're as big as a house but you still look professional."

Makana Mother & Baby's revenues are projected to hit around $100,000 this year just being open two days a week. Sharkey tries to bring in more business by sponsoring maternity classes and partnering with a neighboring yoga business that caters to mothers-to-be.

"She definitely is making enough money to pay all of her expenses and have a little bit of side income," Linville said.

We want to let our readers know what life is like in the real world of small business. If you have a business, whether it is succeeding, failing or barely surviving, The Advertiser wants to hear how you got started and how you keep going through the highs and lows. Contact staff writer Dan Nakaso at 525-8085 or dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.