Posted on: Thursday, December 16, 2004
Designer tackles motherhood, maternity line
By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer
Fashion designer Mamo Howell was sitting in her living room one Sunday evening watching the Baraquio sisters on their OC 16 TV show when pregnant Angela Baraquio spoke directly into the camera ... to Mamo: Hey, Mamo, why don't you do a maternity line?
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser She took that thought to her studio for discussions with her production manager, Tiffany Giand.
Giand agreed that the market needed a line of day-to-evening maternity aloha wear, so Mamo gathered her team of pattern makers, cutters and graders together to make it happen.
The concept began with comfort, an absolute necessity for the Island mother-to-be. Mamo selected the most light-weight, cool fabrics from among her signature prints.
Silhouettes had to be tweaked to allow for expanding tummies. Halter tops and empire bodices were refined and modified for fit.
The fit for a maternity line is a tricky thing. Each pregnant woman expands in a different way. Mamo learned that she had to allow for a two-inch difference from one size to the next (for example, from small to medium) rather than the traditional one-eighth inch per seam. Stretch panels also had to be added to pants and skirts.
"I really wanted to make the clothes fashionable enough that they would wear them after the baby is born — not something they'll stick in the back of their closets until the next baby is on the way," Mamo said.
The result is a line of about a dozen silhouettes in sizes S to XL. Her retail store at Ward Warehouse will also take special orders for other sizes.
Styles include kicky chiffon skirts with tiered ruffles, peasant style tunics, two-layer sexy pants with bold prints peeking through thigh-high slits, halter sun dresses and flirty matching tops and skirts with ruffles on the cap sleeves as well as the hems. Some silhouettes have flattering asymmetrical lines.
Colors are fashion-forward brights such as lime green, fuchsia and orchid. Classic red, white and black, a few neutrals and some soft pastels round out the line.
Mamo Maternity sells for about $28 to $65 per piece at the Ward Warehouse store.
The line is clearly inspired by celebrities such as the Baraquio sisters, Sarah Jessica Parker and Julia Roberts.
Reach Paula Rath at 525-5464 or prath@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Mamo bolted upright and started thinking: "Hmmmm ... there isn't much aloha wear for pregnant women, especially dressy things. ... In fact, a lot of what's out there is kind of hokey. There's no one more beautiful than a pregnant woman, so why not make her the clothes to match her beauty during this special time?"
Roxane Bybee, left, of La'ie, six months pregnant with her second child, and Joni Marcello of Manoa, who is four months pregnant with her second child, appreciate the comfort and femininity of their Mamo Maternity outfits. They commented that the clothes are more fashion forward than what they found during their first pregnancies.
