User:Jtabshier

Bibliography

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/7e/12/5b/234172a7bf1d00/US20060010571A1.pdf

https://books.google.com/books?id=6E1yd9Jpw5QC&lpg=PA69&ots=5HCjdKPEBB&dq=maternity%20fashion&lr&pg=PA72#v=onepage&q=maternity%20fashion&f=false

1900 to present
The first commercial ready-to-wear clothing for pregnant women was sold in the US by Lane Bryant, which opened in 1904. Lane Bryant offered shirtwaists with an adjustable drawstring waist, and dresses with an adjustable wrap-around front. '

The next competitor, Page Boy, offered a patented skirt in 1937. By the 30's wrap-around skirts with a series of buttons were available, but the new Page Boy skirt was constructed with a window over the area of the expanding abdomen. In later years  when stretch fabric became available it was used to fill in the window. Their clothing, usually a slim skirt with a wide smock top, became fashionable during the 1950s, when celebrities such as Jackie Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor wore their clothes.

Slacks with adjustable waists became widely available in the 1950's. An Aldens catalog from 1952 shows a pedal pusher and matching blouse outfit priced at $5.98. Designer blue jeans became available in the '80s. . Satchel Maternity filed a patent for a maternity pant with a double waistband in 2004. This would enable women to wear maternity pants that would appear normal, but would still allow the waistband to expand as the pregnancy developed.

Further developments in maternity clothing styles have meant that many maternity tops are also made to enable discreet nursing, extending the usable life of maternity clothes beyond just the period whilst pregnant.

Maternity clothes around the world have been undergoing significant changes. In both Eastern and Western cultures, there is greater demand for fashionable maternity clothes. In Western cultures the influence of celebrity culture.+ means that pregnant women in the public eye are taking the lead in maternity fashion. One such example is Demi Moore's 1991 Vanity Fair cover, which was one of the first instances of a magazine cover depicting an expectant mother. As a result, pregnant women are no longer trying to hide or disguise their "baby bumps", instead choosing to wear garments which closely fit their new shape, often emphasising the bust and abdominal area. Fashion bloggers have caught on to the shift in perception and began to regularly discuss new styles and fabrics designed with the pregnant form in mind. High-tech fabrics such as elastane are the material of choice for maternity wear in Western cultures as they allow garments to be form-fitting while allowing the abdominal area to expand as necessary.

Cost and economics
Historically maternity clothing hasn't generally been considered a potentially profitable area for most major clothing manufacturers due to a belief that many women wouldn't purchase clothes intended for only a few months of wearing. Declining birth rates have also reduced sales. However, with wide media interest in celebrity pregnancies beginning in the late 1990s, the maternity wear market grew 10% between 1998 and 2003. It was also during this time that the term "pregnant chic" was developed in order for companies to market to pregnant women. In 2006, Kate Bostock of Marks & Spencer said the demand for maternity clothes was growing because "Nowadays women are working during pregnancy, and travelling, and going to the gym, so their clothing needs are greater and more diverse."