Mimi's Maternity, located on the first floor of Salt Lake City's Trolley Square, is an elite shop offering high-fashion clothing for the expectant mother. In fact, it doesn't look like a maternity store and could be more accurately called the Ann Taylor of maternity wear.
Mimi's is owned by Mothers Work Inc. established in Philadelphia by Rebecca Matthias in 1982 when she was expecting her first child. A financial manager at a computer company, Mathias discovered what numerous working women already knew - that attractive maternity wear for the working woman was rare. So she took action by developing a mail- order catalog designed for the upscale, professional pregnant woman.In 1984, Mothers Work began opening franchise stores around the country, and in 1990, the Mimi Maternity chain of stores opened to meet the needs of fashion-conscious women who wanted to spend a bit more for quality merchandise that also made a fashion statement.
By 1992, virtually all of the franchise stores became company-owned, and the following year, Mothers Work, over 60 stores strong, went public, allowing for an aggressive expansion plan across the country. In 1994, Mothers Work acquired the Page Boy Company (22 stores) and in 1995, A Pea in a Pod (66 stores).
According to Denise Wilde, manager of Mimi's at Trolley Square, the store's biggest claim to fame is "quality, diversity and fit. We have some women who come in here and say they wish they were pregnant so they could buy our clothes."
Mimi's is advertised as one of the most versatile maternity stores anywhere. A customer can buy clothing for career, social, holiday, evening, casual - even lingerie. Dena Eytan, Mimi's assistant manager, has noticed that "many of the customers are lawyers and doctors who can't find what they need anywhere else."
According to Wilde, the quality is so high that the clothes purchased at Mimi's "will easily last five years. We can carry a lot of the same styles over and over again because we have a lot of classics. People like them because they don't look like maternity clothes - they look like regular clothes."
Wilde says that if a certain clothing style is available in Nordstrom or Ann Taylor, it will be found also in Mimi's. There is a difference, of course. The clothing at Mimi's is expandable or adjustable. Some dresses and jumpers have ties or clips in the back that can be tied or clipped to suit the number of months, but most can be worn anywhere from two to seven months.
What some people don't realize, says Wilde, is that "even if a woman is pregnant, she wants to be in style. She wants to feel good about herself. She wants maybe two or three nice outfits she can feel great in."
Wilde says, "With tailored clothes, you gain 5 or 10 pounds, and your regular clothes are not going to fit you. That's where we come in. When women come in to try them on, we have pillows, because a lot of women may be two months along, and they have teeny little stomachs. So we give them the pillows that will give them the extra three months or six months, and they will get an idea of how much room they have to grow."
At Mimi's, the philosophy is that no woman should be expected to wear a tent. The fabric and buttons are both of very high quality.
This year, the hot items are polar fleece, corduroy in olive and stone and overalls in varied colors - maintaining both style and comfort. Fleece and leggings are popular with women who like to keep skiing in the early months. Zippers, fur and velvet collars and cuffs are also popular this year, and some cuffs are removable.
Suits come with both pants and skirts - and the skirts vary greatly in length - as much as 3 inches - to accommodate the Salt Lake culture. Vests and jumpers can either be worn plain or with a T-shirt underneath. Suits at Mimi's are available from $128 to $195 - and most of the other clothing is also priced within a broad range.
Mimi's has a diverse selection of evening wear or special occasion dresses. According to Wilde, Mimi's is the only place in Salt Lake that carries evening maternity wear.
Although none of the models in our pictures are actually pregnant, they demonstrate the stylish looks in casual and dress-up wear.
The underlying theme at Mimi's is that women need not be frustrated about pregnancy because they can attain both high fashion and comfort - and that's saying a lot when you're talking about a process that lasts nine months.