| Get Into It! Spring - Summer 2008 |
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making it work
Maximum Mama is not about “Black women in general” because Black women are all types of women.
My sister is an occupational therapist. She dresses differently for work. My sister-in-law stays home. She dresses differently for work. My sister in Florida is like a little social butterfly. Her lifestyle is very different. A 25-year old Black woman is going to ask for different things than a 50-year old Black woman.
It also depends on where we live. I’m in San Francisco, it’s a lot more California lifestyle. Everyone’s a lot more attached to their jeans and T-shirts than, say, a New Yorker who’s going to have to do the suits and have cute stuff on the weekends. In Canada, I find my customers tend to dress more on par with my UK customers. It’s very different.
And you can’t be all things to all people. We target women 25 to 35. It’s a small window but that’s the age that most women are most likely to start having children.
You have a pick a muse and go with that. It really helps your design because you know who this girl is. You know what her basic lifestyle is going to be. You can say, Oh yeah, that’s my girl, she’s going to want this. When you’re sitting in a design meeting and a garment comes in on the Fit Model, you can look at that and say, “Our girl’s not going to want that. It doesn’t work for her.”
The Early Years
I grew up in a family of six kids. I’m the absolute youngest by almost twenty years so I’m truly the baby of the family. The first time one of us was pregnant, we were all so involved in it. My sister Patricia, she loves her clothes. She’s a very petite woman and she’s all about her clothes. We all have that girlfriend, you know, the heels, the hairstyle, the nails done like this, you know, she doesn’t walk too fast because sweating might mess up her makeup! Then she got pregnant.
Back then, the concept was, Oh, just wear something big. But, on a petite woman, it just looks like you’re wearing the wrong size. Patricia was just not happy. So she would call me, Oh just come help me. Help me put together a little outfit. So I did it once, because Oh, she’s not feeling so good. Let me just do something up to surprise her, help her out. And that was it. Then I started getting a call just about every other morning or so.
I don’t think her husband liked me too much. I would come and rip apart his shirts to make these little obi bands, you know those Japanese bands that wrap around the kimono? It got to a point that whenever he saw me, he’d just look like, Oh God, I know what’s about to happen.
After Patricia gave birth, everyone else started saying, Well, you helped out Patricia. Are you going to help me out? I said, okay, sure…and it just became a thing that I did.
Before Maximum Mama, I worked as a media negotiator. Then I started my own Special Events business organizing corporate events. When I moved from New York to San Francisco with my husband Nelson, I worked here with a company doing their special events. But I wasn’t too crazy about going back to Corporate America. I was going back and forth, trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I actually went to check out a couple of design schools here in San Francisco. I said, Oh, maybe it’s unrealistic. I don’t know.
I had just started working for General Electric; it hadn’t even been seven months. Then they laid off my whole division! And that day, one of the schools called me! I said, That is the weirdest thing!
GE is a fantastic company. They really do take care of you if you have a layoff situation. So, I figured it would be a really good time to go back to school while I had the opportunity to do so.
I did everything during that time period. I was a returning student and I didn’t have any time to waste. I worked as a stylist while I was in school, did all these internships just so that I was learning. So that when I finished school, I could start something.
I didn’t know I wanted to do maternity at that time. You know, it just kind of fell into my lap. I was in class and I said, I just don’t know what to design. I want to design something wonderful that really makes me happy. And a friend said, Well, you have a really big family. What about something there, like children or…? As she was about to say it, I finished her sentence: Maternity! I could do maternity!
Solving Problems for Pregnant Women
I really do enjoy doing maternity. I love being a problem-solver for pregnant women, having to wear ugly things and not feeling their best. I love seeing what happens when women walk out of here. Just seeing the look on their faces! And the stories that they tell you, they make you a part of their life.
To me, it’s a big deal that they’re sharing this very intimate part of their lives. And they keep you attached for a long time. We get emails, Oh here’s the dress that I wore to my cousin’s wedding, here’s my baby, everything. The baby losses, people who have lost babies calling us. The first time it happened, it was actually a bit disconcerting because I didn’t know how to react. We get the happiness and the sadness.
It took me awhile to wrap my head around it and be comfortable with being such a part of what was going on. Now I love it! I love being a problem-solver and making sure that the clothes aren’t just sexy and cute but also comfortable. It doesn’t make any sense if it’s so tight that it hurts.
I remember this one woman came in here and she was wearing…I’m not even going to say the name of the brand but she was wearing maternity jeans. She was doing this odd walk. I thought, A walk like that is not good on a pregnant woman. Something is wrong. I said, “Do you need to sit down? Are you okay? Can we get you some water?” She said, “No, but these jeans are just killing me!” I said, “While you’re here I’m going to have you slip out of those and put some of our yoga pants on because I can’t watch you walking around like that.” You can’t suffer for fashion. It’s not healthy, it’s not safe. There are a lot of ways to look cute without killing yourself.
The big thing for Maximum Maternity is the fit. How it falls to the body. How it grows as your belly is growing. You can take it from four months all the way to your ninth month and not have to go out and replace the pants. It’s also about the quality. You shouldn’t have to wash it and it dies in the wash. As my sister would say during her pregnancy, I shouldn’t have to be worried about stuff like that. I bought it, it should just be there. I shouldn’t have to worry about all this upkeep and business because I’m just too pregnant to focus on anything else but what I’m doing! That is the thing that makes Maximum Maternity special. It’s about the fabric, the durability of the designs, how it supports the body and fits to the body. That’s what makes us unique.
The Family Way
I have thirteen nieces and nephews. Actually, no, fourteen! Number fourteen, I keep leaving her out, she’s a year and a half now. And everyone always says, You don’t have any children?! But we’re actually trying right now.
We’re trying, literally. We’ve done all our process, which means going to the doctor, making sure that I’m okay, he’s okay, everything’s ready. Getting our calendar ready for that time of the month I’m fertile. As my doctor says, the going thought line is, Oh, you should just be doing a lot of practicing. It doesn’t always work like that! Because, you know, fatigue sets in. You want to know that when you’re trying, you’re actually being effective. Really, it makes sense. We’re in our late thirties now and we just really need to be focused on what we’re doing.
Nelson’s mom and my mom, the advice we got from both of them was Take your time. Don’t be in such a rush to have the kids. Enjoy your life together first because long after the kids are gone, the only thing that you’re going to have is each other. Have fun with each other. Make that foundation first and then add some other people to it. So that’s what we did. We really took it to heart and that really worked for us. Now we’re ready.
Still, to be an aunt or an uncle is a huge privilege. Parents can’t do it by themselves. It’s good to have the aunts and uncles there to give support and help out and the grandparents and everything.
Now that my family knows we’re trying, it’s a big deal for them. I think when you’re the baby of the family and by so many years, it does become a big deal for everyone. The baby wants to have a baby. My goodness! But I guess that’s okay, because you’re always going to be the baby. Even when you’re seventy, you’re going to be the baby. But it’s fine. Your family loves you. It’s okay. There are worse things.
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What's On?
CNN Special: Blacks in America
"Somebody who saw that special will be looking at me now, thinking that I am probably pregnant with twins for a man whose name I don’t know and looking to the welfare system to support me because it is obvious that a black man never would, right?!"