Design Aspects for Smart Maternity Wear: A Strategy for a Healthy and Fashionable Pregnancy

Abstract

During pregnancy, expectant women experience dramatic physical body changes in terms of body silhouette, measurement, weight and posture. This lead to the need of clothes that can accommodate the changes and make the expectant women attractive and comfortable. Most expectant women have experience in dressing their non-pregnant body due to the availability of many styles and cuts of their normal clothing. Expectant women do realize that the maternity market in Kenya is limited in terms of the styles and cuts it offers. In addition, the maternity wear available in the market is expensive and only used during the last two trimesters. This makes expectant women opt to use the non-pregnant clothes which are ill fitting and uncomfortable to the fetus and the mother thus not buying the available maternity wear in the market. This study aims at determining the design aspects for smart maternity wear which is a solution to the unlimited styles and cuts available in the market. It explores the possibility of using design aspects like garment silhouette, control of fullness and fabric that stretches to accommodate the physical changes. The methodology used was first undertaking a survey that established the desired design aspects of the target respondents, developing the smart maternity wear and collecting feedback from the target respondent concerning the developed garments. The garments were well received as they provided a variety of style, cuts and can be used for a longer period. Smart maternity wear are every day clothes that fits women during and after pregnancy and provides proper fit for a healthy fetus and mother.