Maternity store has mass appeal

[attach]6623[/attach]When Thornhill-based maternity wear boutique Seven Women Maternity added a North Toronto location, they didn’t expect the unexpected customers.

“The funniest thing we’re seeing is a lot of walk-in traffic that are not pregnant and not looking to get pregnant anytime soon,” says owner Stephanie Ingram. “They’re just drawn in by what they see in the windows or through the windows so we’ve actually started seeing sales to women that aren’t expecting.”

Featuring stylish pregnancy apparel and designer brands from around the world, the boutique on Yonge Street near Ranleigh Avenue offers a range of casual wear, denim, work attire and formal and evening wear in a variety of styles. Ever since opening the first store in 2002, Ingram says they wanted to be the Holt Renfrew of maternity.

“The focus is on designer clothing as well as tailor made clothing so they fit really nicely, they wear really nicely and they last,” she says. “It’s important for our customers that they maintain their look, they maintain their style. Yes, you’re going to change but you shouldn’t have to change your style, absolutely not.”

One of their specialties is jeans, featuring designers like Paige, Citizens of Humanity and Rock & Republic, and modified jeans by True Religion and 7 For All Mankind, which don’t offer maternity jeans.

“We make it very clear to the customers that we actually have it modified, and we modify them according to how our maternity jeans are done,” she says.

At a more affordable price point are jeans by Maternal America, which have received a lot of great feedback over the years and come in a variety of styles and washes, she says. An emphasis is also placed on educating the customer on what to expect from the clothes, especially when it comes to jeans.

“Pregnancy is not an exact science,” Ingram says. “Your friends’ experience isn’t going to be your experience, you never know what’s going to come at you and we love to share information. It’s amazing the conversations that we get into with customers. What we hear, we pass on and the dialogue gets very interesting at times.”

Upon opening the boutique in the area in October, Ingram says they were immediately welcomed to the community.

“We had people coming in soon after we opened our doors welcoming us into the neighbourhood and we’re not used to that because in the Thornhill location we’re not on a similar retail strip,” she says. “It was just phenomenal, the support. It was very welcoming.”