Maternity/nursing bra design
Maternity bra design is one of my highest bra-design chats I have with designers on one-to-ones, women having babies and realising that the maternity sector doesn’t offer that much different choice or doesn’t give them what they need, especially if breast feeding for a long time.
By the time I had my second child I altered a maternity bra I already had bought and by the third child, I ditched buying maternity bras and made my own.
That all said, I’m not saying that there aren’t some awesome brands out there covering maternity/nursing bras it’s just that I never found one to cater to want I wanted.
So I thought I’d go over what I did or how I designed my bras and if it helps someone out there who is thinking about designing a lingerie brand that offers maternity/nursing bras and it gives you some ideas, that is brilliant. Or if you are planning to make your own then I hope this helps too.
I have no plans to design maternity bras so you’re welcome to take any of these ideas and mould them to your design. I went to a FF cup each time after each baby, so support was paramount.
The first babe
With the first baby, (eight years ago) I bought store bought/brand bought bras, these ranged from Lorna Drew, Hot milk and high street store bras usually from Debenhams (as that was my closest big store). As maternity bras go, they were okay. I loved the bright colours of the hotmilk bra, the adjustable cup size on Lorna Drew (although it did break eventually) and it was another bulky clip to deal with.
Nothing was ideal, I always felt my boobs sat way wider than my body, but didn’t know if that because I was supporting FF boobs, rather than my usual DDs.
The second babe
With the second babe, (6 years ago) I was working with a brand, that wanted me to work with them to make incontinent briefs look a little bit more amazing than they did. So this meant lace, dotty meshes working with a wicking away layer, a layer that neutralised the smell, an absorbent layer and a waterproof layer. The baby was coming to meetings and it was when I was sampling up a pair of briefs for them, I looked at the off cuts and thought could I put all those components in the bra cup so I could do away with breast pads, which i hated the shape showing under tight fitting clothes, them wrinkling, just them generally being there.
I bought a lightly padded soft bra ,cut out the padding and took a pattern off the pad then made up the new inner cups and sewed them in. I did a test like you see on a nappy advert and poured water on the bra and voila, no leaks or no dampness to touch. I went on and made 2 more bras and had them in rotation. I’m sure I have a video somewhere of my water tests, but to be honest most of my photo reel back then are full of cute baby pictures not bra pictures.
The bras weren’t the best looking beasts, and the bloody clip was still there, which was a pain if you were feeding the baby and the toddler did a runner whilst you were out, you had to stop feeding, attempt to do up the clip and then chase the toddler.
The third babe
With the third babe (3 years ago) I gambled that I would be a 32FF as like with the previous babies (I was) and I got to making a pattern to try and eliminate the clip. I had solved my dislike of breast pads, now the clips. I thought about magnets, hook and eyes, played with the idea of having an opening on the underarm. In my sketch book all of these ideas could have been a winner, the reality with 2 kids under 4, being pregnant and a husband who worked away a lot and me still working with clients, there wasn’t going to be time to do any tests.
So I worked with what I knew and was fabrics and elastic stretch and how they worked. The inside of the bra was sorted, I also put in an extra piece of powernet from the side to the lower part of the cup, cut slightly smaller than what I needed to allow for when the boobs grew or shrank, it would allow the cup to sit closer to the boob and keep the boobs heading forward for when they changed size.
In the end I went with a bra design I designed from a previous Vanjo collection, the high apex bra. With the bra going up over the shoulder it allows for the fabric part of the cup to be manipulated and moved. So instead of using clips, I simply pulled the cup to the side, I used elastic that had a good recovery so would go back fine each time.
Maternity/nursing bra with absorbable cups
They state a bra should only last 6-9 months before you should change it due to wear and tear, and my thoughts were that I would never wear this bra once I stopped feeding, as my boobs didn’t stay FF size. So if the neckline got stretched over the the six months it wouldn’t matter.
I also designed the bra so that it had a lace triangle in the middle at the Centre Front, to allow for boob size to change so basically my boobs wouldn’t fall out when bending forward if they had gotten bigger/smaller.
Having no clip made it so much easier when I was out chasing two other kids, it was quicker and no fumbles. I also made the bras out of lace and bright colours. To me it made a difference about how I felt, rather than a maternity bra design that I didn’t get on with.
If you are designing/making your own maternity/nursing bras I hope this insight helped, and remember that sometimes just the smallest simple change can make all the difference it needn’t be all bells and whistles.
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