Study on features that pregnant women find important and desirable when choosing maternity wear - Focused on British pregnant women in London -

Today, many pregnant women also advance up the business ladder and remain very active. They are consequently increasingly aware of the clothes they can wear. Despite these social changes, maternity wear has not been specially designed to satisfy the consumer's demands. From this, the purposes of this study are to investigate the current status of maternity wear and the apparent buying trends of pregnant women through a customers' opinion survey and interviews for the future maternity markets. In summary, the survey and interviews illustrate some important points which are that: Firstly, not all pregnant women buy maternity wear. Some pregnant women said they couldn't find enough difference in maternity wear prices even though they would like to buy some, commenting that maternity clothes were too expensive for such a short period of time. Also some already had maternity wear from a previous pregnancy, or had been passed on from friends and family. Secondly, on the other hand, many respondents were strongly concerned with style and quality rather than price because they agreed that there were not enough suitable maternity clothes for work and special occasions. Therefore some respondents would buy a maternity outfit for a special occasion. It also indicates that for a particular time, place or occasion like a party, wedding or other celebration, some respondents would buy a special outfit to make themselves feel good. Finally, according to the survey, the most important design concept is for wearable designs which change with the body during pregnancy; followed closely by designs which are able to be re-used when the pregnancy has finished. Nowadays, as recycling and saving resources are the biggest issues, if maternity manufacturers are encouraged to develop new products incorporating these new design concepts, more maternity markets will be developed to buy maternity wear.