14 International Herald Tribune
Saturday-Sunday, October 9-10, 2004
Celebrities have once again made the fashion industry sit up and take notice of a budding market. From left, the actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Liv Tyler, Kate Hudson, Denise Richards, Debra Messing and Cate Blanchett.
‘The bump’ is no longer getting in the way of glamour
By Jessica Michault
PARIS
n the past few years the fashion
I world has been abuzz with the idea
of brand expansion. Designers are
putting their names onto every-
thing from bed sheets to boxes of
chocolates. But one area of guaranteed
growth had generally been ignored by
the fashion world — maternity clothing.
How odd it is that the multibillion-
dollar women’s clothing business has
overlooked this potential market, where
women are, not to put too fine a point
on it, in need of an entirely new ward-
robe.
Not to fear, the celebrities are here,
and they have once again made the fash-
ion industry sit up and take notice of a
budding market.
Over the past two years, entertain-
ment and fashion magazines all over
the world have become glorified mater-
nitywear catalogs, photographing and
writing about what Kate Hudson,
Gwyneth Paltrow, Monica Bellucci or
Clotilde Courau wore while they were
pregnant. This media exposure of ex-
pectant celebrities has changed the per-
ception of what contemporary mater-
TEL + 39 02 546701
nity clothes are suppose to look like.
And with Liv Tyler, Claudia Schiffer,
and Julia Roberts currently in the fam-
ily way, there seems to be no let up on
the press coverage of the stars’ expand-
ing waistlines.
‘‘Women in Hollywood used to go in-
to hiding during their pregnancies,’’
said Liz Lange, the doyenne (at the ripe
old age of 36) of modern maternity-
wea r.
Lange who started her signature ma-
ternity clothing line only six years ago,
when her women friends complained
about the lack of good-looking mater-
nitywear, now runs a $10-million busi-
ness and has licensing and distribution
deals with Target and Nike.
Lange fondly remembers when
Cindy Crawford was pregnant with her
first child and working for the ABC pro-
gram ‘‘Good Morning America.’’
‘‘Every time she wore something of
ours she would talk about it,’’ said
Lange, who sees Crawford’s high pro-
file pregnancy as a precursor to the cur-
rent maternitywear explosion.
“Now stars are proud of their bodies
and want to show them off. I think
they’ve helped people realize that preg-
nancy really is beautiful and there is no
A
FASHION
Arnaldo Magnani/Getty Images; Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com; Jim Spellman/WireImage.com; Mario Anzuoni/Splash News; Splash News, and Mark J. Terrill/The Associated Press
question that celebrities have influ-
enced maternity fashion.”
This celebrity endorsement of preg-
nancy, of showing off toned, fit bodies
with the added bump of a baby, has re-
volutionized maternitywear. No more
coverups, no oversized tops— it is all
about fitted clothing in stretch material
and pants or jeans that are worn below
the belly.
The top-name designers who have
tried their hand at one-of-a-kind mater-
nity gowns for Hollywood’s awards sea-
son have also helped this new aesthetic.
Cate Blanchett in a deep red Donna
Karan gown; Catherine Zeta-Jones in the
dark chocolate brown number Versace
whipped up for her (which set off her
golden Oscar statue), and Marcia Gray
Harden, nine months pregnant with
twins, in a blue Badgley Mischka at this
year’s Oscars, all testify that “the bump”
has become officially glamorous.
“The greatest thing is the clothes
don’t look like maternity clothes,’’ said
Skye Hoppus, co-owner of the Los
Angles-based clothing line and store
Childish that she opened a year and a
half ago with her business partner, Suz-
anne Mitchell.
According to Mothers Work, the
company that owns the Motherhood
Maternity, Mini Maternity and A Pea in
the Pod chains in the United States,
American women spend over $1.2 bil-
lion on maternity clothing a year. To
take further advantage of the growing
market, Mothers Work recently opened
a Maternity Mall superstore in Dan-
bury, Connecticut, as well as an Inter-
net retailing operation.
‘‘Another great thing about the more
fashionable clothing is that it works for
the fourth trimester,’’ says Lange refer-
ring to the months following the birth
of a new baby when pre-pregnancy
clothing is still a little snug.
Lange, whose outfits were worn by a
very pregnant Julia Roberts in the film
“Ocean’s Twelve,” said that many new
mothers return to her store to pick up a
few items to tide them over until all the
baby weight is gone.
The newborn demand for hip mater-
nitywear has become big business. The
United States is leading the way with a
number of new clothing lines — Melon,
Moonsong and Childish among the
more prominent ones — making their
way into the market.
Along with the clothing lines, new
stores have also started to sprout up. In
Paris haunts that are always in style
By Karl Treacy
PARIS
s Rick said to Ilsa in the movie
A ‘‘Casablanca,’’ ‘‘We’ll always
have Paris.’’ Had the fictional
character been a fashion fol-
lower around today he might have fol-
lowed it up with the line, ‘‘And we’ll al-
ways have the same places to hang out
in when we’re there, too!’’
Fashions may change every six
months, or every two weeks in the case
of the mass market, but Paris has proved
itself generally impervious to change
when the fashion crowd hits the last leg
of its world tour. Rule out instances of
surly serving staff and taxi drivers who
give as good as they get and what do you
have? Outside of the fashion shows, you
have a hard-core choice of locales to
stay at and hang out in.
Blame the famously reclusive frères
Costes, Jean-Louis and Gilbert, if you
must. Their eponymously titled hotel
on the Rue St.-Honoré is still the one
place where the fashion crowd is sure to
be, whether it be staying in the rooms,
dining in the restaurant, or tersely sip-
ping champagne or cocktails while
people-watching in the Stygian dark-
ness of the back bar.
Much like the Hemingway Bar
tucked away in the bowels of the nearby
Hotel Ritz, the Costes’ warren-like lay-
out has proved a seductive haunt of
mysterious corners and important ren-
dezvous, a meeting place that has estab-
lished itself as the center of the fashion
world in Paris since it opened nine
years ago.
Philippe Guesdon, the accommoda-
tion manager, puts it down to ‘‘the talent
of Jean-Louis Costes,’’ the general man-
ager who devised a hotel that married
traditional French style with a modern
outlook at the hand of interior designer
Jacques Garcia, a surprisingly revolu-
tionary concept ‘‘that few have been
able to repeat.’’
Costes, who never gives interviews,
‘‘is constantly overseeing everything all
the time,’’ according to Guesdon. As the
jewel in the brothers’ family crown, the
hotel needs constant care and ‘‘he’s here
every day making sure everything is
perfect.’’
The emphasis on visual effect and
ambience is the thread linking the vari-
ous Costes locations in Paris. Eric Le
Bars, a manager at Georges, the Costes-
owned restaurant perched atop the
Georges Pompidou art center, puts the
establishment’s success down to the
fact that it has become, well, an estab-
lishment. Open for five years now and
with spectacular views over Paris, Le
Bars alludes to the sense of ‘‘magic’’ one
feels in such surroundings.
‘‘It’s all about quality — of service, of
food, of atmosphere,’’ he explained. But
in such an expansive, industrial-look-
ing restaurant, it must be about more
than that. ‘‘We take service beyond the
normal. We attach so much importance
to getting to know our regulars, getting
the United States, Pickles & Ice Cream,
Two Generations, and Mamasita are
among the leaders of the pack. In Eng-
land, there is Blossom Mother and
Child, and the Top Shop, which recently
released its ‘‘B’’ line of maternity cloth-
ing. In France, the ever-popular Formes
has a motto ‘‘Yes, it is clothing for preg-
nant women,’’ just to make sure there is
no confusion.
‘‘It’s all about below the belly for
jeans,’’ said Hoppus who sells her
Childish line in more than 400 stores
worldwide, including Hong Kong and
Dubai. ‘‘Women aren’t afraid to wear
color anymore — they love to show off
their belly.’’ For the fall/winter collec-
tion in stores now, Childish has even
gone so far as to name its outfits after
new and future celebrity moms.
There is the ‘‘Reese’’ A-line skirt,
named for the actress Reese Wither-
spoon; the ‘‘Courteney’’ fuchsia velour
hoodie, for Courteney Cox of the
‘‘Friends’’ television series, and the
‘‘G.P.,’’ a vintage-style pair of jeans
(with three telltale button snaps on the
bottom of the pant legs) named for
Gwyneth Paltrow.
Like many of the stores that have re-
cently sprung up, Jennifer Noonan, the
Courtesy of M.U.R.
A suite at the Murano Urban Resort.
to know their tastes and their needs.
And they introduce the restaurant to
their friends, and we get to know their
friends, too.’’
A few weeks ago, Karl Lagerfeld, one
of Georges’ long-term patrons, invited
all of his friends round for a rooftop
shindig to celebrate his capsule collec-
tion in partnership with the Swedish
fast fashion giant H&M.
One of Lagerfeld’s other haunts, the
Café de Flore, is another example of a
well-frequented location that has man-
aged to sneak into the hearts of the Par-
is fashion elite and stay there. That elite
knows that sitting inside the café, not
on the terrasse, is the best place to see
the people you really need to see. Like-
wise, at Stresa, a tiny, family-run Italian
restaurant tucked behind Avenue Mon-
taigne, competition is on to nab the
table in the far corner at which business
is discussed and from which all others
can be observed.
Another even smaller Italian restau-
rant, Cibus on Rue Molière, not far from
the Louvre, is becoming a new favorite
hangout. Not because it’s the place to do
cut-throat deals but because its slightly
off-kilter atmosphere, coupled with
daily spoken menus recited in a Neapol-
itan lilt and the most amazing food, just
like mama used to make, means it’s a
fabulous place to go to do what restau-
rants are made for — eating.
That family spirit is what is missing
in one of the capital’s hot new eateries,
La Famille, perched up in the winding
streets of Montmartre. Too much noise,
overly casual service, and a depleted
menu with an unlisted vegetarian op-
tion that is almost insulting to non-
meat eaters, all contribute to an excess
of style over substance.
And after a day of style excess, get- based in Paris.
*
owner of NOM, or Naissance on Mel-
rose, in Los Angles, started her com-
pany when she herself was pregnant
and could not find anything hip enough
to match her personal style.
‘‘For me it started with the shopping
experience, I wanted to have a store
where you didn’t have to dig through a
stack of maternity clothes in the back
corner of a store,’’ she said.
The NOM clothes are so popular that
even women who are not expecting
shop at the store. The actress Robin
Wright Penn kept all the clothes she
wore while playing a pregnant woman
in an upcoming film and decided to vis-
it the store to pick up more vintage in-
spired T-shirts. There is even a logo T-
shirt that boldly states ‘‘Breeder’’ or an-
other that reads ‘‘Recovering Pregnant
Chick’’ — perfect for that infamous
fourth trimester.
With sections of her collection di-
vided into maternity looks with names
like ‘‘Hollywood Hottie’’ and ‘‘Melrose
Mama,’’ it is clear Noonan is not about to
let ‘‘the bump’’ get in the way of her cus-
tomers looking great and feeling sexy.
Jessica Michault is on the staff of the
International Herald Tribune.
ting harassed on your way into shows
and rushing to make showroom ap-
pointments, substance is the one thing
that’s missing. You want a warm ambi-
ence, a kind familiar face to ask you
how you are. You want attention. And
dinner, obviously. This is the reason
why perennial year-round favorites like
Davé and Anahi attract a faithful clien-
tele, why going to La Poule au Pot and
noshing ’til dawn is like hanging out at a
friend’s apartment, why going to La Pet-
relle is like turning up in a slightly ec-
centric salon sprinkled with an esoteric
choice of reading material. You feel
calm, relaxed, at home.
So does that mean there’s nowhere
new to go? No, it just means that there
aren’t many new places. Unlike cities
like New York and London, hot new
places in Paris don’t often suddenly ex-
plode onto the radar and disappear two
months later in quick rotation. Guesdon
from the Hotel Costes hazards a guess
that ‘‘Oh, maybe it’s a Latin thing.
Maybe something opens every six
months but not that many.’’
Unlike Milan, which has its major
tie-ins with designers in the forms of
hotels, restaurants, cafés and
nightclubs under the names of Armani,
Bulgari, Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci,
Paris has yet to see a major fusion of
fashion and the fields of hostelry and
hospitality. Roberto Cavalli is slated,
however, to open a café as part of a new
store on the Rue St-Honoré next year.
Ironically it is Azzedine Alaia, one of
fashion’s most discreet designers, who
has his leg in the French door first with
a just-opened hotel as simple in name —
5 Rue de Moussy — as it is in its three
suite content. With the assistance of re-
tailer and friend Carla Sozzani, who
initiated the concept with Three Rooms
at her Corso Como location in Milan,
Alaia’s set of three self-contained
apartments, on a quiet street in the
Marais quarter, is more an organic evo-
lution of his residence, studio and store
alongside than a full-on assault on the
world of brand extension.
When something new does open in
Paris, it generally arrives on the scene
with a splash. Make that a splash in your
private pool. Murano Urban Resort
near Place de la République is this
year’s big newcomer. With its finger-
print security systems, light color in
rooms that can be changed according to
the occupant’s mood, and two suites
with private pools and terraces, it’s the
sort of high-tech, high-design hotel that
Paris has long lacked.
Although the spa is not yet ready, the
early comparisons with hotels such as
Ian Schrager’s The Sanderson in Lon-
don have been drawing people to come
have a look, to eat in the restaurant un-
der a torrent of stalactites or choose
from one of 130 types of vodka on offer
at a black slate bar that is 15 meters, or
nearly 50 feet, long.
Karl Treacy is a freelance journalist