Pregnancy may be a life-changing experience but it shouldn’t turn expectant mothers into fashion victims, according to the founders of Aura Pregnant Sexy Motherwear.
Pregnancy may be a life-changing experience but it shouldn’t turn expectant mothers into fashion victims, according to the founders of Aura Pregnant Sexy Motherwear.
Sian Kelly, Tara Fowlers, and Anastasia Brotherson are all mothers who spent their pregnancy wearing clothes they either despised or spent hours to find.
The lack of funky, modern maternity wear in Perth led Ms Brotherson, a former pharmacist, to interest her sisters, Tara Fowlers and Sian Kelly, in opening a retail shop selling fashionable maternity wear.
Just five weeks after the first discussion about the retail concept, Aura PSM opened in Forrest Street Subiaco.
“I thought that I would be a pharmacy owner but then I spent time managing a pharmacy and I decided I didn’t want to do that,” Ms Brotherson said.
“I looked at doing speech pathology and then I thought I would go to TAFE and do clothing design.”
It was while researching her career change that Ms Brotherson discovered suppliers of fashionable maternity wear.
“There were not many maternity stores in Perth and I thought there was a very limited range, none of it was funky,” Ms Brotherson said.
Ms Kelly, a former nurse, and Ms Fowlers, a former primary school teacher, didn’t hesitate in agreeing to the idea of opening their own retail shop.
Aura PSM opened on July 17 with $25,000 worth of stock, which has now grown to $120,000.
Ms Brotherson also designs the store’s own label, Aura PSM.
“Even though we buy lots of stuff from the east coast it is designed for Melbourne and Sydney weather,” Ms Kelly said.
“Anastasia has a really good eye for design so she’s just been able to create things in fabrics that suit this market.”
About 60 per cent of the store’s clothes are Aura designs.
The sisters are keen to build up Aura PSM’s range of corporate wear for pregnant women as well as developing a new line of clothes for bigger women, called Aura Ltd.
All the store’s staff members are mothers and can provide good advice about maternity wear.
And the girls say the shop is a hit with the hubbies too.
“A few of the guys have said to us ‘this is great now I don’t have to fly her to Sydney to shop’,” Ms Kelly said.
“And the clothes can be worn after you have had the baby.
“I wear them and I’m not even pregnant and that’s because we’re selling mother’s wear, not maternity wear.
“You can grow into them but they look fine on without a belly.”
