Pregnancy is hard WORK. I’ve had some very physical, endurance-based jobs in my life, but nothing compared to the long haul of pregnancy. It’s a joyful, terrifying and sweaty time.
Samantha, our SÜK garment developer (and genius) and I, had been discussing creating pregnancy workwear, long before either of us became pregnant ourselves. As it happened, we both started that journey with only 5 weeks separating the arrival of our babies. We'd found out firsthand - nothing is worse than trying to fit into your favorite overalls or work pants that are too tight on a rapidly swelling tummy. When we secretly revealed to each other our pregnancy news we knew we needed to fix this problem.
It was a magical and exhausting nine months which gave us the perfect time to create a work suit that could be adjusted to fit our changing bodies. Something that we could also test on our own evolving shapes. We both discovered that there was a distinct lack of excellent workwear options for pregnant women - that you could still wear before and after giving birth.
Maternity wear can be so ugly and uninspiring. Nothing breaks my heart more than having to buy this kind of clothing cause nothing else will fit.
We saw a mass of disposable options or very expensive styles that could only be worn for a few months. Most seem to be made of Lycra or spandex - and when your body doesn’t need any more help in the sweat department, it was something I was keen to steer clear of.
Image from Vintage Dancer.
In 1873, a talented tailor by the name of Jacob Davis crafted some of the first rivet reinforced overalls when he encountered a customer who simply couldn't squeeze into the standard work clothes available at the time. Jacob didn’t just design any garment - he designed a revolution that not only fitted this customer’s frame, but was also tough enough to stand up to the rigors of tough physical work.
We saw this style pop up again in the wartime 1940s, when the women rolled up their sleeves and took to labour work, throwing off the shackles of societal norms, wearing the same type of rugged overalls that Jacob Davis had designed 70 years before.
Then in the swinging 60s - nothing was as cool as a woman who strutted the streets and catwalks in overalls, turning workwear into a statement of freedom and empowerment. From decade to decade we took inspiration from many of these stories and images in an effort to create our own style of dungaree overalls.
The wartime poster of 'Rosie the Riveter' designed to encourage acceptance of women in male dominated industries that went onto inspire the women liberation movement in the 1970s. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.
As our talented pattern maker, Samantha and I sifted through all of your feedback about our overalls, boiler suits and cropped work suits, a pattern emerged. We had many request from men to create a style for them, as well as those who found our waist-fit a little too firm on their bodies - as our garments have been designed for fuller hips and smaller waists. We saw an opportunity to address both these issues along with our mission to create a versatile and tough pregnancy overall.
This got us thinking. My mission when I founded SÜK was to create work suits and dungarees that fit everybody like a dream and made you feel invincible. I wanted to bring everyone with us on this wild SÜK ride - because a good fitting work get-up, like the prefect overalls that hugged the hips, waist and flattered the belly, feels life changing.
The first sample Samanatha and I made in trying to solve this problem. Stay tuned for our solution in part 2.
~ Mimosa x.
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