The New Model-Approved Line That’s The ALEXACHUNG Of Maternity Fashion

Though Zara has just launched a maternity range, the market for expectant mother’s is remarkably underserved. Enter: Bianca Balti.

Best known as the mother-to-be who sashayed down Dolce & Gabbana’s AW15 runway (years before Slick Woods did the same for Rihanna’s Fenty show), Balti is once again making room in the fashion conversation for pregnant women. With a new eponymous collection, which launched this week, she’s redefining the rules for mums-to-be. To give you a starting reference, her designs look like share the same moldboard as ALEXACHUNG. There’s babydoll dresses and cropped tweed jackets with sweet little bloomers. It’s Bridgette Bardot sexiness next to Jane Birkin effortlessness.

If we didn’t know better we’d say it was the wardrobe of a pregnant 1960s starlet. And, we wouldn’t be too far off as each piece is made by headstock fabric. Not only is it a sustainable way to save textiles from landfall, but plays dividends in underlining Balti’s vintage inspirations.

The launch collection zeroes in on the dress, for very logical reasons. As one of the few parts of a pregnant women’s body to not drastically change, she plays with the shift shapes of the mid-century. There’s a velvet dress with a stark white collar and jewel buttons as well as a stiff knit tunic that comes with bloomers so that mums-to-be can move freely without being afraid of bending over.

‘[F]or the last 11 years, since my first pregnancy, I have dreamt of creating beautifully tailored maternity clothes’, she explains on the website, adding, ‘I have finally won over the fear of starting a business to achieve my dream. Using the inspiration from my childhood and teenage years, the taste defined by my 14 years of modelling, the experience of being a two-time mother, and the courage in the resourceful and independent woman that I am today, I have committed myself to create these fun, fashionable, luxurious and sustainable dresses devoted to the best 9 months in a woman’s life.