I find it most inspiring when I come across a company built entirely from a person's own life experience. This is exactly how Cake Lingerie was born, founder, Tracey Montford, teacher of the arts, longed for beautiful lingerie during her pregnancy, but she discovered the world of fashion did not recognise pregnant women, as the only items available were functional and matronly. So Tracey started her own label - inspiring.
This leaves me with a question. Why did the fashion world fail to recognise that the needs of pregnant women are the same as women who are not pregnant? And why did they not challenge the puritanical views of pregnancy? This is after all a body that professes to understand women better than we understand ourselves.
In the 1950's, it was considered unthinkable to use the words "pregnant or pregnancy", the woman was, "with child", "in the family way", or "expecting". Does this suggest shame or at the very least, prudery? Did they cosset pregnant women and put them on pedestals’, dressing them like oversized dolls in order to distance the pregnancy from the act of sex itself?
Do elements of this culture still exist to some degree today? I think they do; you only have to look at certain examples of maternity wear to see that, but fortunately we have companies like Cake Lingerie to bust through this perception and if celebrity endorsement is anything to go by, Cake is a huge success as their client list reads like a veritable Who’s-Who, from Pink to Princess Mary of Denmark!
Tracey's commitment to pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers is to design for them beautiful lingerie that celebrates women and pregnancy.
Makes me proud to be a woman...
