New mothers who are expecting usually aren't expecting the heavy price tag that comes with pregnancy, especially the high price of maternity clothes. Fashion Forward Maternity wants to help ease that transition by making maternity clothes more affordable.
Erin Lewis, one of
Fashion Forward Maternity's three co-founders, knows about this firsthand. The mother of two has struggled to find the best, affordable business-oriented maternity clothes while pursuing her MBA at the University of Michigan.
"Lots of professional women find it hard to find maternity clothes," says Lewis. She adds its not unusual for expecting mothers to spend thousands of dollars for maternity clothes, and sometime much more if their pregnancy causes them to change sizes.
Fashion Forward Maternity helps solve this problem by providing an online platform for women to access high-quality and designer maternity and nursing fashions at a fraction of the usual price. When clothes are retired they are given to expecting women in need. The 4-month-old start-up recently won the Best Business award at the
Michigan Business Challenge, which is worth $20,000 in cash.
Fashion Forward Maternity has a team of three people that operate virtually from their homes, from Harrison Township to Colorado. They all attend the
University of Michigan Ross School of Business and hope to hire a few university graduates as they work to take the start-up national.
Source: Erin Lewis, co-founder & president of Fashion Forward Maternity
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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