Thursday, July 27, 2000 | 9:24 a.m.
Here's looking at you, Mom.
The world of fashion has answered the frustrated sighs of the more than 4 million women nationwide who become pregnant each year who want to look and feel good while their bellies bulge.
The T-shirt that pointed to the obvious with a big red arrow is a thing of the past now that designers and retailers have joined the expanding market of maternity clothes with gusto.
One of the first to offer a hipper selection was Liz Lange, a former Vogue fashion editor. Three years ago she had the idea to design more fashionable maternity clothes after listening to numerous complaints from pregnant friends.
"People were scared to make the maternity clothes that were sexy and cool, but I wasn't," Lange told the Associated Press earlier this year.
The 33-year-old opened a boutique in New York at what has been deemed the beginning of the trend, and started to make dresses and hip apparel for her unhappy friends.
She now runs a retail store on Madison Avenue alongside such high-end fashion houses as Prada and Calvin Klein, with plans to open a Beverly Hills store in August.
Her success has been noticed by other designers and retailers who are offering maternity clothes. Barney's, a New York department store just down the street from Lange's shop, has included maternity clothes in its women's section. The Gap has filled a hole in their clothing line by including 16 pieces of maternity wear.
The beauty of this trend is not the business, but the results, said Lange, the mother of a 17-month-old son. "In the end, that's what this is all about. (Women) feel good about themselves at a time that isn't so easy," she said.
Designer Elizabeth Harris, based in Massachusetts, said that styles are more sophisticated than ever. "Women are looking for style right now as opposed to the frilly baby dress," she said.
Also, favorable media attention on mom-to-be movie stars, such as Madonna and Demi Moore, has women wanting to look just as glamorous at eight months pregnant.
Harris designs clothes to look as far from matronly as possible, she said. She uses fabrics that breathe well, such as cotton and linen, and cuts the fabric to hang well over a growing belly.
"It's an engineering question of how to make the clothes beautiful when you are not very pregnant and when you are nine months along," she said. "They may not be feeling so beautiful around that time (late in the pregnancy), but they want to feel beautiful. They want to feel like they are dressing like themselves."
Harris has expanded her maternity fashions to include nursing tops, which she is betting will be the next trend in women's fashions. "Women want to look good whether they are casual or at work or at a black-tie function, pregnant or otherwise," Harris said.
Heather Cable, a manager for Motherhood maternity boutiques for four years, agrees. As a sales person in the industry she has watched as the traditional large, round collars and A-line dresses have been pushed to the back of the store to make way for more trendy items.
"(Designers) are trying to keep it more to what you would wear if you weren't pregnant, what you would wear normally," Cable said.
Due to cost and limited style options, in the past many women opted for clothes that were simply oversized -- and cheaper than their more costly maternity counterparts -- to stay comfortable and somewhat stylish.
"It's just your (belly) that gains two or three sizes, not the rest of you," Cable said, explaining that this is the main problem with nonmaternity clothing. "Plus sizes (make) you look big everywhere and it's not good for your self-esteem at such an important time of your life."
The latest trend in ample duds are animal prints, capri pants and lots of three-quarter sleeves, Cable said.
Although designer maternity clothes can run at steep prices of $500 or more for an evening dress, Cable said that prices have dropped to half of what they were three years ago.
Pregnant women tend to invest more in their vestments. Most professional women's clothes that are designed to better drape the bulge range from $25 to $200, about 25 percent more than the price they would pay for clothes they might wear for years.
As a professional in the public eye, KTNV Channel 13 anchor Alison McCarthy said she needs to look and feel just as confident and pulled together while pregnant as she does when she isn't.
For her first pregnancy in 1993, McCarthy had an arrangement with the national chain "Pea in the Pod" to receive her entire wardrobe while pregnant. Now eight months pregnant with her third child, she must shop at area boutiques and pay higher prices for clothes she will only wear a few times.
"They have professional women over a barrel," McCarthy said. "You have to look nice. You can't be wearing lace and the froufrou dresses."
Just as before they became pregnant, clothes are important to women and to the business world, she said.
When she dresses well, McCarthy said that she feels less conspicuous and maternity clothes have traditionally screamed large and matronly because of their big buttons, over-the-top tops and oversized lapels.
"And the belt in the back! You can't have an outfit without a belt in the back," she said, slightly miffed.
To get by with little cost, McCarthy uses some homegrown alterations, such as rubber bands around the buttons of a skirt to allow more room around the waist. But it's uncomfortable and potentially embarrassing if a co-worker spies her secret alteration.
"Toward the end it's really hard to pull those tricks off," McCarthy said.
It's about feeling feminine, professional and comfortable, something that is now more available for pregnant women. "You feel so much more confident on days when you feel comfortable," McCarthy said.
Lauren Radin of Denver went into Motherhood at the Meadows mall on a recent afternoon to buy a dress for an upcoming wedding.
In her sixth month with her second child, Radin wanted to buy something fresh and comfortable for the occasion that would also fit by the time photos had to be taken on the day of the event.
The clothes Radin had worn during her first pregnancy three years ago were discarded as soon as her baby boy came into the world. "I'd worn those clothes nearly every day for months, so I just got rid of them, threw them away," she said.
This time around her wardrobe has a few more items, and is definitely more stylish.
"It doesn't look like baby clothes anymore," she said of the new fashions as she fingered a silky print dress. "You can feel pretty."
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