It’s finally Spring, hooray (at least in the Southern hemisphere) which means maxi dress, floral prints and Baby Showers and Weddings aplenty. Even if you don’t have a special occasion coming up, you don’t need an excuse to dress your bump in a gorgeous new dress!

Ahead of the launch of the new Spring Summer range from Maive & Bo I caught up with founder Mallory Welch to talk about the new SS19 Flower Child Collection:

I started Maive & Bo two years ago. I’d gone through two pregnancies and struggled to find clothes that suited my changing body and tastes, so I started designing my own.  We started with only five dress styles and a low budget but people seemed to love the brand and what we stood for – feeling amazing during pregnancy and embracing the change rather than hiding away from it.

Before we approve any design it must tick three boxes:

It’s something I feel very strongly about. I had very low confidence during my pregnancies, I struggled with the weight gain, not being able to exercise (I had terrible nausea) and when my normal clothes stopped fitting, I was forced to shell out for clothing that didn’t fit my style. I don’t even have any photos to look back on, not even from my baby shower!

It was the total opposite of ’embracing the bump’ and a terrible way to spend pregnancy. I remember thinking, this isn’t right. I don’t want other women feeling this way. I simply wanted to feel beautiful and there weren’t a great deal of affordable, flattering dresses available.

 What’s the inspiration behind the new Spring/Summer Flower Child collection?

I wanted to re-create the natural feeling of motherhood, connecting with nature and letting your body do what what it was born to do – nourish, grow and birth a baby. Flower Child is a celebration of this process. The pieces are a little more bohemian than we’ve seen in the past but encompass our signature fresh florals, feminine details and flattering silhouettes.

When I started the brand I had no money to buy my own clothes so I made sure almost everything I made could be worn after pregnancy. So maybe there’s more of a selfish reason behind that fact you can wear most of the pieces after pregnancy – particularly the wrap dresses (as worn by stylish Mama Roxanne Cambridge, below) which you’d never know were maternity.

I also found nursing wear difficult to find – while the wrap dresses are easy to nurse in, I’m bringing in more nursing-specific styles for the new mummas looking for another variation. I’m really excited about these dresses! I’ve worn one of the samples out in public a few times and had mothers stop me in the street to ask where the dress came from.