Pune-based Uzazi focuses on offering fashionable, comfortable and affordable maternity wear for new-age moms
Until recently, maternity wear in India was limited to large-sized clothing that ended up being poor fits. Although with high end brands now offering various options for maternity clothing, expectant moms have a wider choice. But more often than not the clothes are exorbitantly priced and women do not want to invest a lot on clothing which will be used only for nine months.
To bridge this gap between fashionable and affordable maternity wear, Minal Joshi, a mom herself, started her maternity wear collection Uzazi in Shukrawar Peth. She’s been in the business for more than a decade now manufacturing maternity clothes for the domestic and export markets. Her private label and contract manufacturing has also given her expertise in designing and making comfortable maternity wear.
The modern Indian woman juggles between household chores, meetings, conferences and so on. Amidst this busy schedule, motherhood and its journey brings a shift in priorities. Which is why, Joshi thought of designing comfortable clothes for new-age moms.
Talking about her venture and how it manages to stand out from other branded maternity wear, Joshi says, “We have different categories of clothes like formal wear, sleep wear, evening wear and even swim wear. Even with this extensive collection, we have kept the price minimal. In fact the average price for the garments would be somewhere around Rs 1000. So it falls in the category of comfortable and affordable fashion.”
Even though Joshi suggests that cotton is the perfect fabric for maternity wear considering the tropical climate of our country, Uzazi offers a choice of fabrics to its customers keeping ongoing trends in mind. She explains, “In order to not confine maternity wear to limited designs, we are using other fabrics as well but the comfort factor is our first priority. The clothes are highly stretchable and get moulded according to the size of the person so that the woman doesn’t feel uncomfortable.”
But are expectant moms willing to experiment with their clothing? Joshi affirmatively expresses, “A lot of times women come and tell us that they want to experiment with comfortable jumpsuits, dresses and much more. The trend is all about looking stylish and carrying yourself well. We also take customer feedback and work around their demands to help them look beautiful at every occasion.”
Uzazi offers six different sizes for maternity clothing. If you have been wearing M size, choose M size maternity wear at Uzazi as well and do not go for L or XL. Also, women can continue wearing the designs (as they aren’t too baggy) even after they have lost their pregnancy weight or during the nursing period.
Their current target audience is ladies between age 25 and 40. Joshi says, “There is a reason why we have confined ourselves to maternity wear. If we start dabbling into various other styles for kids or adult fashion, our focus will shift from maternity wear. We do not want that to happen; we want to maintain the exclusivity.”
Uzazi also offers a range of products which includes nursery items, cosmetics and skin care products. And they also have their website www.uzazi.com.
