I see you, I sure do

Hi There, Mama!

Enough putting everyone else’s needs first: Time to focus on You!

Let’s Get Real: Postpartum Fashion Is A Bit Tricky

Whether you call it the fourth trimester, nursing, recovery, or the now-never-sleeping-enough phase, dressing yourself to feel like, well, yourself, post-birth is harder than it should be.

As new and busy moms, we have changing priorities and a healing body, which leaves a lot of us just reaching for that one super comfy oversized top and pair of sweatpants over and over – and then feeling like less than the glowing beauties we are when we catch our reflection.

Our cause isn’t helped by the characterless, uninspiring postpartum-specific clothing so often on offer out there, nor by more stylish regular-sized clothing whose fit prevents mama necessities like nursing or crawling on the ground to play with our kiddos.

And just to make this topic even stickier, a lot of us feel guilty about even buying clothes for this time of our lives (as if we don’t already have enough to worry about!). We know our bodies are changing, and that what fits today may not fit later. We worry the clothes are a waste of money, or that they’ll just end up in landfills all too quickly.

But, the truth is, we deserve to feel good in what we wear – every single day of our lives. Did we not kick butt carrying and delivering a tiny human into this world? Do we not at all times use our female brilliance, endless creativity, and sheer willpower to bring these babes up? Leaving mamas stranded in a style desert chock full of guilt is simply no way to treat the superhuman women who have freshly taken on the role of mom.

Can new Mama Clothes be better?

New moms are often left in style no-(wo)man’s-land. You have specific concerns, like nursing access, comfort, and size fluctuations. And you want clothing that reflects the brilliant and beautiful woman that your baby and you both know you are. Yet, your options out there seem to be limited to oversized and boring or cute and restricting.

We Sure think so!

Estella Moon creates cute, effortless looks that help you build your postpartum confidence and style. We think about your everyday needs as a mom – from nursing, to retrieving yet another thing from under the kitchen table, to getting out with your friends – and design our clothing for all of it.

April 16, 2023By Flora Guilbaut

You’re a hard-working, keeping-it-together, joy-spreading woman who needs your clothing to support your full life. I’m talking comfort, style, and ease - am I right? And, what’s more, you’d really rather tread lightly with your environmental impact, yes?

I know this because that’s where I’ve been also. In fact, it’s why I started Estella Moon. A few years back, I had my baby daughter at a time of a lot of change in my life, and suddenly, my previously effortless sense of confidence in what I was wearing vanished. I had a new body, shifted concepts of time, and different movement demands. Nothing in my closet supported this. The seemingly only alternative - postpartum lines - by and large, with their matronly prints and monochromatic pallets, made me want to close my eyes and run away. How could I put my best self forward for both baby and me if I hated the way I felt in my clothing?

My experience isn’t unique. As a starting point, as this is an issue for new moms, I knew I could take my dozen or so years’ experience in the L.A. fashion industry and make better clothing that would help amp up the confidence factor for postpartum mamas. At the same time, I also know that women of all sorts face similar challenges in their clothing. Anyone going through a change in their body, a rut of blandness, bewilderment at their choices, or just shifting priorities in the wake of so much change in the world might also benefit from clothing that values style and comfort equally.

This idea – that women everywhere deserve to look amazing and feel great in their clothing without sacrificing who they are – set me on my mission to launch this label. Underpinning it all is a personal commitment to sustainability. I spent a long time in the conventional fashion industry and became increasingly aghast at the blinders the industry seems hellbent on wearing when it comes to its enduringly harmful environmental impact. As a result, I’ve made sustainability a core tenet of Estella Moon. From fabric selection to production choices to end-of-life-cycle options, I want to be sure we’re minimizing our footprint as much as possible – and I want anyone buying our clothing to rest easy on this concern also.

So, I see you, and I hope you see some of yourself in this story, too. In bringing to reality an emerging fashion label, I’m in learning mode and I’m working hard to bring you clothing options you’ll love. Thanks for joining me on this journey!

Flora

P.S. Learn more about Estella Moon here, and our sustainability commitments here.

Better clothing – clothing that addresses all of the above and reflects the strong, confident, and gorgeous women that we are – is possible. It’s our mission at Estella Moon to bring it to you.

Embrace your femininity with comfortable and cute outfits designed for new mamas.

Introducing

Estella Moon

Fellow mama and longtime Los Angeles fashion insider, Flora, founded Estella Moon in response to the above issues and her own struggles in finding fourth trimester clothing that met all her needs as a brand-new mom. This is what she has to say about it:

“I had a baby girl in the middle of the pandemic after working for 12 years in the fashion industry in Los Angeles, where I loved being immersed in a world where you literally wore your personality on your sleeve. Where your style was a testament to your creativity and sense of play.

“My priorities shifted big time when I had my baby and moved to a small town. Athleisure and bland nursing wear, the seemingly only options for postpartum moms, however, didn’t feel like me. I needed my clothing to love my new body: to allow it to nurse, to feel comfortable, to heal, and to morph into whatever was coming next. And, I wanted to feel like my old self, the one that felt confident, cute, and feminine when walking out the door every day. I wasn’t willing to accept the tradeoff of comfort for style – or style for comfort – because I knew that that self-assurance that comes with feeling good about yourself was going to be a part of making me the best mom I could be.

“And, so, I thought I could do something about this, not just for me, but for the next mama, and the next. I could mash up my new mom experiences with my fashion industry knowledge and, just possibly, give women out there some clothing options that help them shine bright and beautiful for their kids and themselves.”