Destination Maternity History

Earlier company descriptions, brand line-ups, store counts and photographs from the history of Destination Maternity, kept for historical reference.

Historical reference: This page keeps earlier information about Destination Maternity for historical reference. The descriptions, brand line-ups and figures below reflect the periods in which they were published and may no longer describe the company today. For the company as it stands now, see the current Destination Maternity company profile.
A maternity clothing display with dresses, tops and knitwear for expectant mothers on a clean boutique rail, product photography with no people

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The Company Description of Its Time

Destination Maternity Corporation is filed in its Apparel Search profile as the premier national retailer for maternity apparel and accessories - and, in its own fuller claim, the world's largest maternity apparel retailer, grown from a 1982 catalog business to more than 1,000 locations. The growth record as recorded runs through its initial public offering in March 1993 and continues by the addition of new stores, the acquisition of existing maternity stores, new brands and increased sales volume. The founder's story is the profile's centre: Rebecca Matthias saw a need for fashionable maternity clothing; her instinct was right, and their team has quite literally given birth to the modern maternity apparel market.

Four Specialty Brands and a Flagship

The brand architecture is listed exactly as recorded: four specialty maternity brands - A Pea in the Pod (formerly Mimi Maternity), A Pea in the Pod Collection, Motherhood Maternity and Destination Maternity - and one exclusive brand, Oh Baby! by Motherhood. The two nameplates a shopper meets most often sit at different heights of the same market: Motherhood Maternity as the broad, value-conscious line and A Pea in the Pod as the fashion-led name, with the Collection line above it. Around the brands sits the physical and digital build-out: a Destination Maternity flagship opened in New York City; an online one-stop shop at Destinationmaternity.com carrying the latest fashions from all brands, with dot-coms for each brand; and an extension of the mission, in the profile's words, from making pregnant women look good to making them feel good - the luxurious Edamame maternity spas.

The working culture paragraph is unusual for a directory profile and is kept because the company chose to file it: team members are described as amazing people who energize, inspire and innovate; everyone is approachable; no one works in isolated compartments, but rather everyone is part of cross-departmental teams with every member free to develop the next big idea - an open environment the profile credits with helping the company create the modern maternity market. Whether a reader files that as employer branding or as history, it is part of the record, and it explains the routes to Destination Maternity jobs and news elsewhere in Apparel Search.

Fashion Company Names by Letter: Fashion Companies D

References & Further Reading

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Company details such as leadership, ownership, store counts and web addresses can change. This company no longer operates independently, so there is no current official company website; the brands it once owned should be checked through their present owners, named in the snapshot above.