Tucked snugly down Alwis Place in Colombo 3, Blissful Beginnings is a charming boutique exclusively for pregnant mothers. Run by Sudeshika De Silva, who is expecting her second child, the shop is equipped with trendy yet comfortable maternity wear as well as dainty clothes and linen for infants.
So what spurred this young and innovative entrepreneur to set up Blissful Beginnings? “The idea came to me when I was pregnant with my first-born. I found it difficult to find clothes here. Even the big stores allocate only a little bit for maternity wear and that too hardly a good selection. There was little variety,” she says.
 |
| Sudeshika De Silva |
“This left me with little choice but to travel abroad to get what I wanted. But sometimes you can’t get a flight at the drop of a hat. So I thought I should do something about it. It took me about One and a half years to put things together.”
“We started with exclusive maternity wear,” Sudeshika explains. “Nowadays we don’t want to wear the same style of clothes our mothers wore when they were pregnant. We want to look trendy, we want to look slimmer and smart. We’re also used to wearing pants rather than skirts, which is why I’ve designed maternity pants. Then we realized we needed something for the infants as well. That’s when we brought in linen for infants of 5 to 12 months.”
Adding style to comfort she adds that once pre-pregnancy ends most women tend to buy sizes ‘large’ or ‘extra large’ that makes them look like a bag of potatoes, bigger than they are. “We make clothes that would fit them better while giving that space to accommodate the growing baby. There’s also fabrics that can make you look really big, while there are prints or stripes that can make you look slimmer than what you really are. So we are selective when it comes to fabric and designing as well.”
 |
| Attractive kids' decor at Blissful Beginnings. |
Sudeshika has big plans to expand Blissful Beginnings to be a centre for pregnant mothers where they can come to relax or even read a book.
Sometimes we would just love to get away from home, from work or whatever chores we may have and just relax.”
Blissful Beginnings has the labels FatimaMaryRose, bbMATERNITY and the Indian label PEEK-A-BOO Patterns in store and will have a sale of their stuff on April 4 at Crescat Boulevard from 10 a.m to 7 pm. The store is located at 3/1, Alwis Place, Colombo 3. |
E-mail