After meeting and working together at Neiman Marcus over 15 years ago, retail entrepreneurs Loren Heller and Hillary Cullum became fast friends. They went on to explore different career paths but remained close and eventually became neighbors in University Park.
When Heller became pregnant with her daughter in 2016, she went on a search for high-quality activewear that suited her during maternity. She quickly found that popular and well-established brands like Athleta and Lululemon didn’t specifically make maternity apparel.
“I did what a lot of pregnant women do, which was buy a non-maternity item several sizes bigger than I normally would,” Heller said. “It didn’t really fit, wasn’t designed for my body and certainly didn’t make me feel good or confident at all.”
She shared her problem with Cullum. Realizing a massive gap existed in the market, they became determined to create the “perfect” maternity leggings for expecting mothers.
In 2019, Berkley Clothing was born. Together, Heller and Cullum founded the luxury maternity activewear line and set out to develop comfortable and stylish clothes for before, during and after pregnancy.
During their initial research, they discovered that many maternity options existed. But they found the quality lacking — describing some poorly made products as “throw-away leggings,” meant to be disposed of after short periods of time.
“We really wanted to make a quality piece of clothing that would last the test of time and support the pregnant body throughout pregnancy and into the postpartum period,” said Cullum, who was previously a buyer for Neiman Marcus and started a wholesale and retail consulting business.
The business partners spent months buying tons of leggings and developing what their product would look like. Relying on their backgrounds in luxury retail, they knew the key was finding the perfect feel and weight of the legging material.
After a year of researching and sourcing, Berkley Clothing launched its website in December 2020, later than expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company sells clothing through its website and will be participating in pop-up events at the Galleria Dallas Alley Market in May.
Production of their clothing, which is manufactured in Los Angeles, was stalled for several months by the virus. In-person fittings were canceled, and shipments were delayed.
But the health crisis didn’t deter Heller and Cullum. When they couldn’t attend in-person fittings, they sent samples back and forth to Los Angeles and turned to Zoom to discuss fabric changes and show manufacturers where to pin legging material.
“We grew exponentially from a product development standpoint,” said Heller, who worked in communications at Neiman Marcus before specializing in communications and internal branding at Ketchum and later Daggerwing Group.
“We had to be much more hands-on and articulate about the changes that needed to be made to the samples because we didn’t have someone with us in person doing it,” she said.
Cullum found another silver lining from the pandemic: Once-trendy activewear is now a norm.
Berkley Clothing, which is named after Heller’s mother, sells two “foundational” products, styles of leggings designed to be worn throughout pregnancy. The Janey Over Belly legging and Cindy High-Waisted legging both sell for $98 and are named after influential women in their lives.
“Our entire mission is centered around empowering women,” Heller said. “The fact that one of the most important categories in the fashion industry wasn’t available to women who were pregnant was shocking at the time. We wanted to do this because women shouldn’t have to settle for mediocre.”
They will continue to name every product they create after an important woman in their lives. They hope to launch a maternity workout top this year.
The company has seen steady month-over-month growth since launching just over four months ago. Heller and Cullum have relied on their personal networks to spread the word in addition to paid marketing and online ads via social media.
Each month, Berkley Clothing has doubled sales compared with the previous month. The duo declined to share other financial details.
Heller and Cullum are the activewear line’s only employees, although they hope to grow and add staff in the future. They also partner with marketing and social media consultants, photographers and manufacturers in California.
“To be able to provide jobs and create that for other people would be hugely rewarding,” Cullum said.
