Today we have a very exciting post – a fashion photo shoot at H&M!!!!

Having experienced being pregnant in Tokyo, I understand how hard it is to find clothing that not only fits, but is also stylish and elegant. It is possible to buy maternity wear online and have it shipped here from overseas, but personally I like to try on my clothes before buying (^^). I put on 20kg during my 9 months of pregnancy (or 10 months as they say in Japan!), and was SO relieved when I found H&M, which had beautiful cotton shirt-dresses, maxi-dresses and floaty tops in large sizes that could not only fit my growing bump but helped me feel elegant and possibly slimmer?! These ended up being my favourite items throughout my pregnancy, and I still wear them even now after my baby is born. See photos here in Clothing that I like. So when I started Tokyo Urban Baby, one of the things I wanted to do was to let other expecting mums know about these fantastic options for modern maternity wear at H&M. So last month I contacted H&M with the idea of a photo shoot and to my excitement they said yes!!!

Click on the movie below to see SIX stylish ideas for expecting mamas that will make you feel cool and elegant wherever you are – at home, at work, out shopping, or out for a glamorous evening:-) You may recognise the model – Tokyo Pregnancy Group coordinator Carmela Fleury, looking AMAZING at 37 weeks pregnancy!!! Thank you Carmela!!

LOOK BOOK

Note: The product images in the Look Book above were copied from the H&M website.

H&M MAMA line 

The H&M MAMA line was launched in Japan in March 2012 and is currently available at three stores: H&M store in LaLaport Yokohama, H&M Tsujido, and H&M Nagoya Matsuzakaya. I chose H&M at LaLaport Yokohama for the photo shoot as it was the closest to Tokyo. It’s about a 30min train-ride from Shibuya, and can be a great day out of the city for some much needed shopping! See my previous post about LaLaport Yokohama which explains about the shopping center and their baby nursing rooms.

And if you can’t get to the H&M store in Yokohama, don’t worry! Some of the clothes featured in the Look Book are actually from the regular women’s range, so you can find these in any H&M store in Japan. For example the indigo blue summer dress, the red tee, the bone jacket, and the leopard dress!

Meet the crew!

Fashion Stylist

My sister Erin Neath is a fashion designer, so when I found out from H&M that they wanted me to do the photo shoot, the first person I called was Erin! It would have been fabulous if she could have come to Tokyo for the shoot, and I did try to persuade her ((^^)!), but she lives in Australia and has my adorable nephew and niece to look after so we made do with the technology that we had – ie. Skype, emails, and Pinterest! It was the first time we had done Pinterest, but it worked wonderfully – Erin ‘pinned’ clothing and accessories that she liked from the H&M website onto a pinboard, and I then checked this with what was available in-store. After a few trips to the H&M store in LaLaport Yokohama and lots of pinning and emails later, we came up with six fantastic chic looks for the modern maternity mama. You can see the six looks on our Pinterest pin board here.

Model

The beautiful Carmela Fleury is a coordinator for the Tokyo Pregnancy Group. She was 37 weeks at the time of the photo shoot and looked AMAZING!!! Carmela has done modeling previously for the very cool clothing label Makia – see the Makia Women catalogue Fall 2012 – Winter 2013. Thank you SO much Carmela for coming all the way to Yokohama for the photo shoot at such a late stage in your pregnancy and for being such a delight to work with. I had so much fun doing the photo shoot with you!! All the best with these last days of your pregnancy and I can’t wait to meet your gorgeous baby!!

Photography

Noriko Saito is my sister-in-law with a natural flare for photography. I first noticed Noriko’s talent at my wedding – my husband and I didn’t have a professional photographer but I really wanted some shots of us in our kimonos. We asked Noriko if she could take some of us, and to my delight they were fantastic! Definitely my favourite wedding photos (^^)! Noriko is also the director of the company Mayu House.

Thank you H&M!

Finally I would like to say a BIG thank you to Tabasa Tabuchi, H&M Showroom Manager for arranging the photo shoot and to the H&M LaLaport Yokohama store managers Michio-san and Hayato-san for their much appreciated help with the preparations and the photo shoot on the day. Thank you so much! We had a great time and I hope this video and look book helps to spread the word about your fantastic women’s clothing and MAMA line perfect for stylish expecting mums!

Coming up…..Behind The Scenes video & Tokyo Urban Baby Maternity Wear Giveaway!

*Note: I did not receive any financial compensation or sponsorship for this photo shoot. I did it purely as a fan of H&M maternity wear and because I wanted to tell other expecting mums about it in Japan:-)!

• H&M Japan Showroom 2012 Autumn Press Preview – Interview with Tabasa Tabuchi
• LaLaport Yokohama baby nursing rooms
• H&M Maternity Wear Giveaway! – ends 8th June!
• H&M Maternity Fashion Look Book – Behind the Scenes!