BC Business
Owner and founder Kim Cather's postpartum experience shaped her fashion design style
Kim Cathers built her fashion career by styling celebrities, showcasing her talent on Project Runway Canada and running her own boutique in Vancouver. But after the birth of her first child, her focus shifted unexpectedly toward empowering postpartum women to love their bodies.
While pregnant, Cathers had big plans to launch a new clothing collection; she thought she’d be able to both work and take care of her family in the early days of motherhood. However, she quickly realized she couldn’t do it all. “That dream died fast,” she says with a laugh.
Her son’s arrival launched Cathers into a new phase of life, and she decided to put her career on pause. Not only was she figuring out how to be a mom—a transition that’s often fraught with unexpected challenges—she was also trying to accept her post-birth body, which, she says, felt like an entirely different body. “This transition is a lot for women,” she shares. “For months I would wake up in the morning and feel like an alien in someone else’s body. I didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t have any clothes that made me feel good.”
Grappling with existential questions, she and her husband decided to leave the confines of their downtown Vancouver apartment for a life closer to nature on Salt Spring Island—the largest Gulf Island in B.C., home to around 11,000 residents.
Before motherhood, Cathers centred her identity on her fashion career. Her journey began as a teenager who enjoyed revamping thrift store finds on her mom’s sewing machine. She discovered a passion for upcycling clothes and finding sustainable styles, and by her 20s, she had turned the hobby into a business that sold reworked vintage pieces at markets. In 2005, she moved from the Kootenays to Vancouver to study at Blanche Macdonald Centre with the goal of perfecting her pattern-making skills. The following year, she launched an upcycled and vintage retail store. Her commitment to sustainability deepened in 2009 when she co-founded Our Social Fabric, a nonprofit selling discarded film industry fabrics.
Postpartum life not only changed Cathers’s view of herself physically, it also kick-started a new season for her designs. Five years into motherhood, she was ready to start a new collection—and an entirely new brand. “My art has always reflected my stage of life,” she says. “I never set out to be a clothing designer. It came from me not being able to find anything that I wanted to wear and felt good in.”
Her goal? Create comfortable, stylish linen clothing that helps postpartum women feel confident in their bodies.
After an unexpected detour making linen face masks during the pandemic—which brought in nearly $250,000 in sales and 10,000 reviews on Etsy in just nine months in 2020—Cathers was able to launch Constellation Apparel with an established online reputation. The brand’s name is inspired by a birthmark on her stomach that resembles Orion’s Belt—a mark both of her sons share, too. “It reminded me of the connection between my body and my children’s bodies,” she says. “Constellation Apparel became this ode to motherhood and postpartum bodies, and the beauty that can be found in those really challenging times.”
She switched from linen masks to linen clothing at the end of 2020 and now takes in over six figures a year in revenue. Her designs have built a loyal following, and she credits the island’s supportive community for much of her success. “When you tap into it, people support you because they understand how communities thrive,” says Cathers.
However, the business model’s earning potential is flexible. “It’s up to me and how much time, energy and money I put in,” she explains. “In years when I do fewer markets, I might cap [revenue] at $150,000. But if I produce more inventory and push harder, the potential increases dramatically.”
Looking ahead, Cathers remains committed to helping women feel beautiful and supported during the often-challenging transition to motherhood. “The stories I hear about women feeling good in my clothes is the reason that I make them,” she says. “On a very small level, I feel like my designs help people.”