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Maternitywear brand Harry Duley could be a victim of its own success.

At the last count, one of its dresses, bought by my sister during her second pregnancy in 2000, had seen no fewer than four women through six pregnancies and it is still going strong.

This is good and bad news for Harry Duley, 33, the woman behind the brand.

While customer satisfaction is clearly high on her agenda - she individually tailors designs when asked and keeps a record of clients' requirements through their subsequent pregnancies - such a situation may not be the best business model for mass sales.

However, her lycra clothes range - priced at £40 to £85 - fills a gap in the market. At that point in a woman's life when retaining any modicum of style, while feeling comfortable, seems an almost impossible feat, Harry Duley's clothes fit the bill.

Not that Duley intended it to be this way; for many years she tried hard to avoid being labelled a maternitywear designer. She fell into it a bit by accident when the clothes she made in her spare time proved popular when worn by her sister during her pregnancy.

'I was never interested in the pregnancy market but have never been allowed to get away from it. Ten years ago it wasn't cool and I didn't want to be classed as a maternitywear designer,' says Duley.

Duley, who began designing clothes as a hobby, acquired a National Diploma in fashion design. This gave her the requisite training, while her frustration at not being able to buy simple, slogan-free clothes led to her choosing to work with Lycra, which can be tailored easily.

For several years Duley worked in clothing retail in Bristol, spending the evenings selling her clothes at Tupperware-style parties - her 'market research' period. Having built up orders through word-of-mouth, and finally accepting that maternity design was the way to go, she moved to London in 1998. She took the plunge and set up the business properly, backed by a Prince's Trust business loan. With the day job gone, the Harry Duley brand became her livelihood.

Fortunately, it worked, and she never failed to make money from her parties.

'When I decided to class myself as a maternitywear designer, the business really took off. I allowed it to be what it wanted to be,' she says.

When it came to marketing, word-of-mouth and the house parties were the core elements in the brand's early days. However, Duley was proactive when required and, with the help of a friend who worked at Emap, she managed to get her clothes featured in Pregnancy & Birth magazine by turning up at the office uninvited, armed with her wares.

Since then, Duley's distinctive, hand-embroidered spider logo - taken from childhood nickname Harry the Spider - has featured more regularly in the press.

There have been two significant turning points for the business in its seven years of operation. The first was in 2000 when Duley launched a website, moved into wholesaling and started hiring outworkers to meet this growing demand.

The second came in 2004 when Duley found she was part of her target market.

Her pregnancy meant a radical rethink for a business that she ran almost single-handedly, which regularly required her to work seven days a week.

This proved the catalyst for a move into manufacturing. 'I started becoming better known, so I had to get into manufacturing anyway; being pregnant just forced me to do it,' says Duley. Previously, all her direct business had been made to order, but she hired a manufacturer and carried stock for the first time, enabling her to increase volumes.

The arrival of baby Francis in November last year has left Duley working out how to balance motherhood and business. She is moving to a new living/work space and will continue to produce made-to-measure clothes because she 'likes sewing and doing the creative bit'. The company has also started to sell childrenswear for the first time.

Wholesale is her future, however. 'I am looking to do more wholesale and to be stocked in more shops. Eventually, my main aim is to get my own shop.'

TIMELINE

Jan 1998: Harry Duley officially set up as a business with a £2500 loan from the Prince's Trust.

Apr 1999: The business moves out of Duley's home into a studio in Tufnell Park, London, followed by another move, six months later, to bigger premises in Whitechapel.

Sep 2000: Harry Duley launches a mail-order brochure, goes live with www.harryduley.co.uk and hires a PR agency. It begins using outworkers to help sew designs as demand takes off. Bumps and Babies, a retailer in Stockport, approaches Harry Duley and the firm begins wholesaling properly.

Apr 2002: Moves to new premises in Tufnell Park and employs an assistant to help run the business.

May 2003: Sales quadruple overnight following an interview with Duley in The Times. Average volumes hit 100-200 garments a week.

Jul 2004: The company finds a manufacturer in Derby and starts carrying stock for the first time, instead of solely making to order.

Nov 2004: Brochure includes childrenswear for the first time.