Bellibind at New York Fashion Week: The Penthouse Edit
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Bellibind is one of the independent brands featured in The Penthouse Edit, the RAISEfashion and Refinery29 designer showcase during New York Fashion Week. It runs Friday, September 11, 2026, from 11am to 6pm at The Standard, East Village, 25 Cooper Square. Founder Princess McKinney is there for the day with the Belly Besties Kit. The RSVP is open to the public and there's no ticket.
What is The Penthouse Edit?
It's a one-day showcase hosted by RAISEfashion with Refinery29 and presented by Afterpay. Guests browse a curated group of independent designers and meet the founders behind them. No runway, no seating chart, no set arrival time. You come, you look, you talk to the people who made the thing, and you leave when you want to.
It's a daytime event and no alcohol is served during shopping hours.
Why is a postpartum brand at Fashion Week?
Because postpartum is the part of a woman's life that fashion skipped.
Maternity got its own designers, its own campaigns, its own aisle. The months after birth got a stiff synthetic band sold next to the diapers. Those months are longer and harder than most of the pregnancy that came before them, and they're lived in a body that changes week to week.
A generation of mothers was discharged into a category built around compression and snapping back rather than around recovery, comfort, or the way the postpartum form actually looks.
Care is couture. That's the line Bellibind was built on, and a penthouse in the East Village is a good place to say it out loud.
What is the wrap in the Belly Besties Kit?
It's Bengkung belly binding, reimagined.
There's no seam, no hook, no panel, and no size. It's one continuous length of open-weave cotton gauze, wrapped around the torso and tied by hand into a column of knots down the centre. The woman wearing it ties it herself and reties it whenever she wants.
The specification:
- 100% cotton gauze, open weave
- Single continuous length, unseamed
- Closure: none, tied by hand
- Edge: raw selvedge, left unbound
- Sizing: one length, all bodies
- Colourways: Olive, Golden, Cloud, Champagne, Candy Pink, Ivory
- Certification: Licensed Seal of Cotton, Cotton Incorporated
The kit pairs the wrap with Shine Belli and Body Oil. Once your order ships, you'll get access to the wrap tutorials so the technique travels with the cloth. One-to-one consults with Princess are available separately.
Why cotton gauze instead of a compression garment
A compression garment is manufactured to a measurement, and the body is asked to meet that measurement. On a body that's still changing daily, the number stops being right almost immediately.
The wrap has no fixed circumference. It takes the shape of whoever is wearing it, on day three and again on week nine. Held up to the light the cloth is sheer. Wrapped in many layers it's firm. That contradiction is the whole design. The hold comes from layers of air rather than from tension pulled against the skin.
Cotton also breathes in a way bonded synthetics don't. It moves vapour instead of trapping it, which matters when something is worn under clothing all day.
The edge is left raw on purpose. A finished hem would add a ridge and a line of pressure across the abdomen. Cut and left to fray, it adds nothing at all, and it softens a little more with every wash.
Where the practice comes from
Belly binding after birth isn't new and Bellibind has never claimed to have invented it. The practice moves through generations, mother to daughter, across many cultures. Bengkung wrapping is one of the oldest documented forms.
Princess found it while working as a postpartum doula. By 2016 she'd narrowed her practice almost entirely to binding and recovery support, and trained in one of the first Bengkung workshops on the West Coast as one of only five practitioners in the room.
What's interesting is how familiar the construction looks on a runway. Braided knots and deep ruching have turned up in recent collections and on red carpets. Fashion calls it draping. Women have been doing it on their own bodies for thousands of years, for reasons that had nothing to do with fashion.
So the brand isn't borrowing from the runway. It's being recognised by it.
Who founded Bellibind?
Princess McKinney. Certified postpartum doula, trained nurse, mother.
She spent years entering homes and supporting women through pregnancy, birth, and recovery. What she kept noticing was that once the baby arrived, the mother was mostly left to work out healing on her own.
A few years into that work she became a mother herself. After a 42-hour labour and an emergency C-section, she went through the recovery she'd been guiding other women through.
Bellibind was founded in 2017 in Scottsdale, Arizona, and built out of both sides of that experience.
Can you come on Friday?
Yes. The RSVP is open to anyone and there's no ticket. Twenty minutes is a perfectly reasonable visit.
Friday, September 11, 2026. 11am to 6pm. The Standard, East Village, 25 Cooper Square, New York, NY 10003.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Bellibind showing during New York Fashion Week 2026?
At The Penthouse Edit, the RAISEfashion and Refinery29 designer showcase at The Standard, East Village, 25 Cooper Square, New York, on Friday September 11, 2026, from 11am to 6pm.
What product is Bellibind showing?
The Belly Besties Kit, built around the hand-tied Bengkung-style belly wrap.
Is the event free?
Yes. RSVP is open to the public through the event page and there's no ticket price.
What size wrap do I need?
There are no sizes. It's one continuous length that ties to fit whatever body is wearing it.
What is Bengkung belly binding?
A traditional postpartum wrapping practice that uses a long piece of cloth tied in a series of knots around the torso. It appears across many cultures and has been passed down for generations.
Who founded Bellibind?
Princess McKinney, a certified postpartum doula and trained nurse. The brand was founded in 2017 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Written and reviewed by Princess McKinney, Certified Postpartum Doula
Princess McKinney is a certified postpartum doula with over 10 years of experience supporting mothers through recovery and the fourth trimester. She trained in one of the first Bengkung belly binding workshops on the West Coast and is the founder of Bellibind.
About Bellibind
Bellibind is a postpartum recovery care brand founded in 2017 in Scottsdale, Arizona by certified doula Princess McKinney. Its flagship product is the Belly Besties Kit, built around a hand-tied Bengkung-style wrap in 100% cotton that a mother ties and reties herself as her body changes. Bellibind also makes recovery oils, aromatherapy, and the Diaper Clutch, and offers private postpartum consults. Learn more at bellibind.com.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Bellibind products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Last updated: September, 2026
