Dressing the belly

In this week’s column, Jenny Bullough share’s her thoughts about maternity wear.

Like a lot of moms and expecting moms, it’s an ongoing challenge for me to find inexpensive yet elegant maternity clothes. Staying stylish yet comfortable and not spending a fortune doesn’t seem like an outlandish or unreachable goal, so why is it so hard?

Part of the problem is that most maternity wear is designed to fit women who are at the most rotund stage of pregnancy – which often means that in the early months, these items are far too big. Right now I’m at the awkward stage of desperately cramming myself into my regular clothes – okay, my “fat” clothes usually reserved for premenstrual bloating – because my maternity clothes are still far too big and loose. I’m also deep in denial about the coming Clothespocalypse: saying goodbye to my cute fall sweaters and trousers, knowing I won’t fit into them until next year.

However, there is hope! A friend and new mom bequeathed to me her Bella band – a handy little piece of elasticized fabric that, miracle of miracles! Allows you to wear your prepregnancy pants unbuttoned. This should help me to make my fall wardrobe staples last a little bit longer, at least until my maternity pants will stay up! (Motherhood Maternity also carries their own version, the “tummy sleeve”.)

When the Bella band option has been exhausted, likely by October, I’m going to have to make a trip downtown to visit my two favorite mainstream maternity chain stores -- Motherhood Maternity and Thyme Maternity. Their clothes are decently priced, fairly fashionable without being overly trendy, and they have enough selection that I can mix-and-match their current pieces with the older and hand-me-down maternity clothes currently living in bins in my basement.

I’ll tell you what brand I *wish* made maternity clothes: Lululemon. I’m so tired of my favorite workout shirts riding up my growing belly while I’m trying to maintain an imprinted spine in Prenatal Pilates, or achieve camel pose in Prenatal Yoga!

What about you – do you have a favorite maternity store or brand? Or a favorite brand, period, that you wish had a maternity line?