the reason I’m a bit shapeless is that I’m four months pregnant and my waistline is in temporary hiding. Please stop staring at me and pretend that I look lovely.’
Unfortunately, there’s very little that clothing can do to help. Developing an addiction to Juicy Couture trousers is not so much a fashion statement as a ‘missing waist’ concealer, and it works, and I’d advise any bloated-feeling Yummy Mummy-to-be to do the same. Don’t do what I did though: I lived in some very unattractive tracksuit trousers for a month or so, and all this did was to make me feel incredibly fat and ugly. By my third pregnancy I’d learned that ‘comfy’ doesn’t mean shapeless and without-any-style-at-all. Wearing some stylish, comfy trousers at this not-quite-pregnant-enough-yet stage makes you feel much better about your condition.
Pregnancy Wardrobe Phase One: Before It Really Shows
Wear comfy (but gorgeous) trousers, which fit your legs well but have a forgiving waist: stretch fabric, low-slung and elasticated all work at this stage.
Make sure your top half is longer than waist-length.
Three-quarter-length jackets come into their own now.
Tie a hoody or a jumper around your waist and pretend the bulk is from that.
Wear a really long, skinny scarf which hangs loosely down to your waist: it hides what’s behind. But don’t wear belts or tie scarves around your waist—it just accentuates the enlargement.
Long cardigans (worn open) can hide your curveless middle zone.
Dresses can be a good plan, as the whole ‘waist’ issue is lessened, but avoid anything tight, obviously. Keep that for later.
Floaty and feminine is a look which works; structured and fitted isn’t. Avoid über-floaty though, as this can easily turn into ‘shapeless heap’ which helps no one. You need some structure.
Don’t buy maternity clothes yet. You want to enjoy these last months of wearing semi-normal clothes while you can, and you may not even need them, if you are lucky and clever with your wardrobe. And anyway, you won’t believe how big you are going to get, and you will almost certainly buy everything a size or two too small. I had to take everything back the first time, because I grew out of them at seven months. Darn!
Accentuate the positive: legs, bust, neck, shoulders, arms—wherever you look best is what we want to see most of.
Later On (When You Are Really Showing)
For me this tended to happen at about six months. Until this point I was always certain that I wouldn’t get that much bigger, being what I considered to be enormous already. Everyone convinces themselves of this, because thinking any other way is just too depressing. But a moment passes at around six months in your first pregnancy (and at about three months in subsequent ones) when your stomach will start its journey outwards, and this signals the end of Pregnancy Wardrobe Phase One.
Now that your bump has become clearly visible, you enter the next phase of wardrobe confusion. Instead of cunningly concealing a slightly tubby midriff, the best way forward is to embrace your bump and make a feature of it. A protruding, pregnant waist is not at all the same as a fat stomach: the latter comes with all the trimmings of a fat everything else, usually, and making an effort to lessen the impact is probably a good idea. But when you’re pregnant, 90% of your body is almost as trim as it was before, and you just have an unamusingly large middle zone. Trying to hide it is the female equivalent of sweeping long straggles of wispy hair over a man’s bald patch: it looks worse than it did before, and fools nobody.
Jemima French, designer, Frost French
I felt great when I was pregnant. I used to wear designer pregnancy jeans which where really comfy and yet still flattering on the bum. I also used to cut my own jeans at the back and wear big baggy t-shirts which was both practical and stylish. I wore lots of empire vintage nightie dresses which made me feel cute.
Pregnancy Survival Wardrobe Phase Two
Stay in regular clothes for as long as possible. If you’re lucky, you will be able to wear non-maternity bottom halves right up to the birth, by tucking the waist under your bump and wearing trousers as hipsters. But remember that clothes will sit differently now, so make sure they still look good.
Long skirts can make you look dumpier and more box-like, because they don’t show your legs. Minis have the advantage of slim-leg exposure, which takes the eye away from the waist, but they are only for the brave (or tasteless—I never went along with the ‘pregnant hooker’ look, but perhaps you can pull it off better than me.) Mid-length will slim you out if your calves and ankles are still trim, as they might be if you are still exercising well and putting your feet up whenever possible.
Don’t move into your partner’s clothes just because they are bigger. They are bigger, but they are not cut for your shape or size, and the old ‘looking like a sack’ adage will apply to you.
Don’t over-complicate matters. Keep it simple: bold patterns and prints may be in, but you should stick to understated and muted for now, unless you are as self-confident as Trinny or Susannah.
Invest in some hip maternity clothes to see you through this last bit in style. Now you can go for the maternity wear if you need to (see below), but remember you will get bigger than you think. Think bigger, bigger, bigger.
Black works.
Try support tights. These make Bridget Jones’s knickers look like something from a Victoria’s Secrets catalogue, but they do apparently have some amazing health benefits for your legs: they can reduce varicose veins and can even keep your legs trimmer and more shapely. I never wore them, mainly because I never wore skirts much, but I have heard some very favourable reports
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