A trimester-by-trimester guide of some of the best non-maternity dresses that will work for your pre-baby body, your baby-growing body, your post-baby body, and everything in between!
The Best Maternity Dresses That Aren’t Actually Maternity Dresses
There is a photo in my baby book of my mother pregnant with me in an oversized floral mumu that haunts me. She is glowing and beautiful, but it was the dress—shapeless and much too large—that I could never get past. I’d always assumed that those tent-like dresses were simply what one had to wear while pregnant and the thought terrified me. Needless to say, when I was pregnant with my daughter thirty years later, I approached all changes to my wardrobe with skepticism. I wanted to be the sort of pregnant person who didn’t buy any new clothes so I started by shopping my own wardrobe to see what would be suitable.
Leggings seem to be the go-to suggestion for pregnancy attire, but as a self-proclaimed dress lover, leggings don’t usually make the rota in my day-to-day life so I was hesitant to reach for them just because I had a human growing inside of me! I did purchase a pair of the least maternity-looking maternity jeans I could find to wear with oversized button-up shirts but other than that, I was able to keep to my pre-baby wardrobe by sticking with dresses. Helped some by timing (I was pregnant in the spring and summer), I got by on floaty frocks and a few nightgowns that perhaps shouldn’t have been worn out of the house. To me, this was the ultimate solution to “maternity dressing”: rocking clothes I already had or only buying something I would wear in my post-bump life too.
The best way to approach pregnancy dressing is to first evaluate your current wardrobe and see what can comfortably adapt with your body, then add in a few pieces that—and this is the crucial part—you would buy regardless of your incoming baby. Also, look at other areas of your wardrobe that you might have thought off-limits before. Tailored blazers left open or cropped denim or leather jackets are great ways to add shape and polish to an otherwise shapeless summery dress.
I had a strong rotation in play of a favorite striped Brock Collection dress, a flowy floral Chloé number, and several linen dresses from Sleeper that became my mainstays. I paired them with a few great jackets and sneakers or ballet flats and the inevitable pair of birkenstocks—it was a uniform that carried me all the way through. The key takeaway I learned is that you do not need to scour the “maternity” section of your favorite websites to dress that bump.
This story originally appeared on: Vogue - Author:Hayley Bloomingdale
