cool maternity wear

[chloepeters]

my boss told me her friend recommended www.isabellaoliver.com which is launching in october. it looks pretty cool from what i can see (not much though to be honest)

apparently diane von furstenburg is opening a new shop in ledbury road which will also stock her maternity wear.

Nothing to do with maternity wear but is DVF a real person? If so, anyone know how old she is? She was v popular - her and Gloria Vanderbilt, who I may be mixing her up with - in NY when we lived there, 1980-1983 and I had the impression she was quite old then. Only I just had a look at her website and it includes a travel diary, supposedly her and her family, but no pics - struck me as a bit odd.

She sells great bath towels though. I brought some back with us and they are still going strong except for frayed edges. I wonder if she made them herself.

I think she is a real and old person Jan, I seem to remember reading about her a long time ago in a supplement.

She is real, I read about her in Vogue this month. No idea how old she is either.

Not sure about DVF but im wondering if isabella oliver is a person? chloepeters do u know? what sort of clothes do they do?

there is a picture of her on www.netaporter.com - she looks, um, upper-middle aged... nothing wrong with that, i doubt if i'll look as good when the time comes...

dvf i mean, not io.

Thanks, bk, just had a look, I was mixing her up with Gloria who is now nearly 80. dvf is v glam and much younger (still don't know how old she is though but her mother is/was an Auschwitz survivor.)

diane von furstenburg is real! and rather beautiful and elegant. She was probably early twenties in the mid 60s when she was photographed by bailey, so I'd say she was about 60 now....

Chleopeters,

If you have any connections in America who would receive parcels for you and then forward them on to you over here, Gap have a gorgeous and very cool range of maternity wear. Of course the UK Gap unfortunately don't do maternity wear yet. If you have a look at Gap.com you'll see what I mean and the prices aren't too bad. Anyone have any connections at Gap UK who can insist they bring the maternity range to the UK??!!

Australian company called Belly Button do some glam things. Even a big white wedding dress!

This month's Eve magazine has a fashion feature for pregnant women.

Recommends Ghost, Juicy Couture, Dorothy Perkins and Diane Von Furstenberg.

Junior Pregnancy & Baby has loads of expensive fashionista stuff for pregnant women, and babies of course.

H&M are good - you need time to sift through the rails but its worth it and reasonably priced too. I ordered some Isabelle Oliver stuff - its ok but its just made of stretchy t-shirt material and isn't terribly flattering.

I wore Ghost and more Ghost - most of it cheapo from the Ghost outlet shop in west Norwood in S London. It stretches and stretches! I also had a lovely little dress from Formes - black viscose jersey, empire line with a cute drawstring under the bust and a low neck. Lovely for the summer with flipflops but also good with a cardigan. Wore it at least twice a week from April until September. I felt less elephantine in a dress or skirt than I did in trousers. I suppose it depends whether your thighs explode or not

I wish I'd splashed out on a pair of seraphine jeans. I bought a pair of BloomingM ones, which were supposed to fit under the bump but really slid down beyond bump to bum. Very glam, especially when pushing a buggy. Not.

I happened to be in new york whilst 2 months pregnant and bought masses of stuff from Pea in the Pod which was FANTASTIC. Lived in it all for the duration. Someone should open one over here.

Did you not find Pea In a pod expensive, although they did have a few good sale items when I was there. They do have some great stuff, it is the only store over there that the sizes fit smallish and aren't huge.

I got quite a lot in the sale (january - hurrah), but yes, it was expensive. But still, I wore the stuff from there to death and some other stuff I got from Formes (not completely cheap either) I hardly wore at all. Particularly their *ing trousers that shrank in the wash....! So good value overall I think.