maternity clothes on oxford street???

[030213babytime]

hey lovely mumsnetters, in a few weeks im heading to london, i have one afternoon to shop. i need maternity clothes preferably not very expensive clothes.

any shop recomendations?

thanks

Top shop have a maternity range. They're on Oxford Circus.
And Mamas and Papas have a big store about 100m from Oxford Circus, on Regent Street, with a range of maternity clothes too.

I don't know how expensive either of those are though, sorry!

The h&m on regent street has a maternity section.

Next doesn't.

M&S (the one near bond st) has about one rail of maternity gear - rubbish!

New look on Oxford street was pretty good

John Lewis - nothing!

House of Fraser - pretty nursing bras, nothing else

H&M Regent St well worth a look, it's a bit hit and miss, but there's a decent chance you'll find something quirky, not depressing and cheep. Maybe Dorothy Perkins Bond St as well?

H&M and Dorothy Perkins were my staple shops for maternity clothes, not too expensive but still good quality. Sometimes if you look hard enough, Mothercare did the odd good item. I found New look and M&S weren't that good, but it might just depend on your body shape. I'm petite so really struggled with trousers and jeans, whereas DP does petite range.

The Next on Oxford Street near the Plaza has a ridiculously small maternity section. Dorothy Perkins at Bond St definitely has.
The New Look (not the one by Marble Arch) has a great section. Debenhams might have something...

Helpfully I went on friday!

Topshop has some good bits - picked up a lovely long grey/blue jersey roll top skirt.

H&M useful for basics although I reckon I might take a few items back as I am not loving them IRL for some reason.

Mamas and papas - TBH it was pretty dreadful for the price but YMMV; I couldn't bring myself to buy anything there.

I definitely recommend going to COS though - it's slightly further down regent street and is full of mad Scandanavian looking oversized dresses and tops which look crazy on normal people but will be genius when I have a bump. Got two dresses - one grey really heavy jersey with a scooped neck and some sort of weird pleat down the front. With a belt under the boobs it'll look awesome. Also a black long sleeved wool dress which has two leather straps at waist height which seem to tie together leaving mountains of fabric hanging about the place. No idea how a normal person would wear it but it'll be great come the autumn.

There are several Gaps on Oxford and Regent street. Some will have maternity stuff, often it is in with the gap kids. Their range is relatively limited but I've picked up some nice bits, particularly basics.

I'd recommend going to High Street Kensington if you have time: Gap there has a large selection of maternity clothes (more than any other Gap store) plus there is Seraphine on the Church Street - not cheap but not outrageously pricey, either, and it has very good quality items. I can also recommend Next online - their sizing is really good (choose pre-pregnancy size; I did it and the clothes lasted me throughout the pregnancy, I am 35+4 and 13 extra kilos and I fit well into dresses which i bought at 18-20wks).

I would totally recommend Pretty Pregnant on the kings road. I have now done 2 trips to London, the first around Oxford Circus from which I came home empty handed and fuming. The second where I planned a route around the specialist maternity shops. Pretty Pregnant was my last maternity stop of the day, I was hot and tired and the shop was about to close, but the assistant was so helpful, brought me lots of extra sizes to try, and when I found a vest top that worked she pointed out the other colours they had. The quality is really good and so is the fit.

Also Anthropolgie on the kings road. Not a maternity shop and pricey but I bought 2 dresses from there and feel brilliant in both of them.

Hi! I second H and M on regent street (very close to Oxford street); they do affordable and somewhat trendy clothes! Have fun :-)

Thanks you so much! Loads of helpful advice.

Freebutton bee :) I love that you say they have a Scandinavian style :) my husband's danish so I live in Denmark :)

Now im excited, I don't need too much but a few nice pieces will make me feel gorgeous.

Thanks again :D

I'd try Stratford Westfield! Much less hustle than OS and same flagship stores. And it's air-con'ed

There is also a pretty pregnant on children street. Really nice things, quite expensive, but very good quality.

Sastra - Stratford Westfield is surprisingly poor for maternity clothes in my recent experience. Gap, M+S, John Lewis had nothing. Topshop had two rails. Mamas and Papas was the only decent place.

I didn't really like the New Look stuff, but top shop and gap had some nice bits, but I found with gap the selection was very small but did change quite quickly week to week and things were reasonably priced in the sale. Top Shop had loads at all prices. I bought some stuff from muji too. They were like shift dresses and I think they will last me to the end and beyond.

I've just been to Westfield White City and had the same experience as ThreeWheelsGood. It's desperately annoying to find that neither Next nor M&S have any of their maternity clothes in-store. Both apparently stopped stocking them relatively recently. New Look was pretty good (although their trousers are a very odd shape if you're short and not skinny-legged). Got most from M&P, although, again, trousers suitable for work are dull - we're only allowed to wear black, it seems. Bought one jumper from Debenhams, but the amount of stuff they had was miniscule. Forgot to go to GAP - now annoyed at self!

I do think it's daft that it's so hard to buy nice maternity wear in normal shopping centres. Don't think the birth rate's slowing down, particularly!

Hi everyone

I thought I would update this thread as it would have extremely helpful but I just did a trek of Oxford st from Marble Arch to Oxford Circus in hunt of maternity work clothes and most of the shops mentioned frustratingly no longer sell maternity clothes in store. Here's a summary which hopefully other mums-to-be will find helpful - a frustrating trip down maternity lane...

1. Mothercare near Marble Arch - they do have a maternity section but it's quite small - they recently decided to make it smaller than what it was previously (thanks!)
2. New look marble arch - no longer sells maternity but apparently their Oxford circus branch does (lost energy by the time I got there so can't confirm this)
3. Dorothy Perkins bond st station - no longer sell maternity
4. Gap nr bond st - sounded great from the comments below but surprise surprise no longer do maternity in store! Grrrr...
5. Checked Zara on the way down cos they do kids clothes - don't have maternity (that would be asking far too much!)
6. Top shop Oxford circus - small maternity range although given the size of the whole shop i think it's shocking it's so small
7. HnM regent st - what a rubbish collection of work clothes. I wouldn't waste your time.
8. Mamas and papas regent st - no longer there and has been replaced with HnM's 'Other Stories' but not been updated on google maps!

In summary don't waste your time. Just go online and accept there will be a lot of trial and error

As a recently pregnant first time mum-to-be I am disgusted by the lack of choice for pregnant women in such a large shopping area as Oxford circus

Hopefully this will save some of you other mums-to-be precious time and energy.