Maternity Clothes

[theTramp]

Where is hot and where is not. Online stores worth checking out. High street stores worth visiting. Good for petites. Good for giantesses. Second hand e-bay bargains - worthwhile? Views and reviews of the maternity gear you have bought.. all for the benefit of everyone who is desperately looking.

My oversized IO normal clothes polo neck jumper arrived today. BAGS of room for a bump, no matter how gigantic it may or may not be. Perfect for the taller lady, it would possibly drown you if shorter. Not cheap, but snuggly warm and I know I'll live in it for years, preggers or no. So a recommendation by me. www.isabellaoliver.com/baukjen/uk/600/knitwear/TP540.html

Ladies IO has 25% off it's favourites today, on site. So some good work dresses, every day dresses, jeans, treggings and so on.

after much deliberatling I ordered some jeans from tall maternity store for my friend Jo tonight who has 36 inch pins! The OWNER even rang me to check the sizing and tell me the order woule be sent out tomorrow morning, how canny is that! I wouldnt expect that from the huge retailers! Will post some feedback when they arrive (jo's feedback) x

Seraphine and Isabella Oliver were both great in my experience. Of the two, I'd say Seraphine are better value for money, but IO have good sales.

If you chose to invest in some more expensive tops / dresses, it might be worth thinking about how they would work with breastfeeding afterwards - most of the Isabella Oliver tops are too tight to work, but the Seraphine knitwear is great, particularly their lovely soft bamboo knits, which hide a multitude of sins, look great during pregnancy and afterwards. As some of the nicer maternity tops can be quite expensive, it's nice to get as much wear out of them as possible.

For jeans, I got a local dressmaker to convert a couple of my existing pairs to maternity jeans; it's a fairly simple job to convert them back afterwards, not that I fit into my pre pregnancy jeans anymore!

Ebay is worth a look. I am (was) quite petite and picked up a few bargains I wore to death.

At 31 weeks pregnant and about to go on holiday, I headed for the high streets in London yesterday in an attempt to find maternity clothes that fit to avoid online shopping and ending up becoming a regular at the post office.

As an update following some threads I've read above on where to shop -
Zara and Benetton on Oxford Street no longer offer maternity clothes. John Lewis only offers an online maternity store and I was terribly dissapointed with the quality and offering of maternity wear at H&M Regent Street and Top Shop on Oxford Street.

I found a couple of nice dresses and a lovely swimsuit at Seraphine in Hampstead. They also have a range of comfortable and affordable maternity shoes (which no doubt I will continue to wear post pregnancy). The prices are surprisingly not much higher than those at Topshop, especially considering the massive difference in quality, but - is it justifiable to spend a small fortune on clothes that I will be wearing for only a couple months? I will be heading back today to bite the bullet...

...and I guess I will have to plan my next pregnancy around the summer too!