Help! - maternity clothes for work

[moonblues]

I'm really struggling with trying to find suitable maternity tops for work. There doesn't seem to be much of anything in the shops and online it's mostly casual. I need to be at least fairly smart and can't really wear dresses.
Does anyone have any tips?
It seems strange, you'd think that there are lots of, especially first time, pregnant women who are still working, so why don't they make clothes easily available! Sorry, rant over.
Any tips for stuff that isn't mega-expensive gratefully receive. :)

Hey I just bought done stuff from purpless.co.uk

eBay has some good stuff which is new too.

My SIL is an accountant and she shops at next online for her workwear. She always looks smart and they don't look like maternity clothes IYKWIM.

HTH

I had the same problem- ebay came to my rescue. Managed to get a suit and some smart trousers on there. I find that tops are a struggle (I work in court) but there are some blouse type tops available (again got mine through ebay, but Next had some as well) which work well. Good luck!

Seraphine is really good for work stuff. I found dresses the most useful. I bought a navy blue dress from there which I wore in winter with tights, boots and a cardie. I wore it in summer with flats. It was £45 but I wore it loads and felt really smart

Thanks for all your tips. I will check them out. I hadn't heard of purpless or seraphine and I've never actually bought anything off ebay, but will have to face my fear :)
I like being able to buy stuff in shops where I can try them on. Partly because I'm rubbish at returning stuff...
Thank you!

I found jojomamanbebe good for smart shirts and tie tops that looked smart.

Hey. I have to wear suits to work too, but found all maternity suit trousers awful... especially seraphine ones - they looked mega cheap. I have basically bought designer dresses eg isabella oliver on ebay and then wear my pre preg jackets over the top. The jackets no longer button up but explained to manager I was not going to spend 300quid on maternity suit jacket!

ASOS have a couple of things at the moment - one of which is a plain white smart shirt currently in the sale, which I have just bought which is pretty good. Not very exciting but definitely work wear and I think it was reduced to about £12.

I hate shopping for clothes online and maternity clothes I really do. Maternity clothes have been the worst part of being pregnant for me - that might sound crazy but I just find the whole thing depressing. I want to look like me - not someone else just because I have a bump.

I work in a formal office (accountants) and would wear suits to meet clients when not pregnant. I also disliked maternity suits - had a colleague who spent a fortune on them while pg and looked dreadful a lot of the time as the fabric, cut and fit were just not right for her. I got some black maternity dresses (wraps or stretchy jersey fabric from Asos, Topshop and (gulp) Mothercare - some benefitted from a slip and all from robust tights!) and wore then with pearls or a scarf and was quite smart enough.

Op John Lewis stock Seraphine if that takes away the fear of online :)

Thank you for starting this thread. I am only 10 weeks, and more bloated than bump , so not an issue yet, but had a look online for clothes yesterday and was starting to despair. I work in an office where everyone wears suits and was worried I'd spend the next few months looking like a bag of spanners!

One woman at work had lots of top shop dresses which were nice, so will give that a go as well as he recommendations here.

I got nearly all of my maternity clothes in New Look, Jojo and H&M.. little shirts etc. I wear them with longline light cardigans etc.
I got a smart black blazer in Next. It is hard to dress smart in the summer while pregnant I think.

One of the best items I bought was a pair of navy linen maternity trousers in New Look. I am packing them in my maternity bag too.. really comfy. If you need to be smarter for work I would recommend them for the evenings/weekend.

I bought a good black dress from Crave Maternity online. Suitable for meals out/weddings/work. Great buy too and will be good when baby arrives as suitable for BF.

I have seen purpless on ebay, the clothes look really nice and affordable, I will be buying stuff from there x

I've bought some maternity trousers in black, grey and beige but otherwise got normal, non-maternity stretchy ruched tops or dresses in a bigger size - more selection and cheaper than the maternity stuff. And wore my normal suit jackets, just unbuttoned.

The Seraphine tops, dresses and leggings were great but I agree with WhatILoved about their trousers. Jojomamanbebe is good too and they don't charge for delivery.

I also got some reasonable bits and pieces from the NCT online shop.

I think retailers must find it more cost effective to sell maternity wear online because the number of pregnant women is small compared to the number of women shoppers as a whole.

P.S. If you want a laugh, get the Seraphine catalogue. Don't know about any of you, but I didn't do much casual leaning on scenic Parisian lampposts while I was pregnant .

By the way, can anyone use a maternity coat - black, shortish length, work-appropriate? Someone gave me one and it was very useful (also did up round baby in sling) but I'm not sure what to do with it in June...

It's not a maternity catalogue but the dresses from here are excellent and fit over bumps (usually some good sales offers too):
www.artigiano.co.uk

Just remembered, New Look have black work trousers which are pretty good and good value.

I have to be very smart for work (court) and have really struggled. Ebay has saved me - a couple of black jersey dresses, a Next trouser suit, hardly worn, and a maternity jacket to go with the dresses have got me through so far; as long as i keep the jacket done up I've been getting away with ordinary tops.

Ok I've been checking out the one's you've mentioned - so thank you very much.
Phineyj haven't checked out the Seraphine catalogue yet, but the website made me laugh with the women flashing their maternity bra's. :) The purpless one was a bit strange too, their seems to be a stock maternity pose of one hand above and one below bump, which kind of obscures the clothes...
I think stretchy fabric tops and dresses might be the way forwards.
Thanks for all your help :)