Work suit - Isabella Oliver or serpahine

[fia101]

Hi

I need a smart maternity work suit for the next 3 months.

Serpahine is cheaper at £180 and Isabella Oliver is £238. Don't want to spend money but if I need to do then I want the suit to be flattering.

Any experience of either please?

I found Seraphine really poor quality personally OP 😊

My seraphine jeans fell apart really quickly.
No personal experience with Isabella Oliver clothes but only heard good things

Thanks all

I don’t like either. Prefer Hobbs or Reiss as they last a lot longer.

My Seraphine stretchy dresses that I wear for work arelovely quality, the cardigan I bought from them went bobbly quite quickly though! Overall fheir stuff is lovely I'd say, just bought a nursing jumper from them too which is lovely. No experience of their suits or of Isabella Oliver....will now check IO out!

If it falls apart after 3.5 months I guess it's worth considering anyway? It's for such a brief time, and the final month you might need something bigger still so maybe it's just for two months?

I've got stuff from both Seraphine and IO - personally I would pay a bit more and go for the IO.

There's normally a discount code knocking about if you are a new customer - that might help? I've also bought second hand IO stuff on eBay so might be worth a look?

I have bits from both and agree the quality of Seraphine is questionable, I found the Isabella Oliver tops much better quality but no idea on suits.

Is Isabella Oliver quite small fitting? Not sure whether to go for 12 or 14 skirt (usually a 12) but feel meh at moment.

Maybe a stretchy dress and blazer would be smart enough

Been checking eBay everyday for IO and got a IO shirt but no jumpers or cardigans.

Just need to look smart at work and don't want anything too short

I didn't find IO particularly small fitting but I only have tops so they are always a bit more stretchy. A stretchy dress and blazer is a great idea - although then you are in the territory of finding tights that stay up :-) I am still wearing some of my nice shirts/blazers over tops and it makes me feel normal...until I pass the mirror and see my giant bump or accidentally knock my toddler over because I forget where I end! Can you order both and send one back? I got a few dresses last time a size too big (from somewhere else) and they made me look ginormous so I hardly wore them in the end

I bought a few IO work dresses and found them to be pretty good quality and they don't come up small. They have comfortably lasted me two pregnancies! One dress has started to look a bit worn, but it's probably fair as I've worn it most weeks for a total of about 9 months!

Isabella Oliver stuff is the best mat wear I've been lent or bought. Gets loads of compliments as well. I'm a size 10 and IO size 2 fits me and my bump.

I have to wear business dress at work and I found that a dress and jacket worked better than a skirt to be honest whilst still looking smart. The dresses were more forgiving so lasted longer and they are more versatile so can be used outside of work too with a cardigan/different accessories.

IO have lovely stuff so I'd probably go for that if you can stretch to it.

Thanks all. Have gone for the IO suit - I'm hoping the skirt fits. After Christmas it's time to seriously watch the weight I'm accruing!

Will look for dresses too x

I'd go for IO over Seraphine.

During my first pregnancy I bought a lots of IO bits and pieces from the website, all reduced price.

Some of the knitwear I still wear now.

I ordered a load of things from Seraphine, ended up sending most of it back- the cut, finish, overall style of the clothes just didn't seem that great.

I was a bit surprised as Seraphine got a lot of publicity with Kate's first pregnancy the previous summer so was expecting it to be decent stuff.

*Kate Middleton of course

My IO came today it is smart but doesn't hit the spot for the price. Lovely material. Going to send it back and try a couple of smart midi length IO dresses to wear with a black waterfall cardigan I have.

Tbh I avoided maternity wear when pregnant.

It was all so stupidly expensive.

I bought a couple of tube skirts a couple of sizes up and styled them with nice floaty tops.

Really comfortable and looked smart and professional.

Stuff like the pictures below.

That is a beautiful skirt - I know what you mean - I buy maternity clothes then return them. They just suit me

"Dont"