Fed up of frumpy clothes!

[zombee]

I'm 28 weeks pregnant and humongous. When I tell people how far along I am they're shocked as I look like I'm about to give birth any day (not helped by the fact I'm 5foot nothing so i actually look like a beach ball).
None of my normal clothes have fit since about 12 weeks so I ordered some maternity stuff. However all the tops that came make me look frumpy! It makes me look bigger and shorter and they're not even nice tops really. From a selection of shops as it was an eBay bundle.
Can anyone recommend any nice maternity clothes (preferably cheap) that don't make me look a million times worse? I'm feeling so depressed by how awful I look I only go out to work and then come straight back home. I don't even enjoy sitting in the garden right now

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It depends on your size and what you are comfortable wearing?
I wore looser clothes in bigger sizes and rarely wore maternity clothing. As I am nearly always wearing a dress or skirt this was easy to do.

My goddaughter preferred to wear tight fitting dresses from shops like H&M. More strappy ones with a light cardigan or t-shirt type sleeve ones. She looked stunning. I wouldn’t have done and don’t have the confidence to wear tight fitting clothing.

I'm a 12 usually but just had to buy a bra in a 20 to give an indication of how big I'm getting.
I much prefer tight clothes as I feel loose ones give the impression I've got even more weight on me. I'll have a look at H&M thank you!

Being pregnant when it is getting hot is no fun at all.

People can be very insensitive towards pregnant women which is particularly unhelpful when you are just getting your own head around the change in your shape.

My advice would be to look at Lagenlook stuff and dungarees and get cool accessories to defrump. Lucy and Yak are worth a look for inspiration 🙂 Hippie stuff looks good too. Focus on wearing stuff you love not how big you look in it.

Always wear comfortable shoes that can be adjusted due to fluctuations too. I lived in Birkenstocks over twenty years ago when I had mine and continue to love them 😀

Leggings and tunics are bloody comfortable too in stretchy cotton.

I had to strip to cycling shorts and a t shirt yesterday as in the summer I usually just don't have a hoodie and in the winter I do so I don't own any summer clothes!
I do like the "hippy" style trousers and I have somewhere local who sell them very cheap so I will go and have a look at those this week. It's just so hard getting the right balance of not looking awful and feeling comfortable - if I could I'd just wear my cotton wireless bra and cycling shorts every day 😂
I'll also keep an eye out for Birkenstock style sandals in charity shops, I'm 19 so they're not "cool" but the ones that are I'll never be able to get my swollen feet into!

In my last pregnancy I refused to wear maternity stuff. It's all horrible unless you spend big money. Instead I went for the right shape things from normal ranges in bigger sizes. H&M has loads of jersey stuff in right now, drawstring waist trousers and shorts and simple t-shirt dresses, plus I found Matalan's super long vest tops a lifesaver under everything.

All my maternity stuff does feel and look awful, it's as if once you're pregnant you're not allowed to look good anymore!
I think I'm going to go into the shop that sells hippy style clothes and then just do a big charity shop crawl and look at bigger sizes (we have about 8 so I should find something!) Only issue is once you start looking past a certain size I've found the clothes stop being attractive again. Might have to learn to alter clothes and borrow a sewing machine off someone but that seems more effort than it's worth for 3 months of clothes whilst pregnant and then they'll be too big again!

Look for short A-line dresses to wear as long tops over leggings. Or those shirts/tops with a tie at the back that you can leave undone as you get bigger.

Matalan currently have a multitude of 'boob tube' jersey tops- use those as bump bands and you can stop your tummy sticking out underneath and can even maybe wear your own things a bit longer over the top.

Some of the cheaper shops (eg primark/matalan/Asda do some quite nice floaty bits in their swimwear section as well, you could wear over a long vest. I practically lived in a black jersey cover up that was supposed to be for on the beach. I saw very loose jersey trousers in primark the other day too.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/FNKDOR-Summer-Climbing-Camisole-Ladies/dp/B07BVRF3Q8?ref=fsclpppldpp12

https://www.amazon.co.uk/T-Shirts-OverDose-Pullover-Sleeveless-Irregular/dp/B07BFCJLX6?ref=fsclpppldpp15

What about things like this?

Another tip, if you have to size up with vest tops and the shoulders are too wide, you can pull the back of the straps together in the middle to make a sort of 'racer back' shape and fix with a safety pin

Have a look here
www.asos.com/search/?_cclid=Google_CjwKCAjwzPXlBRAjEiwAj_XTEVtAeTrtdyckYVhWSEJcgDb39-_00sgDgQvBHF603Ron3Mtc7UehAhoCRrUQAvD_BwE&channelref=paid%20search&currentpricerange=0-110&gclid=CjwKCAjwzPXlBRAjEiwAj_XTEVtAeTrtdyckYVhWSEJcgDb39-_00sgDgQvBHF603Ron3Mtc7UehAhoCRrUQAvD_BwE&page=1&ppcadref=125087679%7C7657897479%7Caud-455311525176%3Akwd-1789712141&q=monki&refine=attribute_10992%3A61379&stop_mobi=yes

Sorry for the insanely long link!

Thank you @thenewaveragebear1983 I quite like those tops, I'll have a look out for that style in charity shops!
The link didn't work @Alsohuman but I can see it's meant to link to something monki so I've searched that and I quite like a few of those pieces.
Lots of lovely ideas everyone so thank you so much! Not feeling quite so upset now, I'm just going to need to spare an afternoon and go to all the shops to try on things (and hope my bank account doesn't decide to hate me 😂)

I did exactly the same thing as @thenewaveragebear1893 . I bought a few stretchy jersey bodycon dresses from H&M in bigger sizes. Bodycon is great when you’ve got a bump on purpose

I didn’t buy any maternity stuff as I thought it was awful, but Topshop has a nice maternity line that I’d look at if I were pregnant again

I'm the nicer weather all I've worn is bodycon dresses and I do love that they show off the bump and are tight so don't make me look bigger. If all else fails I'll have to just invest in loads of them but I love looking nice and being able to wear new outfits regularly. I get with a baby I'm not gonna look great and I don't now tbh but Id love to just look better than I do right now. Thank you everyone for your suggestions, they've cheered me up because they've shown I have got options!

Hi OP, completely understand how you feel. I'm 5ft 2 and 40+3, I had to go into maternity clothes at 12 weeks this time (second pregnancy). I've had the "Oooh! When are you due?" comments since Christmas and now I'm getting fed up of the 'Any news?' texts.

Anyway, Asos have a pretty good range of non frumpy, fairly inexpensive maternity clothes. Hope you can find something suitable.

How stay the H&M and primark stretchy and t shirt dresses look fab with a bump and sandals. They don’t need to be Birkenstock style.
If you’re near a primark they do wide fit sandals and lots of cute strappy sandals that you can just slip on.
I obviously won’t but if I could post a pic of my goddaughter she looked great in this over the summer when she was pregnant. She was 18 then as well so had the benefit of youth to look gorgeous as well.