Maternity wear opinions required!

[InBloom]

Hi,

I am a 4th year student at Westminster Uni in London. Having recently fallen pregnant I decided to write a report on maternity wear -something which would be prove useful to me!

I have briefly shopped on the highstreet for maternity wear and have realised the slight lack of elegant fashion available to pregnant women.

Where do you suggest I shop for comfortable clothes that are also stylish and fashionable?

The main aim of my report is to find out where people shop and whether there is an opportunity for Principles to sell maternity wear.

Having worked for Principles I understand their philosophy; to provide women with flattering clothes that make sense of the latest trends. Could this concept work well with maternity wear?

If you could provide me with your opinons that would be fantastic. Thanks a lot for your time.

SJ

Not sure about the whole Principles thing as I'm 30 and have had two children (5 & 2) and consider myself to be ok when it comes to fashion, however Principles for me would be a bit of a no-no for normal shopping. I think they have got more frumpy in the last few years and haven't kept up with the modern styles as well as say M & S (who are now doing maternity clothes).Saying that however, I guess more and more women are having babies at an older age so perhaps Principles would be a hit for them?I'm meaning to slate Principles - any store who do maternity clothes are onto a winner really.

Personally if you want comfy and fashionable, I'd go for La Redoute, H & M or Isabelle Oliver.

I shop online for my maternity clothes as the highstreet selection in Ireland is rubbish compared to the UK.

Even living in London, I have found most maternity wear to be quite disgusting. Badly made, ill fitting, etc. Have looked in major stores, many of which do not have proper sizes (though this could be because they are serving a large populous). Would consider Principles if they did a maternity range, particularly if it was petite (read: short, not necessarily tiny) as well.

I've been disappointed with high street maternity wear (H&M, Top Shop, Dorothy Perkins etc) and would expect Principles to fall into a similar (and perhaps frumpier) bracket. I found the best places were Formes and independent shops like The Maternity Company in Chiswick. If I was still in London I'd also be heading to Brent Cross to check out Polarn O.Pyret.

I agree, in my opinon most of the stores seem to lack well fitted, stylish maternity wear. In terms of Principles, I actually quite like them. I used to think their clothes were "frumpy" but recently items seem to be alot more stylish. If they were to produce maternity wear I'd shop there!

I'm sorry, I like Principles and have done for a while. I'm only 35! If they did a maternity range I would definitely be interested.

I have bought maternity clothes from H&M, NEXT and smaller, specialist shops before. Other people have bought me things from other High St shops like Dorothy Perkins. On looking back I don't think the H&M clothes were particularly flattering although I enjoyed wearing them at the time. I had some lovely secondhand Formes jeans which were wonderful and I felt very stylish in them. This time round I can't buy a whole new wardrobe but might go for more secondhand clothes from good brands like Formes or Isabella Oliver.

There are more options available online, although you have to be prepared to send things back if they don't fit, which is a bit of a pain. Have you seen www.funmum.com? They seem to have a good range. I also got a wonderful strapless black velvet dress for an evening wedding when I was about 36 weeks pg with ds2 but I can't remember the company!!

I've just discovered Seraphine who have a couple of shops in London and a Belgian company called Fragile (but I don't know if you can get their stuff in the UK - I'm in Germany) who do really good dresses (Both companies around the 40GBP per top, 70+ GBP per dress mark). I'm shocked at the poor quality of maternity wear on the High Street (I do come to the UK to shop occasionally ). When I was first pregnant 5 years ago Hennes were passable, now they're appalling. Zara have a maternity range but it's very limited.

I would say that if companies such as Principles have a loyal customer base in the appropriate (child-bearing) age bracket, there will always be an opportunity to sell mat wear. I think a company like Kew would do well in this area too. Sorry this is so garbled.

I think Topshop maternity is great (if a little limited) and have got some good dresses and tops from them.

Isabella Oliver is very good for simple classics - I live in their grey wrap cardigan.

I have found that I still wear a lot of wrap dresses I had from before I was pregnant (maybe with a camisole underneath).

With regard to Principles I think they have really upped their game recently, especially with the Nouveau collection. So I would definitely have been interested in a maternity range.

I'm 34 with one little girl (2yrs) and one on they way. I tend to shop in M&S and Mothercare for my maternity wear because both stores offer good quality, comfy clothes. They do however seem to lack in the offerings of stylish and elegant clothing so more often than not I shop at Next and Topshop to pick up more fashionable items. I used to shop quite a bit in Principles, I really liked their embellishments on products, especially on tops and dresses. When I fell pregnant for the first time I had to stop shopping there because I got so big I HAD to start buying maternity wear! I now rarely shop at Principles. Maybe I will shop more once I've had this little one!?

I'm 34 and don't shop in principles - I feel I am still outside their age range.
I did find the Fragile brand available on www.everydaymaternity.com - limited range though. And it is very well made and I still wear the dresses afterwards as the fabrics are so wonderful. Worth the extra cash.

im 27 and like topshop for maternity clothes, ive only bought jeans and work trousers though as im just wearing tunic tops from there in a slightly bigger size.

For v.smart (i.e. expensive) Formes was great but trousers didn't fit after about 8 mnths (or may be it was just the size of my behind grew too much). I actually found my self shopping in places that I wouldn't normally shop in as at 36 I felt a bit old - top shop, h and m and the place I was most surprised at was New Look. I figured that these things had a limited use anyway so it was my chance to enjoy a bit of throw away fashion.

Honestly there is quite a lot of maternity fashion available. I am unconvinced that you don't have an ulterior motive - just come out and ask!

I'm 23. i wore mainly dorothy perkins maternity wear, but i also wore some normal tops, in a size larger, because they were smocky looking anyway.
i had a lovely top from h&m too. i thought their stuff was lovely!

i'm 6 foot tall and have a 36" inside leg so can only find maternity clothes in long tall sally which are not cheap. Would love it if places like H&M, Dotty P, New Look did stuff in a longer leg length as they do a tall range but seem to forget that tall people get pregnant too . BP ( before pregnancy) I had loads of stuff from DP and New Look as well as loads of surf type clothes (am a bit of a hippy chick.

Although I am only 13 weeks all of my jeans/trousers are too tight all ready and I have one pair of maternity jeans which I got from ebay and am mostly spending time in PJ's.

Hedgehog, Topshop occasionally do maternity with 36" inside leg, might be worth a bash?

Hedgehog, i am also tall (a mere 5'10 to your 6foot!) and i found the maternity jeans and combats from Next were the best.
In general, i found maternity wear to be either cheap and nasty or very expensive. I didnt need maternity jeans until i was 25 wks pregnant and found the very unflattering ones with the big elastic bit to be most comfy. Also had a posh wedding to go to when I was 37wks and and just bought a longish black wrap dress in bigger size.

I'm 38 and generally find Principles a bit old for me, not frumpy necessarily, but I like a bit more edge I suppose you'd call it, which is a tough one when pregnant, although I have sort of found that lots of things look groovier when you have such an hilarious body shape.

I wore a combo of Isabella oliver, 2nd-hand Ghost bought on ebay, Topshop maternity and random knitwear. Coats were the hardest thing to find.