Maternity Fashion: Dressing Through the Trimesters

This is part two in my maternity series.  Part one was about Breastfeeding fashion and you can read that here in case you missed it.  This piece is more about my favorite fashion for dressing through the trimesters.  There is a lot of variation in what you can wear between each trimester and then after you have the baby too.  I want to cover some of the things people don’t tell you about what you need and then some of my favorite brands.

So now that the announcement has been made public I can say that these posts are dedicated to my sweet friend Whitney.  She is expecting her first baby in October and she was really the reason that I wanted to write this series.

So dressing for the season of pregnancy is unlike anything you will ever dress for.  I want to be clear that it is important for you to remember that it’s necessary more than ever for you to try things on.  Online purchasing is great but you may want to order more than one size and return what doesn’t work.  I also don’t suggest buying too much in advance.  You will be surprised of how much your body will change between trimesters so things that worked initially may not work at the end.

I am going to make suggestion based off what worked for me but all women carry differently so take that into consideration.  I gained about 12 pounds when I was pregnant and I carried mostly in my belly and not side to side.

I dressed a lot differently in my pregnancy than I did before I got pregnant.  I chose mostly form fitting dresses with the side ruching.  I also wore a lot of leggings with tunics and bottoms with the full belly panel.  Just to give you a guide to how I utilized these stores.

Here are some of my favorite pieces and brands…

Jeans

Hands down one of the most important staples of a maternity wardrobe.  I didn’t wear jeans a lot before I was pregnant but while I was pregnant they were mainstay.  I was also really happy to have them after I had Porter.  The maternity jeans were a little big but I could fold the panel over and they fit more comfortably than regular jeans that had a button.

My favorite jeans were the Liz Lange for Target jeans.  The skinny jeans always fit well and I purchased the over the belly panel.  They also offered a variety of styles and colors and their jeans came in distressed and also dressy styles.  I owned several pairs.  These are my favorites.

Liz Lange Maternity Over the Belly Skinny Jeans in White

Liz Lange Maternity Over the Belly Distressed Skinny Jeans in Medium Wash

Liz Lange Maternity Over the Belly Dark Wash Jeggings

Dresses

I wore a lot of dresses when I was pregnant.  Dresses are an article of clothing that I wore a lot in my non pregnant life so that transferred over easily when I was pregnant too.  They are just too easy not to love.  It’s a whole outfit in one so less to plan.  I was also pregnant for a large part of the summer so dresses were vital to me not passing out in the heat.

During my pregnancy I had several fancy events to attend.  A charity polo event, a wedding and a few showers.

Pink Blush

Pink Blush has A LOT of dresses.  It’s actually almost intimidating how many options they have.  I really liked that they offered patterns and several different boho shapes.  Their maxi dresses were always my favorite.  They always have a sale going on too which makes them even more fabulous.   I was able to wear several of the dresses I had purchased after I delivered which was an added bonus.

Navy Racerback Maternity Maxi Dress

Ivory Rose Floral Wrap Dress

Mint Rose Short Sleeve Maxi

Old Navy

Old Navy had a lot of great every day options and I also found several comfortable dressier dresses for events I needed to attend.  By far my favorite dress style that I purchased from them was the bodycon dresses.  They were comfortable and flattering and I wore them to anything and anywhere.  The only issue with the bodycon style is that you are probably not going to want to wear them in postpartum.

Maternity Striped Bodycon Dress

Maternity Bodycon Jersey Tank Dress

Maternity Shirred Bodycon Dress

Target

Target is going to be a theme through this post and on this site.  I love Target and that’s no secret.  They also had amazing bodycon dresses and I wore them a lot.

Liz Lange Maternity Bodycon Short Sleeve Dress

Liz Lange Maternity Bodycon Tank Dress

Tops and Tunics

Tunics were an item that I purchased a lot of because I could wear them with jeans or leggings and they would work after I had the baby as well.  Pink Blush again had a great variety of tunics and they held up well.

Ivory Dolman Tunic Top

Dusty Pink Cuff Sleeved Tunic

Blush Front Cutout Tunic

 

Leggings

I wore and wear leggings all the time.  I am ashamed to admit that I held on to my maternity leggings far longer than anyone should keep them and I actually purchased a lot of mew pairs after I had the baby and dropped the baby weight.  Maternity leggings were my favorite part of maternity fashion and I’m still sad that I had to give them up.  Hands down my two favorite brands were ASOS and Motherhood Maternity.

Motherhood Maternity leggings were more of my day wear type legging.  They offer a lot of fun patterns and they are all cotton.  The ASOS leggings that I purchased were more for dressier looks.  Like the picture.  These were their faux leather maternity leggings.

ASOS Maternity Leather Look Legging

Motherhood Maternity Secret Fit Belly Crop Maternity Leggings

Motherhood Maternity Secret Fit Printed Maternity Leggings

Shoes

Ok.  Shoes are an issue.  Your feet are going to get bigger.  This is inevitable.  Sometimes they go back, mine did, but this will not happen until after the baby comes.  This leaves you with a dilemma because if you wear the shoes you currently own you will stretch them all out and in the chance your feet go back to their normal size you don’t want to stretch out everything you have.  You also don’t want to go out and buy all new shoes because, again your feet may go back to their original size and none of them will fit.

When I was pregnant I found two brands that worked well with my growing feet, were comfortable and still fit after my feet went back to their original size.

Tieks by Gavrieli

Tieks are not cheap but they are worth every single penny that you spend on them.  At the end of your pregnancy you will swear they are made of clouds and anything else you put on your feet will not measure up.  They are gold.  The end.

Bernie Mev

So they aren’t all cute but sometimes you just don’t care.  Third trimester of pregnancy you just don’t care.  Buy he Bernie Mev’s and wear them with everything.  Your feet will thank you.

I hope this helps point you in the right direction with your needs during pregnancy.  Next month I will continue the series with a post about maternity pictures and the fourth and final piece will be about postpartum.

XO,

Tippy