This post is part of a series on maternity wardrobe essentials and approaches to dressing for pregnancy. See the complete series.
Ah, the second trimester. By all accounts, pregnancy’s golden age: the risk of miscarriage is greatly reduced, you’re likely ready to share your news with friends, colleagues and family, nausea (it isn’t morning sickness at 11:30 p.m.!) and exhaustion are mostly a thing of the past, and you’re finally starting to look pregnant (at least a little…), but aren’t yet (a) hugely uncomfortable or (b) ready to burn anything that says “maternity” on the tag. As always, we are all beautiful and unique snowflakes, so your mileage may vary, but here are a few strategies from and highlights of my second trimester:
Before and After
For a little perspective, here’s what I looked like at the beginning of my second trimester, a time period which spanned the end of my second year of law school and the beginning of my summer work at a law firm in the city:
Acquire with Long-Term Wearability in Mind
The second trimester is when most women find they start to need a significant number of maternity items, and in particular, maternity tops and dresses. As I started to pull together some of these pieces, E. gave me some great advice that I’ll pass along here: try to resist buying tops and dresses in the first half of your pregnancy that don’t at least have some post-pregnancy potential (particularly if you plan on nursing). The first three of these pieces are from Japanese Weekend’s “d&a” (or “during and after”) line, designed with various forms of easy nursing access — and I’ve worn all of them in the first few weeks of m.’s life. The last, a wrap dress I snagged during the first of what turned out to be many desperate Target runs, represents a different kind of long-term thinking: although the fit was slightly awkward at the beginning, I wore it at least biweekly from week 15 to week 41.
Embrace the Empire Waist
This is a tough one for me to sell, since I’m now ready to burn anything in my closet with an empire waist, but it was an incredibly practical silhouette. On a pregnant woman, it reads as “yes, I’m really pregnant” rather than “I’m wearing this shirt that makes me look pregnant and I’m not really sure why!” And while an enormous number of maternity items are empire waisted, there’s something about this look during the second trimester that looks a little more polished and a little less … twee. Again, your mileage may vary, but I felt less like an overstuffed pumpkin wearing these kinds of looks in my second trimester than my third. Empire waists can also be a great way to stretch your non-pregnancy wardrobe (or newly-acquired non-maternity items) a little bit longer: while the tunic on the left is, in fact, a maternity item, the one on the right is not — just a two-sizes up top I snagged at a clothing swap.
Go Long…or Short
For whatever reason, long cardigans with wide-leg (or wide-ish-leg) trousers are fixed in my head as being associated with Life Before I Understood Proportions, so I’m not quite sure why I wore so many of these combinations while pregnant. And yet…something about that silhouette being interrupted by my nascent baby bump muted its leg-shortening, long-torso-emphasizing characteristics and made this kind of cozy, slouchy, untucked (gasp!) look work for me. It became yet another example of experimenting with my unfamiliar body in a way that was unexpectedly exciting and fun. Cropped toppers were less of a surprise (see above re: long torso), but particularly early on, they helped to show off what bumpage I had while still preserving the illusion of a waistline.
Drape, and Drape Again
Although I was ambivalent about draping early in my pregnancy, I came to see the advantages later on. See, the thing is, maternity waistband choice is complicated and fluctuating (about which more later. Really. A whole separate post.). Depending on how you carry, different options may be easier, harder or downright impossible. In my particular case, because I carried fairly close in and somewhat spread out to the sides (which the old wives tell me is typical of someone carrying a girl), a number of the available options left me with something of a preggers muffin-top, which I was particularly self-conscious about during my second trimester (when it was not, much as I believed it was, obvious that I was pregnant). Enter these two draped tops, both gifts from my saintly Mum: not only did they feel incredibly luxurious, they simplified dressing on the days that I didn’t want to spend twenty minutes precisely arranging the right combination of slips, camisoles and other undergarments to avoid Segmented Worm Syndrome.
Recently (or not so recently) pregnant? What were your best tips and tricks from the middle of your pregnancy? Things you wish you’d done differently, or would do again in a heartbeat?
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This post is part of a series on maternity wardrobe essentials and approaches to dressing for pregnancy. See the complete series.
If you’re reading this on Monday morning, and it’s not preceded by a note welcoming our new arrival, my due date came and went and I’m . . . still pregnant. Which is, of course, fine, but I am looking forward to the day when I can stop writing about dressing for pregnancy in the present tense! 
I’ve been looking wistfully at September issues and fall catalogues for the last few weeks, trying to piece together a vision of how I’ll incorporate fall’s trends into my post-partum style (which involves some seriously magical thinking, since I have no idea what my post-partum body will look like, what my needs will be—other than sleep!—or how quickly I’ll feel up for getting dressed). It feels like a whole new experience, after months of maternity dressing, which, while it can be stylish (and I’ve certainly tried!), is mostly not trendy—at least as to silhouette, since the range of bump-able silhouettes is, well, small. That said, some trends—particularly those involving color, texture and accessories—can work really successfully on the pregnant body (sometimes with a few adjustments).
For example: I loved this spring and summer’s brights, but dressing a newly-proportioned and (let’s face it) outsized body in bright colors takes some care and some thought. As usual, these aren’t iron-clad rules, but here are a few things I thought about and some particularly (and sometimes surprisingly!) successful strategies for making this trend work on a pregnant body. Like my list of suit alternatives, these go from least to most adventurous.
Simple Silhouettes
Let’s face it: pregnant bodies are, well . . . often bigger than their non-pregnant counterparts. Larger bodies lead to larger expanses of, in this case, bright, fabric, which can sometimes feel like overkill . . . or simply like a more dramatic look than you were going for. Starting with simpler shapes may be a good way to baby-step your way in to making these looks work, and giving you a chance to experiment with drawing attention to different parts of your body.
Dimmer Switches
Likewise, pairing brights with neutrals can tone them down in a way that really unifies a look. I wore this taupe-ish cardigan with many a brights-based look, taking advantage of both its snuggly nature and the way it made bright colors seem a little less overwhelming, particularly on darker, more inside-oriented days.
Brights at the Office: One Thing at a Time
As we’ve discussed at length, it depends on where you work and what you do, but not all offices are universally brights-friendly. For example, at the firm I worked at this summer, the expected number of bright wardrobe elements per woman on any given day was probably less than .5. Keeping the rest of the outfit more neutral and relying on one (or maybe two) colored elements may make these kinds of pieces more office-appropriate, and make you feel less like you’re ringing alarm bells walking through the hallway.
Pairing with Pattern
For whatever reason, I love the look of brights with patterns. Depending on the overall look, either the bright element or the patterned element can function as the anchor piece, with the other functioning as an accent. On the pregnant body, this is one of those relatively unusual examples of where more is more: even though it can be both a lot of pattern and a lot of bright on an unusually proportioned form, it feels celebratory and intentional and really, really fun.
Out There, Live: Color Blocking, Analogous Brights and Dramatic Shapes
Broadly and generally, these are bolder bright looks, and your mileage may vary on appropriateness for your work environment, your state of pregnancy, and your temperament. I’ve found that I’ve come to really love analogous brights, which seem really soothing to me, oddly enough, but they’re definitely not for everyone. Likewise, I wasn’t a huge fan of color-blocking while pregnant (though this was in part a proportion issue, brought on by my inability to wear high-waisted anything). But I loved, LOVED, the look of a bold, unexpected silhouette in a bright color, even though it was something I don’t think I ever would have worn not pregnant. I never would have bought this crazy coral/watermelon colored, puff-sleeved blouse under ordinary circumstances, but again, the playful, experimental mood that pregnancy dressing put me in made me more open to these possibilities—and thrilled to try to make them work. It definitely wasn’t subtle, but it was kind of a blast.
How do you feel about trends and the pregnant body? In particular, do you think things like brights or pattern mixing have a place in the pregnant gal’s wardrobe, or are they better reserved for the not-currently-reproducing set?
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This post is part of a series on maternity wardrobe essentials and approaches to dressing for pregnancy. See the complete series.
I hate to break it to you: the first trimester is pretty much the no-(wo)man’s land of pregnancy dressing. As always, your mileage may vary, but depending on your particular circumstances, you may either fit into all your regular clothes the entire time, stop fitting into your pre-pregnancy wardrobe at the drop of a hat, or end up somewhere in the middle. Depending on what your symptoms are like, you may unfortunately find that the time you’d like to be spending saying a fond farewell to the contents of your closet is largely occupied wishing a fond farewell to the contents of your stomach, although that’s a slightly separate issue. As with most pregnancy dressing issues, the size and rate of your expanding bump (and other bits!), the particular way you’re carrying the pregnancy, your plans for spreading the news, and the size of your pre-pregnancy closet are all likely to be huge factors in what your experience is like. That said, here are a few of my favorite looks and strategies from my first trimester:
A little perspective: before and after
The photo on the left was taken a few hours before I found out I was pregnant, and the one on the right was taken (depending on which way you count) at the end of my first trimester or the beginning of my second (hah! and I thought I looked pregnant then. Oh, that’s just hilarious).
Jersey: Pregnancy’s MVP
This isn’t trimester-specific or earth-shattering advice, but matte jersey is a pregnant lady’s best friend. I wore variations on my beloved black jersey dress at least twice a week throughout my first trimester (sorry, folks, I know that was kind of boring!). Because it was the middle of winter, I was able to take advantage of the end of tights season to mask the inching-upwards of my hemline as my waistband expanded. Because I’d like to wear it again someday, I stopped wearing it once my bump expanded in earnest, which conveniently coincided with the weather getting to be warm enough that I couldn’t wear the dress without tights anymore.
Embracing Draping and Structure: When in Doubt, Cover it Up
This is more of the oldest pregnancy style advice in the book, but it’s advice I’m hesitant about giving because I hated hearing it. That said, the conventional wisdom is that structured or draped pieces that don’t hug your blossoming curves too tightly are your friend when you’re trying to keep your good news a secret and avoid that awkward, bloated, is-she-or-isn’t-she look. I will let you in on a secret, though: while it may seem to you like it’s unbelievably obvious that you’re not alone in there, there’s a decent chance (under a wide variety of circumstances) that (a) it isn’t and (b) most people are too polite to say anything anyway. While this strategy definitely works well for keeping things under wraps in some circumstances, your mileage may vary: I’ve had some friends say that the switch from a more body-conscious style to flowier, drapier looks was a dead giveaway that something was up. It might also just make you feel a little bit uncomfortable and/or be financially unfeasible: if it just isn’t your style and you don’t own anything in this genre, it’s likely to be more trouble than it’s worth.
WMDs: Weapons of Mass Distraction
Whether or not you’re much for the blousy-top-half look in general, it’s hard not to be enthralled by the magic of a well-placed scarf in your first trimester. I was fortunate that my first trimester took place in the dead of winter in this regard, but a silk scarf that adds texture and color but not necessarily a lot of warmth would have done just as well in the warmer months. Draped appropriately, scarves cover all manner of sins, from the bloated-but-not-obviously-pregnant-looking midsection to, in my case, the alarming rate of my, er, chest expansion. Scarves are also a great way to add contrast, polish and put-together-ness to an otherwise easy-to-wear outfit on those days when you’re spending more time worshipping the porcelain god than the ghost of CoCo Chanel.
Alternative Belting Strategies
From fairly early on, I had a hard time wearing “real” belts: for whatever reason, they just felt like too much pressure on my midsection, and seemed to exasperate all of my gastrointestinal malaise (and no, I have no idea if this is, scientifically, a real thing). In an attempt to define my (shifting) waistline, I moved towards alternative belting strategies, including scarves and softer fabric belts. It helped me keep the look of a nipped in waist (which helped me keep my secret secret), even as my waist got progressively less nipped-in over time.
Say Goodbye—and Have a Little Fun
For many—if not most—pregnant women, the first trimester is a kind of farewell tour of your pre-pregnancy closet, a last chance to wear some things that you won’t see again for a while (and may wonder if you’ll ever see again). While it’s important—psychologically and fiscally!—to try to keep your pre-pregnancy staples functioning in your wardrobe as long as you can, this long goodbye can also represent the start of one of the most fun aspects of the experience of dressing a pregnant body: the sheer experimental goofiness of it. While pregnancy has brought me in closer touch with my body than I’ve ever been before, there’s also a hilarious sense in which this body feels borrowed and feels less attached to the essential “me” (whatever that is!) than my “normal” body. As a result, I’m a little more freewheeling and experimental with what I’m willing to wear, and that process really started during my first trimester. This outfit, for example, looked completely ridiculous on me, and I think D.’s eyes may have actually bugged out of his head when he saw me come down the stairs in it that morning, but it represented an attempt to have a little fun with the total unfamiliarity of my eight-weeks-pregnant body, out of control chest and all.
Be honest: how long did my fake-outs work? Pregnant or recently-pregnant readers: what were your best strategies for dressing through the first trimester?
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Now that my pregnancy is (hopefully!) drawing to a close and I’m beginning to contemplate—gasp!—what I might wear when I’m no longer pregnant, it feels like it’s about time to start pulling together some of my thoughts on dressing during pregnancy. Starting Monday and over the next few weeks, I’ll be tackling a handful of topics near and dear to my heart (and thankfully relatively fresh in my memory), including, but not limited to:
- The “most valuable players” of my maternity wardrobe, both for work and for casual wear
- Highlights and strategies from each trimester
- Making trends work for the pregnant (and sometimes very pregnant!) body
- Great, sometimes hidden sources of maternity duds
- Strategies for building a maternity wardrobe (and stretching—sometimes literally!—your non-maternity clothes)
- Special occasion dressing while pregnant
- Maternity style inspiration from around the blogosphere
Like my series on dressing for new or temporary office jobs, I’m neither the first nor the last person to write about these issues. Consequently, my thoughts on these topics are unlikely to be exhaustive, and are almost assuredly shaped by the particular experiences of my body and this pregnancy, but I’ll do my best to try to distinguish between the idiosyncratic and the relatively universal. As usual, I’d love to hear your thoughts—pregnant, recently pregnant, hoping to someday be pregnant readers—on what issues you’d like to see addressed, or your favorite tips on any of these topics; just leave a comment, tweet @narrowtailoring or send me an e-mail at narrowlytailored (at) gmail (dot) com.
As I prepare to go on semi-maternity-leave from blogging, I’m also seeking guest bloggers for a few posts in the coming weeks. I have some ideas on themes, but topics are negotiable, and I’d love to feature your work here while I’m trying desperately to get some sleep and get our little one acclimated when she arrives. Again, if you’re interested, email, comment or tweet to let me know.
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Hi! I'm S. Welcome to Narrowly Tailored, a blog about life and style from a law student and new mom. In short: work and life gets dressed; balance mostly gets amused.Follow Along
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