1. Shop for what you'd normally buy, only bigger. At Zara, for example, she opted for the kind of items she'd normally buy but a few sizes larger. Post-maternity, you can often style out oversized pieces in relatively simple ways (tucking in big shirts, belting bigger dresses, etc.).
2. Stretchy fabrics are key. "I took a leaf out of Kim Kardashian West's book and found the Wolford stretchy boob-tube dresses did look fitted and chic. Some people don't like doing it, but for me, it just worked with my curves," Avigail Collins tells us. "I was seven months pregnant when I wore it first and it still fits me now and I've lost all my baby weight. I wore it once as a dress and once as a skirt, and it works really well as a skirt with an oversized shirt."
3. Long layers and open shirts or cardigans are reliable. "During pregnancy, the thing I wore the most—and I heard this from a lot of other pregnant women—was long cardigans and open shirts. You just get wider and wider around the bum and the hip area. You find that with any top you buy, the bigger you get and the more it rises, so you end up looking like you're in a crop top. I didn't want that for work, so having a long cardigan saved me. I invested and went quite expensive with a Dries van Noten one and an Acne Studios one, and I lived in them. When I'm not pregnant, I'm happy with high street, but I wanted something that was really nice and 'a piece,'" says Collins.
4. You don't have to wear leggings if you don't want to. Avigail advises in the one maternity-specific item you should really buy: jeans. If you're not a leggings girl at heart, there are other options out there, like cool track pants, for example. She says, "Something that really helped at the four- to five-month stage was a look I did with oversized velour wide-leg tracksuit bottoms from Zara (with an elastic waistband), which I wore with little thin knits."
5. Why not experiment with menswear? Avigail doesn't think you need a dedicated "maternity" coat, and that instead, you're better off looking in the men's department for something with a little room. "Why would you need a maternity coat? Why is there a market for that? Can't you just wear a man's coat or oversized faux fur? I wore a man's shearling jacket and I didn't understand why people would think I'd need a maternity coat!" says Collins. The bonus is that afterwards you can use these in the depths of winter for layering purposes, but also it's very chic to belt a big overcoat into shape.
6. Your feet will expand, so your shoe choices have to as well. "I wore Gucci loafers before my feet expanded, and then I wore Nike Air Max trainers, which is funny because I'm not a trainer girl," says Avigail. "My feet got so wide and they were so much comfier. I lived in them, so I got two pairs: a velvet pair and a black shiny pair." As her maternity developed, she found that her swollen feet would only be comfortable in Adidas slides (which the hospital nurses thought were ultra-stylish). This is harder to do during the colder months, but if you can find wider, roomier boots and shoes (many stores now offer wide-fit options), there should be a solution.
7. Little accessories are key. "Something I did a lot during my pregnancy in the spring months was wear a bandana or beret. All of my clothes were really plain and it made my outfits more chic and interesting," says Collins.
For more inspiration, keep scrolling to see some cool, easy-to-copy maternity style outfit ideas below.
