If you love fashion, then tonight is prom night. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Annual Gala is being held tonight in New York City and if you’re “someone” in fashion or Hollywood, you are on the invite list for this event. PF, of course, looks most forward to seeing what the pregnant models and starlets are wearing and this year, there are so very many of them. Alessandra d’Ambrosio, Molly Sims, Lily Allen, Reese Witherspoon, Sienna Miller, Megan Fox, Drew Barrymore, and Anna Paquin to name a few (This event is so incredibly glamorous, I am really hoping co-chair Anna Wintour managed to keep Snooki out).
The red carpet arrivals are going to be livestreamed on Amazon
tonight beginning at 6:30pm and although that is smack dab in the middle of my numerous children’s bath time, I plan to be glued to the iPad.
In honor of all of the pregnant celebrities we’ll be gazing at tonight wearing decadent couture specifically tailored for their burgeoning physiques, I thought I’d clue everyone into a decidedly non-decadent Hollywood maternity favorite, the Old Navy Maternity Cowl-Neck Drawstring Dress. 
A very pregnant Alyson Hannigan was out shopping in this cotton maxi dress on Saturday and I just thought she looked adorable. And you may be as shocked as I was to see that it costs less than $30. Less than $30! You could wear it once and it would be worth the money. And a maxi dress is really every pregnant woman’s third trimester go-to outfit–not too fitted, gives you room to sweat, and completely camouflages your legs and rear. What more can you ask for?
If you too will be watching tonight, tweet your favorite maternity look to @pregnantfashion. I now have five baths to give at night, I may get distracted and I’d hate to miss one.
Mary Katrantzou, doyenne of fashion’s mixed print trend and one of the UK’s newest “it” designers, does not make maternity clothing. In fact, her clothing is the antithesis of maternity clothing, as it is focused on fitted jersey sheaths, tightly nipped waistlines, attention-grabbing prints, and it runs unbelievably small. (Trust me on this. I impulsively purchased one of her to-die-for Spring 2012 dresses during my pregnancy thinking I might be able to get into it come summer, and I still cannot pull it up over my knees).
B
ut as I always like to preach, there is no reason pregnant women should be missing out on fashion’s runway trends, and German designer Paulina Maternity obviously feels the same way. Paulina has taken a Kantrantzou-inspired print and transformed it into the Inside Hollywood Dress, a boldly patterned, roomy silk maternity dress. The dress is tunic-style and paired with a black belt that ties at the empire waist. This is a one-size-fits-all piece priced at USD $335 (excluding VAT), but the investment is sure to keep you amongst the best-dressed, pregnant or not, at all of your summer events.
Tagged as:
Dresses,
European Maternity Lines,
Trendy Maternity
Finding a button-down blouse suitable for serious maternitywear is a difficult feat. First of all, clothing with buttons does not tend to be maternity-friendly in the first place. But so many of these blouses are poorly cut and virtually useless once you have a sizeable bump. And far too many of them have sashes or elastic pleating across the back. Once you’ve given birth, there is no better way to announce you are still stuck in your maternity clothing than to don a blouse with elastic pleating or a sash across your back.
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Rosie Pope Maternity’s cotton button-down maternity blouses present none of these fashion dilemmas–and therefore are priced accordingly at anywhere between a shocking USD $78 and a particularly shocking USD $178. Hence, I recommend them on Decadent Monday. The prices are investment-level prices, but I can promise you will be wearing these blouses from the start of your pregnancy until you are officially back in your pre-pregnancy clothing. Rosie’s maternity blouses have a generous pleat in the back of the blouse but it is positioned high at the yoke of the blouse, and it is forgiving while also being very subtle. Button-downs are obviously nursing-friendly, so this simple, basic blouse will be a mainstay of your postpartum wardrobe without advertising the fact that you are still wearing your maternity clothing.
Rosie’s Classic Maternity Oxford is available in white, blue and pink. Rosie Pope’s line does run small, so buy one size up. For Spring 2012, Rosie has released her cotton button-down blouse in a classic Liberty Print with a modified mandarin collar and 3/4-length sleeves. The Liberty Shirt is priced at $178.
Tagged as:
american
Here at PF, we spend a good bit of time lamenting the unavailability of chic, European maternity clothing lines in the United States. I like Target and The Gap as much as the next pregnant woman, but when it comes time to make an investment in one’s maternity wardrobe, it’s nice to have options beyond the mass-market retailers…and even nicer when you can buy something completely unique and well, European.
Such was exactly the thought of Raphy Tolub and Yohann Cherbit, who recently founded Prelegant.com, an online maternity boutique devoted to bringing luxury European maternity lines to the American marketplace. Slacks & Co. from London, l’avenue des Bebes and Pomkin, both out of France–until now, it has been almost impossible for pregnant American woman to purchase these impossibly chic maternity lines without shopping internationally. Prelegant.com is seeking to change that and is offering a small, but well-chosen selection of occasion dresses and business wear in its new online boutique. Prelegant is carrying Slacks & Co.’s new Stockholm Suit Jacket, which pairs easily with the line’s extensive selection of maternity trousers. Once I spotted this blazer, I realized I have an answer to all of those emails I receive from pregnant women desperate to find an attractive, designer-quality suit for the office.
Pomkin’s caramel-colored Cristina Dress looks exactly like what a fabulous French pregnant woman might wear to the office. Pomkin’s tiered black Charleston Cocktail Dress looks exactly like what that same fabulous French pregnant woman might wear later that evening to a cocktail party.
Prelegant.com is offering PF readers an exclusive 15% discount sitewide for this week only with promotional code “FASHIONISTA.”
Prelegant is exactly the sort of business we pregnant fashionistas need to be supporting and I know of what I write here. I’ve seen too many aspiring maternity designers or retailers abandon the market because they claim pregnant women simply aren’t willing to invest in their maternity wardrobes and would ultimately rather stock up at Target. High-end maternity doesn’t sell, they tell me. I sincerely beg to differ…but I will admit, it does help when that high-end maternity is 15% off.
*This posting was sponsored by Prelegant.com
Fashionwise, it’s a tough spring to be pregnant or postpartum. Vivid colors are just about everywhere and while there are numerous maternitywear options out there for the pregnant woman looking to embrace color, most of us are predictably choosing black over bright pink. It makes sense–neon pink isn’t exactly one’s first choice when one is packing on the pounds. And we postpartum women are not dying to embrace loud, attention-calling colors while still in a position where we have to explain to complete strangers that no, we’re not pregnant anymore, but thanks for thoughtlessly asking when I’m due.
The answer to that dilemma? A hot pink diaper bag, of course. If you can’t wear it, carry it. I was celebrity blog surfing recently and spotted Mariska Hargitay toting what looked like an impossibly irresistible hot pink leather diaper bag and, believe it or not, I was correct. Mariska is currently carrying the “Singapore Sling Diaper Bag,” the signature diaper bag from Singapore-based bag designer Tribe. Tribe, launched in July 2011, is a very small line devoted entirely to designing luxury diaper bags. The collection is comprised of three different bags: the Singapore Sling, the Orchard Tote Diaper Bag, and the Raffles Diaper Bag. The bags range in price from $400 to $530 and are all made of leather with nylon-lined interiors. While the bags themselves are gorgeous pieces, I’m most excited about the colors. Mariska’s raspberry bag also comes in sea blue, aquamarine, and a deep, midnight blue. The buyer can choose gold or silver hardware for most of the bags.
With a bag like this on my shoulder, I feel less worried about the fact that I apparently still look pregnant.
I really do hate to keep recommending that we all dress up like the Kardashians, but with such a poor fashion showing among pregnant Hollywood these days (Jessica? Hillary? Maggie?), Kourtney Kardashian has curiously become this blog’s fashion role model in recent weeks. She does seem to have kicked her fashion taste up a notch or two since her last pregnancy and she is consistently showing up in tasteful, well-conceived outfits now that she is a good 5 months into her pregnancy. Is a stylist responsible? Maybe. Or perhaps Kourtney simply stopped taking fashion advice from her sisters and her mom.
Regardless, Kourtney showed up at the Vanity Fair Oscars party last night in a white Raoul Penelope Gown
and she looked simply stunning. Raoul is a Singapore-based line that I have fallen in love with since it hit the states about a year ago. The pieces are clean and classic, and the prices are not entirely unattainable. Raoul’s silk and leather Penelope Gown has graced the red carpet a few times this award season, most recently on Oscar nominee Viola Davis, but Kourtney demonstrated how maternity-friendly it could be.
If you are the type of woman who is scoring invites to parties like the Vanity Fair Oscar party, you can pull off a white gown without too many people accusing you of looking too bridal.
Not necessarily so for the rest of us, so I actually prefer this navy blue version of the Raoul Penelope Gown, which is available for USD $955 at Neiman Marcus. This gown hits all the right fashion targets for the spring season, as it incorporates colorblocking and leather trim at the neckline into one lovely piece.
Do you have a spring or summer wedding for which you need a dress? Choose this dress and you are likely to be the most fashion-forward lady at the event, pregnant or not.
We are still waiting for Veronique Maternity to post its entire new Spring/Summer 2012 Collection, but the Upper East Side boutique did post just a few new pieces last week to whet our appetites for what’s to come. Among the new pieces are DL 1961′s Toni Crop Denim Maternity Jeans, which are now available in dark blue and in white, exclusively at Veronique.
DL 1961′s denim is neither comfortable, nor inexpensive, but you sure won’t risk looking like you’re wearing “mom jeans” when you have these on, because these Toni Crops are sexy jeans. Need proof? See the catalogue photo at right, which feature the Toni Crop in the designer’s mainstream spring campaign. Being that DL 1961 is now all over the fashion magazines and encasing the bodies of many celebrity fashionistas, I appreciate that they do always include manage to include a few new maternity pieces in their collections. The maternity version of the Toni Crop is priced at USD $165 in Veronique’s online boutique.
And I would like to introduce PF readers to my newborn daughter, Posey Elizabeth, who showed up a few weeks early, arriving Friday evening just before 530pm. She is doing well and we are both headed home from the hospital today. I’ll be devoting a full posting later in the week to the perfect nursingwear to include in your hospital suitcase…and which pieces are better left at home…or in the trash bin at the hospital.
Tagged as:
Denim
If you’re going to go overboard with only a select few maternity items, I’ve always been convinced that the jean was your wisest luxury maternity investment, for the very obvious reason that you wear them constantly. But with my discovery of the David Lerner Maternity legging this pregnancy, the legging is giving the jean some serious competition. The reason for the turnabout may not become entirely obvious to you until the third trimester, but when it does, you’ll find yourself extremely happy that you made the investment in a pair of luxury leggings that don’t p0ll, don’t stretch out, and are well-tailored enough to remain just the tiniest bit flattering after you hit the 30-lb mark.
I, for one, am at the 40-lb mark and when I stand in front of my closet every morning, I now find myself wanting to wear my David Lerner maternity leggings every chance I get, more so than my coveted J Brands and Sevens. They are not only comfortable, but they are thick enough that they feel just a little bit like shapewear. And wiggling into a pair of maternity jeans is becoming an increasingly arduous process.
I’ve written about Lerner’s gorgeous leggings several times this pregnancy, but they are extremely hard to find online and I was thrilled to discover this morning that shopbop.com
has restocked its David Lerner selection today with two new pairs of exclusive maternity leggings: a pair of full-length Black Maternity Zipper Leggings and a pair of Black Cropped Maternity Leggings. The Maternity Zipper Leggings are priced at USD $143, while the Cropped Maternity Leggings are USD $121–hence, their inclusion in the Decadent Monday column. These leggings are not going to be available for sale anywhere else and the sizes do tend to go fast, so for those of you early on in your pregnancy, think carefully before you resist and tell yourself you aren’t going to spend $143 on maternity leggings. You’re likely to think they’re the best investment you’ve ever made come 30 weeks or so.
Now that it’s cold out, what are you going to do about the fact that your winter coat doesn’t fit anymore? More often than not, pregnant women try and make it work anyway. Why should I spend extra money on a maternity coat, many, many women have asked me. It doesn’t matter if my coat doesn’t button, I’ll just wear a scarf and make sure I have a sweater underneath, they rationalize.
It may not surprise you that PF does not agree with that perspective. I have been pregnant for four of the past six winters and not only do I have a great deal of experience with the evolving fashion of maternity coats, but I also believe now more than ever that a maternity coat is an essential winter basic. First of all, you are likely going to wear this piece every day for the next three to five months, so spending some money on it is not wildly irrational. Secondly, it’s not as if your non-maternity coat is going to fit once you walk out of the hospital. You’ll need to wear this coat through the postpartum period and potentially longer if you are nursing. And lastly, you are pregnant, in a somewhat fragile condition, and depending on where you live, it may be damned cold out over the next few months. You need a coat that buttons properly and keeps you warm. Trust me, live through one pregnancy winter cold (for which you will be unable to take any cold medicine and therefore will be unable to sleep) and you’ll be kicking yourself for not taking PF’s hard-earned advice and buying yourself a proper-fitting maternity coat.
You do not have to spend a fortune on a winter maternity coat. There are numerous options out there that are very reasonably priced and will keep you as warm as the more expensive coat. I am going to be writing about a few of those coats this week, but it is Decadent Monday, and so today I am going to draw your attention to the ultimate in iuxury maternity outerwear, Blossom’s Black Cashmere Maternity Coat by Clements Ribeiro. Clements Ribeiro designed an exclusive maternity line for Blossom a few years ago, so this coat has been part of the British maternity boutique’s collections for several years. It is, in a word, perfect and therefore still part of the boutique’s in-house collection. It iis black, single-breasted, well-tailored, cut from a high-end cashmere/wool blend, and completely versatile. You may wear this coat to work, to a cocktail party, or wear it over your jeans and stained nursing T-shirt, it works for all situations. This coat is the ideal luxury maternity basic and now that the weather is turning cold again, I am patting myself on the back for cleverly investing in it several years ago. I actually want to wear this coat again, as opposed to a few of the lesser maternity coats I have managed to collect over the years.
Blossom’s perfect maternity coat is priced at approximately USD $638. Stay tuned all this week for outerwear recommendations that do not cost $638.
What will you be wearing to all of your upcoming holiday parties? That is not a rhetorical question, PF and other readers would really like to know the answer. I have been pregnant over the Christmas holidays before but was living in Israel, so there weren’t really any Christmas parties to attend and I didn’t have to worry about looking very festive. Digging in my maternity wardrobe archives has yielded nothing in the least bit appealing for ringing in the yuletide.
Not so this year. The upcoming weekends are already packed with invites and while I am loving all of the brightly colored cocktail dresses and tops I’ve been eyeing in shop windows, I need a real maternity piece now that the third trimester has commenced.
Unfortunately for my credit card balance, I recently happened upon Emily Evans’s maternity collection for Harrods, and have since been lusting after this pure silk Sequin Kimono Top. Feel free to lust along with me, but before you click, I want to warn you that the price tag is GBP 950–yes, that means USD $1485. You see, Emily Evans is a mother of three and the founder and owner of 9 London, London’s incredibly posh maternity boutique. 9 London has an outpost at British shopping landmark Harrods where Evans sells her own special occasion maternity collection and luckily, many of those collection pieces are available for sale online in Harrods’s online maternity boutique. The Sequin Kimono Top is obviously ridiculously expensive, but the Harrods selection does include several more moderately priced silk maternity tops–and when I write moderate, I mean between USD $250 and USD $600.
Well, it’s nice to look anyway and that’s what Decadent Monday is for…
