Ask Design Mom: Afforable Maternity Clothes

Ask-Design-Mom question:
Dear Design Mom, I am halfway through my third pregnancy and am looking to revamp my maternity wardrobe. Can you recommend some good, but affordable websites with maternity clothes? I liked an H&M shirt my sister sent me in pregnancy number one, but we do not have an H&M in my area. I love being pregnant and would like to look good as well as feel good during it. I'm tired of the tent-like shirts and tie in the back numbers. There have to be cool maternity clothes out there, I just don't know where to look and not spend a fortune. Thanks for your help, Amy

Design Mom answer:
Amy, congratulations on pregnancy number 3! So exciting, and definitely a good reason to get some new maternity clothes. There are so many styling pregnancy clothes these days — the tricky part is finding affordable ones.

Luckily, there are several really great things happening in fashion that are only a good thing for pregnant bodies. Flats are totally hot. Layered tees are totally hot. And wide-neck sweaters and tees — also great for layering — are totally hot. Here are a few guidelines that worked for me:

1) When I'm pregnant I feel best when I keep as close to my normal style as possible through the whole 9 months.

2) Since you like being pregnant, show it off! No more tents. Keeps things fitted instead. It's all about the bump, baby. I'm a fitted fan — forr as long as possible, I wear things from my regular wardrobe, like a basic graphic tee, layered over a solid maternity tee.

3) Which reminds me, while pants generally need to come from maternity lines, don't be afraid to shop for tops in regular clothes sections. Many non-maternity shirts could work through most of a pregnancy, like these:



4) I'm also a big believer in having less clothes, but liking the clothes you have. If you rotated only 5 outfits throughout your pregnancy, but felt really cute in each one, that's better than looking kind of frumpy in 10 outfits. This cute brown dress is only $20 at Old Navy. You could wear it once a week with cute boots while it's cold and pretty beaded or embroidered flats when it's warm. You'd be sick of it, but you'd look great every time you wore it:



5) Start with the reliably inexpensive clothes chains. Check out Old Navy, Target, Motherhood. Not all of their offerings will be great, but you can expect to find several good pieces at each of these sites/stores. The quality won't be great either, but who cares? They only need to last a few months. These are not investment pieces.

No doubt my recommendations are predictable and kind of blah, but hopefully there are some Design Mom readers out there with some secret sources and smart ideas they'll share with us.

pinstripe bermuda short ($20) and grey cardigan ($35) from Motherhood Maternity