Maternity Style
How to Look Your Best When You’re at Your Biggest
Brinley
1985
I am not sure this book delivers the part on “looking your best.” I think my favorite of these fashions are the business suit and of course the “getting comfortable” clothes. I do remember when the drop waist was all the rage. You can even look pregnant when you aren’t! I think we can all safely retire this from public library collections. Weed it!
Mary
I had my first child in the 80s and I never wore anything at all similar to these outfits! Those coveralls are just plain silly!
“Raglan sleeves… don’t add bulk… are roomy…” When I was pregnant my arm bulk wasn’t where I needed the room!
I especially like how one of the cover images has a woman wearing horizontal stripes, which a person with even the most elementary fashion sense (like me) could tell you makes you look bigger.
“Feeling bloated? Wear this and you’ll REALLY look like the Goodyear blimp with breasts!”
Oh Steve, apparently you haven’t read any fat women fashion blogs. Apparently this is a “lie” and horizontal stripes make you look thinner, not fatter. *rolls eyes*
Somedays I feel like what the fashion world needs is an army of Tim Gunns.
I think any industry would be better off with an army of Tim Gunns!
Can you imagine how much better libraries would be with an army of Tim Gunns? We’d never find crap like this on the shelves again!
I have to say that, considering its age, I’m pretty impressed with the back cover copy. Work, exercise, seasonal clothes – I can see a Mommy Blog doing the same sort of things now, although hopefully with far less corduroy, leg ‘o mutton sleeves, and overalls.
The point of these styles seem to be to hide that you’re pregnant so people will think you’re just fat.
No adult should wear a onesy.
Nineteen years after this book, she published one on coping with teenage sons. Now she is probably writing a book on how to get your 29-year-old to move out of the basement and get a job.
Well, that’s what they always say — “write what you know” LOL!
The jumpsuit in “Get comfortable” does not compute. The last thing a pregnant person needs is an outfit that you have to remove completely every time you need to pee.
Guilty as charged…. I still own a couple of the Laura Ashley dresses…. And yes, I wore them when I was preggers with Maggie and Lillie, now ages 25 & 23… They were damn comfortable at the time. Though I agree with the comments on onesies… Why wear a garment where you have to strip down everytime you have to pee?
I am particularly intrigued by the Laura Ashley’s blue corduroy ‘that works with a detachable lace collar too’. Was there acceptable/unacceptable lace collar on/off situations? I don’t need any more stress when it comes to dressing appropriately, but for others, I say let’s bring this bit of convenient fashion magic back.
Oh my goodness! David isn’t making it up! Her followup book was called “Oh Boy!: Mothers Tell the Truth About Raising Teen Sons” published 2004.
Maybe the one-piece thing had a drop seat in the back.
There’s probably room enough in there to stash a catheter bag.
I was pregnant 24 years ago and I remember when every pregnancy outfit wasn’t complete without a big bow to…well, I never could figure out what it was supposed to do.
…balance out the bulge, is what I thought. I also thought it kind of worked.
I hated the 80’s so much. What the heck was with these high collars and those damn bows at the neck??? And WHY would any woman – let alone one who’s PREGNANT and already well-nigh uncomfortable – want them? Unless, of course, she desired to look like a Christmas package.
The onesie appears to be the popular choice as worst-in-show here but for my money it’s the very first picture: I hardly know what’s worse: that hideous sweater that looks stretched out, that wretched coat which looks like linoleum, or that ridiculous hat pitched at what I can only assume is supposed to be a ‘jaunty’ angle. NONE of which even remotely go together, of course.
The 80’s were a cruel, cruel time, fashion-wise…
this of course gives way to post-maternity style, which is old pyjamas accentuated with spitup
For my own part, I wanted to wear close-fitting clothes when I was pregnant. Stretchy and comfortable,, yes, but I wanted to show off my lovely big round belly. And my breasts! Wohoo did those tits grow! ;->
Big baggy clothes just make you look fat ! So, no, don’t hide it, enjoy those rich, healthy baby curves.
lol! That seems to be the fashion nowadays – Show off that belly! Dressing for comfort is the most important, though, especially towards the end. The outfits in that book are making me itch.
The instructions for all of these styles seems to be:
1. get burlap sack roughly 3X the girth of your body
2. cut hole in bottom
3. put head through hole
4. accentuate with large bow