Practical Fashion - Jeans, Maternity Jeans and More Jeans

The dreaded "secret fit" panel jeans

Does anyone really enjoy shopping for jeans? You might, but me...not so much. For the past few years, I've gone to a store for a whole afternoon and tried on at least 40 pairs before buying the jeans that fit best. It's an annoying process, but it works well and I've always ended up with an awesome fitting pair of jeans in the end.

When I found out I was pregnant, one of the first fashion-related things I started to worry about was finding good maternity jeans. I worried enough that I ended up making a classic first-time pregnant lady mistake.  I went to a maternity store when I was only about 2 months along, put on the fake "bump" they keep in the changing room, and tried on some jeans.  I got a pair of Seven jeans that seemed to fit ok, and they had that "secret fit" waistband that most maternity jeans seem to have. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I didn't end up having an elegant little bump like the fake one from the store, so the jeans did not fit that well as my pregnancy progressed. Every time I wore those jeans they fell down and I had to walk around pulling up my pants like a 14 year old boy. This song played in my head as I walked:

I found decent maternity jeans in the end (more on that in a sec), but they immediately stopped fitting once my peanut was born. I panicked again, and ran out and bought a pair of boyfriend jeans that fit but looked just sad. I felt gross when I threw them on. So, yeah, I've made lots of denim mistakes over the past year, but here's what I was able to work out:

The Issues
- difficult to find jeans that fit through pregnancy and after
- don't want to spend a lot of money unless jeans are guaranteed to look really good

My Solutions
The best $30 I spent in my maternity wardrobe was on a Bella Band.  Get one immediately when you find out you're pregnant.  That way, you can wear your normal jeans (and pants and skirts) up until your fourth or fifth month at least. Yay Bella Band!

As far as finding maternity jeans that looked great, I found my answer in 2 very unlikely places. Victoria Beckham wrote a style book called That Extra Half Inch that is surprisingly awesome. It has a chapter on maternity style and apart from her advocating wearing lots of capes (no thanks), she has great advice. She did not go out any buy any maternity jeans; instead, she added elastic panels to the waistband of a pair she already owned. I ended up listening to her advice about staying away from the "secret fit" panel and found some great maternity jeans at...Old Navy! The waistband fit low under my bump, they were comfortable and my pants did not end up on the ground. I'm not a big fan of Old Navy as a rule, but they have really great maternity jeans for under $30.

Once the peanut was born, I ended up breaking out the Bella Band once again so that I could wear my old jeans.  I didn't wear jeans too often post partum, but when I did it was always with a Bella Band - aside from that one raggedy pair of boyfriend jeans.

Finally, make sure that you don't lose your mind and stick with denim styles that you would normally wear.  I generally favour really flared jeans (because I'm tall) and that style still flattered me best when I was pregnant. If you're a skinny jeans girl, stick with that silhouette and don't get frumpy mom jeans just because your size has changed.

XOXO
Emily