Practical Fashion - Pregnant and Fancy

When I was pregnant last year, I was invited to several weddings. As excited as I was to help my friends and family members celebrate their respective big days, figuring out what to wear was stressful. It's hard enough to get dressed on a regular day when you are pregnant! Here's what I was able to work out:

The Issues
- constantly changing body makes planning too far ahead difficult
- did not want too spend too many $$$ on a dress I would only wear once or twice
- lack of cute "maternity" dresses in shops

My Solution
I started out with the basic, fail safe fashion cornerstone: the little black dress. I knew I could wear a great LBD to all my dressy events in a pinch. I wanted the dress to be jersey, because it would expand with my constantly growing belly. I ended up buying the ruched tank dress by Isabella Oliver. It wasn't cheap, but I wore that dress to work (with a blazer over top) at least once a week. I wore it to one wedding and dressed it up with lots of jewelry and a wrap. It was a sound investment!

For the other fancy events I attended, I took a less safe approach. I went to non-maternity stores and looked for silhouettes that would work with my pregnant lady body. Surprisingly, I found lots of maxi dresses and shifts that were awesome. I wore a sequined Club Monaco shift over skinny black pants to my shower. The best part about going this route is that I still wear these pieces now - they just fit completely differently. The flowy maxi dress that I wore to a wedding the week before I gave birth now looks great when I wear it belted. The only con to this approach is that you have to do a bunch of trying on at stores to figure out what will work. I waited until a couple days before the event. If I had the energy to find something, fantastic. If not, I broke out the LBD!

The most complicated part of a fancy look for me was finding shoes. My feet swelled up to the size of 2 Sunday dinner pot roasts most days, so strappy stilettos were out. I found some great leather flip flops by Tkees that were really neutral and they became my standard dressy shoe. They were my version of wearing that flesh-coloured heel that goes with everything. I bought them in the same shade as my skin tone but they come in dozens of colours. On colder days, I wore flat boots that still looked dressy but were comfortable.

So, pregnant lady friends, don't be afraid of the fancy event. Throw on a dress, some comfy shoes and a bunch of jewels...and then celebrate until you get sleepy! Don't let fools try to stop you from dancing if you feel like it ("but the baby might fall out!"), and make sure your partner does something nice for you after you drive their drunk ass home. Cheers!

XOXO
Emily

www.isabellaoliver.com
www.tkees.com