I said....OUCH!

Heidi,
I dunno about the states, but up here, there are a number of maternity only stores that have gorgeous relatively inexpensive casual/dressy/business/sleepwear/underwear choices. Even stores like Walmart, (and I imagine Target; Marshall/Ross; TJ Maxx etc) have departments within the store catering to enciente ladies......

I'm with you on the thong and low cut jeans; not everyone has a demi moore inside them dying to break out...LOL.

good luck on your quest.....

I know Target has a maternity section since I practically live in that store, and buy a great number of my clothes there.
There also used to be some maternity stores in malls, I don't know what any are called, but maybe look it up in the Yellow Pages. I bet the people in those types of stores would be extremely helpful and knowledgeable.

OMG Heidi....should I REALLY start on the whole maternity clothes issue?? I'm 5'1" and usually have to shop in the petite section. (unless I buy clothes at Goodwill and just cut them off, leaving a ragged edge!) Anyway, I could NOT find ANYWHERE a store that was BOTH maternity and petite. The pants in maternity stores were a good 5-6 inches too long....I ended up buying capris that were a couple sizes too big because they actually fit me like pants! And tops? Forget it....I have a short torso, too...so all the tops I found went practically to my knees. Never before have I had such a negative shopping experience! Harrumph!

Oh yes, and the underwear. You know how Einstein had 7 of the EXACT same suit so he never had to pick?? Well, I'd worn the same style underwear for the past 15 years. Plain, white, satin briefs. Not very sexy, I know....but there's alot to be said for snowboarding/skateboarding/hockey playing piece-of-mind knowing that your briefs are not going to become thongs. KnowWhatIMean?? So suddenly, there's this tummy in the way that's not conducive to brief-wearing. I bought Fruit of the Loom bikini-cut COTTON undies at Target. (I'm with ya there, Jenn.....was there just yesterday!) After 15 years of just being able to just sliiiiiide my pants over my satin briefs, the tugging I had to do to get my pants on was a very discouraging start to my "new era" in undie-wearing. Oh well. At least I bought some DARING new colors! I call the black ones my "naughty" undies!


Good luck Heidi!!
Gen

Urgh! I did a web search out of curiosity, and holy moly! $23 for one underpanty (@ onehotmama.com)? What the? I remember being so dismayed by the lack of decent clothes for preggers ladies, but I must have blocked out the fact that it's a racket!

Gawd Genny, I'm not that much taller than you, but I too have had the 'buy capri pants, have them fit like normal pants would' experience too

As for pregnancy underwear, for me that was almost a decade ago....I think I've blocked it out....(LOL)

Maybe we should ask Geddy to come up with some pissed off maternity icons for this thread.

If you mean the "maternity stores" at the mall, that would be:

Motherhood Maternity, where the only item I found in the WHOLE STORE in my size was a pair of brown, orange and lime green striped polyester bell-bottomed pants that reeked of Phyllis Diller guest-starring on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. I was complaining about this on our way back out, at which point a skinny, overly-made up saleslady (who looked kind of like Olympia Dukakis out trolling for Ashton...) looked my body up and down and said with a sneer, "Why, honey, what size do *YOU* wear?" The tone alone was enough to convince me I'll never shop there...

OR...Mimi Maternity, which used to have a great selection of clothes for women of all sizes, and where last November I purchased two bras to make my sore boobies less uncomfortable. We went back there again only to find that a new company had bought them out; a company that no longer carries maternity clothes for people over size 14, and in fact, markets "slut clothes" for the expectant. (So, I wonder, if 51% of Pennsylvania's women are considered overweight, then where the hell are they all buying their maternity clothes?)

I do not, and will not, shop at Wal-Mart. Ever. They are evil. Target's selection was less than impressive, and whoever designed JC Penney's fall line of pregnant clothes is someone who hates pregnant women. I looked in the pattern books for Butterick, Simplicity, Vogue...each book had a big TWO PAGES of ugly maternity shirts. Last November, they had these gorgeous renaissance-style shirts with Elizabethan necklines and flowing sleeves. And in one year, it's come down to slut clothes or completely un-feminine work-horse-looking shirts. Bleucccch.

That's OK, though. I've always been at home wearing hockey jerseys....right Gen?

Heidi, I feel your pain, sista!

Yeah, and it's such a double standard, too--I mean, these designers are supposedly trying to play up the whole "beauty of pregnancy" thing by making these low-cut maternity pants (which I was never caught dead in)--but then after the baby comes, God forbid you wear pants of a similar style to show off that post-pregnancy gut!

You either have to have a washboard stomach or a big ol' beachball baby-enclosed belly! It's ridiculous!

And don't get me started on (shudder) THONGS!

I think a sense a business opportunity here... Except that I lack any business sense and/or sewing or clothing design ability,.

Heidi, we have Mothercare in the UK, I suppose it's where most mums-to-be shop for their clothes here. I just checked and they ship to the US. They cover sizes 8 to 20 here (I guess that would be 6 to 18 in the US). There is a minimum order for shipping and I don't know if the exchange rate is good for you right now, but have a look at their site mothercare.com
Good Luck!

I haven't looked recently, but I found that KMart had more of a selection of maternity clothes that other discount stores.

Have you tried any of these stores ? I haven't, either, but it's worth a shot.

Have you tried thrift stores? (Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc) Yard sales? While I'm certainly no fashion consultant, gosh, I don't know what I'd do without thrift stores and yard sales. My son wouldn't have any clothes if it weren't for them (and, well, my wardrobe would be rather puny!)!

Ack Heidi, I really feel for you! Unfortunately, I am no help as when I was pregnant, my bump never got much bigger than my gut already was. Consequently I just looked like a fat woman (which I was!!). The lady at the local shop was *very* surprised when I turned up one day with a baby.

The only thing I can suggest with undies is to sew them yourself if you are talented in this direction. I'd offer to make them for you but it's a very long way from Sydney to Pittsburgh!

Having no experience with pregnancy, this may not be of help...but I do have vast experience with trying to find comfortable and stylish clothes in plus sizes so here's a recent find of mine...

Eddie Bauer has started selling most of its women's clothes in plus sizes. It may not be the very cutting edge of fashion, but it does has some very nice basics that can be easily accessorized into a certain level of funkiness. And I will say that the few items I've purchased were of excellent quality, making the slightly higher price a decent value.

For instance, last year I began a renewed love affair with the long-sleeve t-shirt. I purchased them from a number of places and wore them alone and layered a number of ways. Over repeated washings, the EB shirts kept their color, shape, softness and size. Similar shirts purchased from Lane Bryant, KMart, Kohl's and Target have all failed in one or more ways.

Anyway, take a look at their website or a catalog, not the stores. This year the catalog had loads of cute sweaters and shirts that I would think you could order in a larger size and wear comfortably for most of your pregnancy. I don't know about maternity clothes or undergarments, but it's something.

I'm just happy to see a regular clothing company offering the same thing in larger sizes, rather than having to buy everything at a specialty store. It seems like such an easy way for so many companies to make a whole lotta money, but what do I know?

erm, i don't think i should be in here....

No you shouldn't.....close your eyes!

Back on topic. I stuck to normal briefs and just wore then under my bump. Bikini briefs work well.

Don't even get me started on maternity clothes ....hardly any for titchies like me. I lived in outsize leggings mostly but did get a few things mail order.

Thank goodness it doesn't last forever.

The worst bit is when you've had the baby....the maternity gear is too big and your normal clothes are still too small!

Heidi, I was gonna try atoning for my sauerkraut juice posting by sending you the link of some new online maternity fashions site - I looked at it and it has all of THREE offerings, the least expensive is a pair of pants for a mere 89$. So I'm hoping it's the thought that counts! Shelli

There must be some world-wide conspriacy against pregnant women. I think those hug-you-over-and-under styles are a little gross.

My kids are teens now, and I had to sew all my maternity clothes. Everything in the stores was peter-pan collars and ruffles. This was in the 80's, not the 50's! I did have comfy panties, tho, from Mervyns. You might try just going a few sizes bigger in regular panties - if the have lycra they might hug your butt and stretch around your tummy.

Well, I'm really, really new to this board, but I *do* have two kids... I had terrific luck finding cool maternity clothes, etc., with my first who is now five, but by the time my daughter was born two years ago, quel difference! I went back to the same groovy maternity store, headed for the large/xl rack (I'm a tough size - 14/16 top, 12/14 bottom when not pregnant) and 14/16 clothes they used to have and... GONE! I asked the very young, very thin sales clerk what was going on, and she cheerfully advised me that they no longer carry XL or anything over 12 except for a very occasional 14. What??? She then explained to me that all the clothes are going with a "slimmer line" style. All I want to know is when "slim line" became synonymous with "pregnant"?!?

Long answer to a short question... I ended up getting some things at iMaternity.com. I just hopped over to their website, and they seem to have a reasonable selection of undies. The plus size undies have only one style, but they do come in a couple of colors, it says! I'll attempt to put the link to them here...
http://www.imaternity.com/Product.asp?Product_Id=11871034&MasterCategory_Id=7

Hmm. Guess that didn't work to well, but you could copy and paste that address into your browser!

Good Luck!

Actually, Homely, the link worked fine.

Oh, welcome to the board, by the way.

I ran across this site while looking for the exposures catalog online. I don't know if it will help but it seemed interesting:

http://www.decentexposures.com/

I ended up buying two shirts, two pairs of pants and a maternity bathing suit at iMaternity for "only" $156. I'm still underpantsless. Wait. That didn't sound right.

What I want to know is...if 60% of US citizens are overweight and 30% obese (with all of aforementioned people wearing sizes larger than 14, as the national average size of 16 suggests), why on earth are these marketers suddenly "only carrying slimmer styles?" I realize this belongs more on the "Chill Scale" thread, but the prejudice certainly carries over to pregnancy and pregnancy clothes. It's like, people are getting bigger, and the MAJORITY of people are bigger...but these geniuses in the clothing industry are deciding to make clothes smaller. (Oh, yeah...like that'll suddenly motivate people to lose weight!!!!) Holy negative body image, Batman!

Vent Alert tinged with some TMI....


There was a whole section in a magazine that I was looking at (TMI TMI TMI while waiting for my gyne) yesterday. It was all about how great it is that pregnant women now have all these choices that they never had before for clothes. Problems was that A) all the clothes they showed were gawdawful B) all the clothes they showed were "upscale fashion" (read "expensive" as in $350 for a suit and $125 for a sweater) C) all the clothes were for slim pregnant women D) much of the clothing showed the belly. Pages and pages of ugly expensive clothing. Now, I am a slim woman, but when I was pregnant I got up to 196 lbs on a 5'6" frame, so I was anything but, and I sure as you know what didnt want my belly hanging out the bottom of a shirt and I sure as you know what was not going to spend 350 or even 100 bucks on something that I would only wear for, at best, 6 or 7 months.

Heidi, I feel for you. I wont be having any more kids unless Dave warms to the idea of adoption, or there is some sort of divine intervention, but man oh man, we sure make it hard to be a woman in this society.

Hmmmm.... I see an opportunity here... some of you should get together and start your own maternity clothing line!