'A ship under sail and a big-bellied woman...'

February 19, 2006 10:29 AM

[babyfilter] Good sources of non-ugly plus size maternity clothes?

I miss my black jeans!!

I'm just over 18 weeks, and I cannot seem to find any good sources of plus-size maternity clothing -- so far all I can find on the web is motherhood.com, and jcpenney, and everything is so ugly!! All those awful elastic tummy panels and just blue jeans, no black to be seen anywhere! Blech.

My pre-pregnancy size was about a 20. Should I give up hope and resign myself to living in sweatpants for the next 22 weeks? Or is there some store out there, somewhere, that sells clothes in my size that won't make me look like a midwestern mall mom??

posted by anastasiav to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (12 answers total)

as heinous as it is to utter the three letter word, the online Gap store has xxxlarge black pants, skirts, and shirts that are pretty cute - they can often be found cheaper on ebay too. Also I reccommend learning to sew.
posted by dorcas at 10:37 AM on February 19, 2006

Response by poster: Also I reccommend learning to sew.

Actually, I do normally sew most of my own clothes -- except jeans. And I'm quickly learning that its the jeans that I can't quite live without, even though I only wear them a couple of times per week.

Trying GAP now....
posted by anastasiav at 10:45 AM on February 19, 2006

I don't know if you want to do the internet-ordering thing, and the pictures aren't that great, but I found these black pants (they're not jeans). This site claims to have some plus-size maternity clothing; a quick look, and I'm not sure what that means, necessarily, but maybe it would work. Again, this site has a plus size section. And I dont know if you've seen this one, it's sort of a plus-sized maternity FAQ. Also this one.
posted by Medieval Maven at 10:47 AM on February 19, 2006

This varies from woman to woman, but many are able to just stick with larger sizes of the clothes they usually buy. I got away with regular clothes until I was about 8 months. It all depends on how you carry the baby, though.
posted by acoutu at 11:08 AM on February 19, 2006

OldNavy.com has maternity wear up to size 20. They have some nice items.
posted by sueinnyc at 11:35 AM on February 19, 2006

Best answer: Plus Size Pregnancy is a comprehensive resource for moms-to-be, and includes this page that discusses plus size maternity wear, with a long list of retailers. Happy baby!
posted by kimdog at 12:49 PM on February 19, 2006

I was just looking at lane bryant's web site today and they had a link to their plus size maternity selection. Not being pregnant, I didn't check it out, but you might give it a shot.
posted by pazazygeek at 2:05 PM on February 19, 2006

Best answer: Babystyle.com. (Full disclosure: I used to work there.)

It was started by someone who felt exactly like you do about typical maternity clothes.
posted by rleamon at 2:16 PM on February 19, 2006

How big do Target's maternity clothes go? Their stuff looks pretty good, and their regular ranges tend to go up to 20 at least.
posted by crabintheocean at 2:48 PM on February 19, 2006

I recently saw a woman with some sort of pregnancy "jeans extender" device - basically she wore her regular jeans unbuttoned and this bit of stretchable black fabric some how held the tho ends of the opening together (expanding as needed) while at the same time covering the exposed area. Seems to work best in a combination with a shirt that would hang over the waistline.
posted by mikepop at 6:01 PM on February 19, 2006

Actually, I just went to Target so I looked for you. I saw 18's, but nothing larger. Some of it might still work for you though, or they might just be out, or they might have more sizes online... I didn't see any jeans, but I saw some nice casual cotton pants.
posted by crabintheocean at 6:30 PM on February 19, 2006

Best answer: I think this is what mikepop was talking about. Looks like a good idea.
posted by kaymac at 7:33 PM on February 19, 2006