The horrors of maternity clothing

My latest maternity-related purchase was a pair of sensible shoes:

(Alright, admittedly, I have over the years purchased very few pairs of shoes that were anything other than sensible. Even my 3" heels are from Naturalizer...) Although I'd heard that feet spread, I hadn't really expected that I need to go shoe shopping. (Oh, darn!) Afterall, I've already required substitutes for just about everything else in my closet; the one exception might be socks, but as luck would have it, all my socks decided to wear out at the same time and needed replacing anyway.

Shopping for mat clothes was frustrating at best, devastating at worst. Back in April, before I really needed them, Werner sent me out for a day of shopping. He was being doubly chivalarous: not only was he telling me to go buy a new wardrobe, but he stayed home to babysit the granite company as they used yet more solvents in an attempt to remove staining from the latest countertop to be installed in our kitchen. He didn't want me around (in the nicest possible way) while the work was being done, because I was still rattled by the fire the workers started on their last visit (I wish I was making that up...), and because of fears of what I could inhale if I stayed at home.

So shopping I went.

There are surprisingly few maternity stores in Vancouver. Thyme and Motherhood, two of the big chains, are located across the street from each other on West 4th Avenue. I started there. My heart sunk.

I could never be described as fashionable. This much I know. And I like it that way. Perhaps you could charitably consider me as having my own style? But, yes, generally, my taste in clothing is conservative, with only a passing nod at whatever might be 'in'. I'm not only not trendy, I pretty much avoid things which are. (With one notable exception, I'm afraid...) And in these two chain stores I couldn't find any basics. That's all I wanted, at least to start. Motherhood did have t-shirts, but only in XS and XL. The jeans weren't to my taste. I became discouraged, but plowed on.

My next stop was at Hazel and Co., a local store. (In my defence, I hadn't checked their website until just now... otherwise I probably would have thought twice about any store with a URL that includes the phrase 'hip mom'.) I did spot some things there that were more to my liking, but not of the types of items that I really needed just then. Just the basics. That's all I wanted. And I didn't want to spend a fortune on the basics. Really, for just a few months, I'm not prepared to spend huge sum of money. I did buy one item there, though: the Tummy Tube, which is basically the same idea as the Bella Band:

The idea of this simple item is two-fold: it allows the wearer to either wear her non-maternity pants longer (undo the button and use the band to hold up the trousers) or to keep maternity clothes from slipping down while waiting for the belly to grow. I used it for option #2.

Just when I thought I'd make my purchase and escape the store unscathed, one of the clerks piped up, "These are great! You'll still be able to do the layered look!!" Um, yeah, I don't do the layered look. Nevertheless, I would recommend one of these nifty things for any newly-pregnant woman. (I think it will also be useful post-partum, as I will myself back into my normal clothes.)

From there, I ventured out to Metrotown, a gigantic shopping centre in one of the 'burbs. I hadn't been there in ages, simply because it is so far out of the way for me, but was lured out by the promise of Old Navy. Maybe I shouldn't have visited Old Navy while frustrated by pervasive trendiness, but I did. {sigh} The selection wasn't huge, and was repetitive. In short, one would either love everything, or hate everything. I, unfortunately, was on the hate side of the equation. There was also a Winners, which I thought might be promising. I wandered through the store, searching for a maternity section. I finally found a clerk, and asked whether they sold mat clothes. "No," he replied, "but we do have plus-sized clothes." {sigh} I had some success at The Bay, where I was able to find a pair of shorts I liked, and just before facing up to the rush hour traffic, I gave up and purchased a few items at Thyme. (At least one of these - that I can remember - was subsequently returned. By then I was too tired to try anything on, and, well, I should have done.)

So often I've heard the phrase (or a variation thereof), "Why should a pregnant woman have to give up her sense of style?" It was specifically because of this sort of attitude that I felt I was being forced to adopt someone else's sense of style and abandon my own!

I was eventually able to get some mat clothes, even at Thyme and Motherhood. In fact, in the end, most of my mat wardrobe has come from these two stores. In retrospect, I think I might have been shopping the week when they were switching from one season to the next, and so the selection might have been especially limited. Maybe? In any case, I did have more success on subsequent visits. While in Ontario, I visited H&M and Gap Maternity, and so found some items not available here, and I think I'll look a little while we're in Boston. (The jeans I did eventually buy are clearly not going to go the distance with me...)

Nevertheless, I still haven't forgiven Land's End for having discontinued their maternity line earlier this year.

PS - The Globe and Mail ran a column by Jeanne Beker in which she praised the fashion industry for having finally brought hipness to mat clothes. Considering that this column was published not long after my initial foray into the world of mat clothes - and that I was still deep in the resulting funk - my response to it was frosty at best.

PPS - Along with a friend, I visited the Formes boutique while in Montréal. Beautiful clothes. For my current lifestyle, though, I just cannot justify spending that much money on a single item. (I simply must improve my ability to justify!)