dressing the bump

for work & night...

Grey wrap top Isabella Oliver, Butterfly blouse Topshop, Animal print ruched dress Dorothy Perkins, Embellished blouse Topshop, Black skinny jeans Topshop, Floaty cape blouse Topshop, Jersey tube skirt Topshop, Cowl neck dress Gap

for weekends & days off...

Jeans Dorothy Perkins, Lace keyhole jumper Topshop, Grey floral 2-in-1 top Dorothy Perkins, Striped knit tunic Topshop, Print cap sleeve top Gap, Zippy harem pants Topshop, Grey wrap top Topshop

Having practically lived in a pair of ripped denim shorts and various vest tops during the past month of holiday freedom, the fact that I had to return to work last week required me to actually open the wardrobe and try and find something suitably stylish and which preferably didn't need ironing. Straightforward enough, however there was also the issue of accommodating the baby bump which has apparently grown quite substantially over this time. The fact that I could only feasibly fit into about three dresses, none of my jeans and a very limited range of other garments spurred me on to take a look at the maternity options around at the moment.

Let's face it, maternity wear is generally pretty bleurgh. When I was pregnant with Lila I wore my normal clothes for as long as humanly possible then bought a few things from the Topshop maternity range (thank god for Topshop) which I then lived in. After a peruse online I'm pleased to see that in the couple of years since then there has been an improvement in the number of high street stores producing decent maternity lines and apart from the garments pictured here, the maternity ranges from my all time favourite shop Zara (sadly not availaible online) and also H&M deserve a mention.

The butterfly blouse, above, is a must have and I definitely need a pair of maternity jeans, and a couple of smart tops for work. The only small geographical blip standing between me and these items is massive amount of ocean and various continents. Unfortunately the New Zealand fashion market is a little backwards in terms of maternity options, however my recent discovery that Topshop delivers to these shores for the reasonable cost of £9 provides a happy solution to this problem!