Click on the images to get the shoppable links to each item!
If you’ve been on social media this month you can see that KonMari has taken over! Everyone is kicking off the new year by cleaning up their home and closets. I’ll admit it sounds tempting to start, but it also sounds completely overwhelming. While I do subscribe to her method that less is more, I don’t know if I have the energy to really clean things out. Maybe in the Spring 🙂
What I can do now is start to create a capsule wardrobe for each season. It’s a bit tempting for me to go out and shop until I drop considering I’ve been in maternity clothes for the last 9 months. However, if you checked out my pregnancy experience post you know how bad I missed my clothes while being pregnant. I’m not talking about a little sad, I’m talking about full blown upset. I’d spend a few minutes in my closet every day admiring my old non-maternity clothes.
Maternity clothes just lack the overall classic style I was looking for. I work in a formal corporate environment and needed to maintain that style throughout my pregnancy. However, the super formal maternity work wear was expensive! I’m all for an investment piece, but just couldn’t wrap my head around spending $200+ on one dress I could maybe wear 10 or less times.
While maternity clothes have come a long way, they are no substitute for regular clothes. I was lucky enough to work with MM LaFleur and create several outfits that were non-maternity office wear. Also, I actually wore a ton of their pieces throughout my whole pregnancy, as these were pieces I actually owned before and will wear them after.
In addition, I wore a bunch of blazers, cardigans and even jeans that I owned before becoming pregnant. Come hell or high water I was determined to make the pieces I previously loved work throughout my pregnancy. Therefore, planning ahead and organizing my clothes helped me maximize the pieces I owned and select staple pieces I needed to get given my growing belly.
To create a maternity capsule wardrobe I started out with a list of what I currently owned and could work with my growing belly, like blazers, jackets and cardigans. I made sure they were in good condition and pieces that I truly loved and knew I could wear over and over again. I laid everything out on my bed and assessed the condition and quality of each piece.
While assessing the items I took note of the color pallet. Since my items leaned more towards a black color pallet, with small accent colors mixed in like camel, I therefore decided to go with that color pallet as it was the most familiar to me.
I then made a list of items I thought I would need. These items were true maternity pieces such as dresses, pants and tops. This part of the process took a little bit longer for me to figure out. Here are a few things I learned that are helpful for anyone creating a maternity capsule wardrobe.
- Shopping when your bump is small is hard. It’s hard to imagine how big your stomach will get. To accommodate for the growing belly I looked for items that were stretchy vs. items with ruching on the sides. Items with ruching are typically good for the later stages of pregnancy when the belly is larger.
- The tighter the better! Yes, tight is good. Tight clothes highlight you are pregnant and will actually make you feel thinner than you are. Don’t hide your bump under loose fitting clothes, as it will make you feel larger and frumpy. Show off that bump and be proud because you are growing a human!
- Keep your options open. My non-pregnant self loved dresses. I would opt for a dress over pants any day of the week. My pregnant self preferred pants which was shocking. It was also a little difficult given I only bought one pair of maternity pants.
- Accept that outfit variety will be limited. I didn’t want to invest a ton of money into maternity pieces, hence my desire to wear as much non-maternity wear as possible. Accepting that I would be wearing the same black tee every weekend was hard, but I eventually did. I also found a whole new way to accessories a plain black tee.
How to Select Pieces to go into your maternity capsule wardrobe
Stick with a Color Palette
If you like a certain color palette then use it. I went with black, cream and camel. These colors are easy to work with and I found that dressing in darker basics made me feel smaller. I also love that black makes you look instantly dressed up, while cream and camel add a level of chicness to any outfit.
Assess Each Items Worth
Don’t buy just any piece to go into your capsule wardrobe. Buy pieces you love. Because a general rule of thumb is you should be able to wear each item with at least three different outfits. This will give you a base case of how much use you will get out of each item. If you find a blazer you love, but will only wear it on the weekends, then it’s probably not a good candidate for this capsule wardrobe.
Must be worn Day to Night
To maximize the use out of each item you should make sure you can wear it day or night.
Add in Subtle Patterns and Textures
Mix and match the textures and patterns of your pieces. You don’t want to have all solids, so throw in some stripes. Also, mix in knit blends, wool blends along with thick and thin fabrics.
Staple Items
These items are basics that create the foundation of any maternity capsule wardrobe. You will want to stock up on these items and buy multiples. Here are my recommendations for how many staple items to get.
Support Tank
Purchase a minimum of 3 tanks
Jeans
Depending on how often you wear jeans you may need more pairs. I was able to survive with 1 pair, but they got washed a ton! I love the Gap maternity jeans, as they are super comfy, tight enough and usually on sale!
Work Pants
Purchase a minimum of 2 pairs. Once again the Gap wins, their work pants are awesome. They maintain their shape all day and are reasonably priced.
Workout Pants
Depending on how often you workout you may need more. I has 3 pairs and got use out of all of them. I loved the Zella workout pants, however the Gap has a great pair too.
Tops for Workout
Once again the more you workout the more you need, but 3 tanks worked perfectly for me.
Wrap Coat
I bought one wrap coat (non-maternity) and it worked for fall and winter. You can adjust the closure on the coat to accommodate a growing belly.
Coat Extender
Instead of buying a super warm maternity coat I bought the Zip Us In Coat Extender. It zips into my coat and gives you extra room to fit a growing bump. It was by far the best $50 I spent in a long time!
Black T-Shirt
I lived in my black tee shirt, so I had 4 of them! Therefore, purchase as many as you think you will need, the ones from the Gap were my favorite and the most durable.
Shoes
Use what you have, but also invest in a lower heel. I swore I would wear my 3 or 4 inch heels until I gave birth. While I tried hard I had to get a lower heel around month 8. The Day Heel is a great option and comes in tons of colors. I bought the black suede.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s see how to pull all the pieces together. I’ve curated several outfits that fall into the 3 W’s…work, weekend and workout, this pretty much covers every facet of life you need. Click on each number to see each item that creates the outfit.
Weekend
Work
Workout
Here are a few of the pieces and outfits in action. Click in the numbers to get the shoppable links. Tell me what you think!
11 + 6 + 15
4
9 + 7 + 23 (Another top option is the Octavia)
11 + 7 + 16 + 23 (Another option for a blazer is the Parke Blazer)
23
11 + 8 (Fur Vest Optional)
21 (The best $50 purchase I’ve ever made)
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