Plus Size Maternity Clothes

14 April 2011

This is an open commentary to you, oh makers and sellers of plus size maternity wear.

Please, for the love of God, start making maternity clothing for plus{ish} size women that don’t suck. 

I don’t want to wear a tent.  I don’t want to wear a mumu.  I don’t want to wear ugly shit with spangly crap, glitter, hideous ugly prints, OR obnoxiously bright colors.  There is no reason for a woman in her 7th or 8th or 9th month to wear a BRIGHT yellow shirt, she will look and feel like a school bus.  I want to wear what you sell to normal women, in a bigger size.

I also don’t want to resort to buying everything online because that frankly sucks.

I get that my problem lies in the fact that I wear an XL or XXL  in ‘normal’ clothes.  I wear a size 16/18/20 depending on the item.  Apparently, with a few exceptions that I will talk about in just a minute, if you are not a Small, Medium, or Large, you get the ugly stuff… if you get anything at all.  And for the record, some of my ‘normal’ friends bitch about your in store selections as well. 

I would also like to know why the makers of Spanx and Blanqi make shapewear for sizes Small, Medium, and Large and NOT for the women who might benefit from some shapewear?  Spanx makes it for regular plus size women, why not the pregnant version of us?  And to be fair, Spanx does go to an XL size, but this pregnant belly was not getting into it.  Blanqi doesn’t make anything for you if you’re bigger than a twelve, I’m not even kidding.  The fact that they offer an X-Small size and not an X-Large size pisses me off so much that I am not even compelled to link to them.  What size 2 girl needs a body shaper?

What started this rant?  Today I went to Destination Maternity.  An entire store filled with maternity clothes.  Do you know that the XL in the store is very tiny {akin to someone who wears a large in normal clothes and might need to size up for a baby bump} and that their selection of plus size clothes was probably pretty near to 5% of the store’s inventory.  Not a dress in sight.  Two swimsuits.  Truly hideous clothes in comparison to their regular items.  Abysmal selection.  I will, in fact, give them props though for being the only place that I have found plus size {meaning actual plus 1x, 2x, 3x, etc…} maternity nylons in the entire city and the fact that they also carry underwear for the big girls as well.

Not to be left out, I also went to JC Penney whose XL size would have actually fit me except for the fact that there was only one wall of maternity clothes and 60% of that was t-shirts.  ONE wall and two uprights, in an entire JC Penney shoved in a corner randomly with the plus size clothes, for a maternity section… still not a ‘plus size’ maternity section mind you.

I guess that’s better than Dillard’s who doesn’t have a maternity section at all.

Target {smartly} carries sizes to XXL which is great for me for later in the pregnancy.  Fabulous!  My only gripe with you Target is WHAT happened to your maternity section?  When I was pregnant with Finn I could run to Target and find tons of cute clothes and now, I’m lucky to find anything at all in the six racks of clothes that are at my Target store, though their selection online is pretty good.  I did find a great tankini and their basic t’s can not be beat… plus {and this is a big bonus} I didn’t have to pay a crazy amount to bring them home.  Thank you Liz Lange.  I also love that they carry BeBand in XL at my local store.

Old Navy is by far my favorite for maternity clothes.  My local store carries maternity also, but it has gone the way of Target in terms of selection… what once was an entire section is now, sadly, a few uprights stuck in the middle of an aisle.  In store you can only buy up to XL, which is fine for now, stinks for later.  I am pleasantly surprised that I could buy jeans {size 18} in store, the full panel denim leggings {look and feel like jeans, not jeggings} have been the BEST maternity item I have purchased by far.  They hug my bump tightly, don’t have to be pulled up every 10 seconds, and are so comfortable.  My second favorite maternity item?  The jersey stretch tank, layers just right, comes in tons of colors, and looks seamless.  All of their ‘regular’ size maternity clothes go to size 18 and XXL which means that I can order ANYTHING I want from their maternity selection.  Choices!  I have choices!  But again, I have to order that stuff online which means I’m screwed for that birthday dinner tomorrow night.

We will see if I fare any better at Kohls or Macy’s, but I am not holding my breath.

11 comments:

Meg said...

THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS.

(Don't tell anyone... but I'm gonna need your suggestions for this summer. Shhhh...)

Unknown said...

I LOVE Old Navy! They have such great deals and some pretty nice, and slightly chic plus size clothing.

Oh and they do make plus size Spanx, here's a link:

http://www.torrid.com/torrid/Intimates/Shapewear.jsp?sortType=1&prodType=4

Anonymous said...

I love Torrid and Lane Bryant. Now that I am in my thirties I really only rely on Torrid for cute jeans or shoes. LB I love because the Outlets always have a great sales and if you sign up for coupons from regular LB stores they send you tons of great discounts.

Hope you had better luck.

Misc Momma said...

I know this might sound weird, and this was 4 years ago...and it is sort of an old people store, but my FAVORITE maternity clothes came from Elder Beerman. I have a shirt that I want to wear regularly... I don't know about their plus size selection, but you might want to give it a shot.

MommyLisa said...

I agree that Target and Old Navy have severely shrunk in their in-store maternity offerings.

I had good luck too with Japanese Weekend pants - but that was five plus years ago - and I had to order online. I wish I could lend you the maternity wrap dress I still have! It would never get there in time for tomorrow night though. Its peach and brown and from Target.

Let me know.

Anonymous said...

The Target near me said that they completely got rid of their maternity sections because "They didn't sell". WTF!

I'm a size 11/13 and when I was pregnant it was hell to find maternity clothes that came anywhere near fitting me. Eventually I gave up and bought a BellyBand so that I could wear my normal pants unbuttoned, and then I just made a point of wearing the longest tees and tanks I could find.

I bet if someone jumped in on the maternity clothes market and made cute pieces for women sized other then supermodels they would rake in the money!

(And why is it so weird that when you're pregnant you just want to wear the same clothes you did before, but just bigger? It's like I had to change my entire style of clothing just to wear clothes that fit for nine months! Ridiculous!)

ABDPBT said...

I've heard good things about Old Navy for maternity as well. I got a few things at Destination Maternity but honestly, I look at some of the clothes and I honestly don't think I could fit into it when NOT pregnant. My big beef is with dresses -- they always make short skirts like this is the solution for all pregnant women: show off your legs! Umm, that doesn't work for me when I'm not pregnant, either, thanks.

Anonymous said...

You are lucky. I normally wear an 18/20 or 1X. I can find shirts @ Target, but th size 18 pants are too small. Target is the only store near me that carries maternity, period. There are only two small racks. If you find anything else, let me know. I've looked at ordering from Motherhood, but its more than I can afford to spend. I'm attempting to sew my own panels in goodwill size 18 pants. I've done my first pair and that attempt hasn't panned out, WAY too big. I bought some elastic to try and fix them. I'm at my wits end and don't know what else to do. Can 't exacly go to work naked. Old Navy tends to not fit me (their pants are too narrow in the legs and too big in the waist) so I'm terrified of how the maternity might fit. I'm in tears just about every morning.

Michelle said...

Anon-

I feel your pain. I found several things at Target over the weekend... it was the third one I looked at and seemed to have a bigger selection. I also got some great new stuff from Old Navy that I love.

Other suggestions you might try online: JC Penney, Target, Kohls, Macy's, Sears, Old Navy, & Gap.

Meg said...

I'm not wild with child, but as a curvaceous gal, I so hear you. I almost feel like I'm being punished for not being a size 6. Every time I go shopping, I come to the conclusion that society expects me to wear a mumu. Not sure why they've decided to only offer elderly attire to plus size girls? And I can't even imagine what it'll be like when I am pregnant.

I tell my girlfriends all the time I'd have much better taste if I were smaller. They have no idea what we curvier girls go through!

Kiki said...

Definitely glad I found this when I did! I normally wear sizes 28/30 or 3-4XL & I only recently found out I was pregnant- not even close to 2 months along. Think trying to find plus size maternity clothing is hard, when you're on the higher sizes, there's next to NOTHING available for you!

The few places I've tried to find locally have equally limited selection- & with my budget not being anywhere near what I'd like to spend, hand-me-downs & as-is stores like Goodwill, Salvation Army, & the occasional consignment shop don't exactly have the greatest selection or quality.

I haven't tried Old Navy yet, so appreciate being informed of them sooner vs later. I wish we still had a Torrid store around- can only buy online now where I live. Also haven't tried the in-mall Motherhood Maternity shop, but no strong hopes with them either. Wish me luck lol

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