Rounding Up: A Style Rebirth

Another woman I know, Donata Minelli Yirmiyahu, bypassed all maternity clothes (except unavoidable basics: jeans and hosiery), opting instead for the designs of Yigal Azrouël, Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto. (Granted, as CEO of Yigal Azrouël, she had an inside track on a certain kind of draped, curve-friendly femininity.) "There are a lot of misconceptions of what a pregnant woman should wear; empire waists can so often be the most unflattering proportion," she says. "I love body-conscious silhouettes on pregnant women, even if you have to layer over it. A lot of maternity clothing never feels modern; it's always the same shapes and uninspiring prints." Donata theorizes that pregnant women are more experimental: "When you're desperate to find something to make you feel good, you're open to trying on a lot of different things. It can open up some ideas."

That might explain what happened to me. The first time I got pregnant, with my daughter, Asha, I was working at a magazine where the editors looked perfectly, artfully, chicly unkempt—a look I can't pull off, even when I'm not pregnant. And thanks to a sudden wave of celebrity fertility, I found myself bombarded with images of So-and-So wearing $350 maternity jeans (or regular ones in a whopping size 4) or That One in custom-made Lanvin.

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