Not The Maternity Clothes of My Generation

The New York Times has a fashion article about maternity clothes.

 J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times

Pregnancy is very "in" in Hollywood.  Those glamorous ladies sure flaunt it. 

As soon as I let my parents know that I was pregnant the first time, my mother went shopping for cute little dresses large enough to hide a few watermelons under my skirt.  And there was a skirt, too, made of a woven fabric that had a big stretch panel in front.  That skirt was worn with a giant shirt, just in case I was carrying quadruplets full term.

Clothes in those days were woven, not knit and stretch except maybe for underwear, "Danskin" tops and some sweaters.  Skirts were made with zippers and darts.  Within a couple of months pregnant women had nothing to wear, so maternity clothes were a necessity and a very big business.

Nowadays everything stretches.  Skirts rarely have zippers.  I can sell the same skirt to a preteen and her pregnant mother or aunt.  Many pregnant women just wear their regular clothes which grow with them.  The lucky ones find that the fabrics shrink back, at least to post partum size, without any tailoring adjustments.

Today's mothers are very lucky!