Maternity Fashion with Liz Lange

During a pregnancy, it can be a challenge to look your best. With your body changing and growing, it’s hard to find clothes that are not only fashionable but flattering.

Maternity designer Liz Lange has been creating stylish and comfortable clothing for pregnant women since she launched her company more than a decade ago.

Maternity Fashion Seen on the Show

Look 1: Black crop basket-weave jacket (Collection), printed top (Target), stretch denim dark-wash jeans (Collection).

Look 2: Purple maxi dress (Target)

Look 3: Navy flutter sleeve tank (Collection), pinstripe trousers (Target)

Look 4: Coral print dress (Collection)

Look 5: Floral print Danielle dress (Collection)

View episode at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_L26QccMrI

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/maternity-fashion

The New Maternity Chic

Leah Bourne, 05.04.09, 06:00 PM EDT
Mothers-to-be are showing off their fashion sense and their figures.

It wasn’t that long ago that an expectant mother was relegated to wearing doll’s clothes: smock tops with trim and big buttons, dropped waists and dresses with floppy bows and oversized collars.

The thought was that all the bells-and-whistle accents would distract the eye from the mother’s growing midsection, but the effect was far more clownish. Those days are over.

A rising number of pregnant women are showing off their fashion sense and their figures, thanks to a slew of A-list celebrities and mostly female maternity designers. The modern mom-to-be’s closet matches the stylish and spirited maternity fashions that are huge hits on the red carpet, the tabloids and the playgrounds of Beverly Hills.

“We live in a culture that is celebrity obsessed,” says fashion pioneer and former Vogue editor Liz Lange, who started her eponymous maternity collection 11 years ago. “Celebrities understand how to wear sexy and chic clothing when they’re pregnant, and consider it not only the right way to go, but the only way to go. American women see that, and they want to look that way too.”
But as the maternity clothing market has changed in the last generation, many career women are struggling with their new choices. Lange offers her four “pregnancy 2.1″ essentials for working moms-to-be: a pencil skirt and matching coat of the same length, a little black dress and a twin set. “You [can] make a whole bunch of looks from mixing them up in different ways,” she says. Another must? A sheath is attractive and easy to wear; solids are less memorable than prints and a more economical purchase.

“We always recommend [keeping] it simple and [investing] in clean lines that you can dress up or down,” says Vanessa Knox-Brien, one of the designers behind the London-based online maternity retailer, Isabella Oliver, a favorite of Angelina Jolie when she was pregnant with twins Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline. “Most of our collection features wrapping or ruching. These features are perfect for the pregnant shape–they give a fabulous fit at every stage and are very flattering.”

Project Runway winner Christian Siriano, who has a ready-to-wear line that was just picked up by Saks Fifth Avenue, launched a capsule collection of maternity wear called Fierce Mamas this spring, and suggests that women stay within a budget by buying just a few staple maternity items that can then be styled with accessories. “Don’t lose your entire fashion sense,” says Siriano. “And if you didn’t have one to begin with, it’s the perfect time to create one for yourself.”

Celebrities have not only upped the ante in terms of trendy maternity fashion, but they have also started a revolution in showcasing their pregnant bellies. Kate Hudson, rumored to have gained 60 pounds when she was pregnant, wore a sheer Chanel blouse and floor-length skirt cut to show off her four-month-expecting physique at the 2003 Venice Film Festival. While eight months pregnant with her twins, Jennifer Lopez donned a black gown paired with a python belt cinched below her bust at a UNICEF fundraiser in 2008. And Isla Fisher was spotted last year in her final trimester walking around in Los Angeles in low-slung jeans and a figure-hugging blouse.

Entire lines–yes, including bikinis–target the new consumer appetite for curve-flaunting. “About five years ago women started to want to show off their pregnancy,” says Rebecca Matthias, president and chief creative officer of Destination Maternity Corporation, which includes the A Pea in a Pod, Motherhood Maternity and the Destination Maternity collections. “Now there is an entirely new perception of what looking beautiful while pregnant is.” Matthias, a former architect, started Mothers Work, her first collection, in 1982 to address the needs of a growing segment of women who were going to the office right up until their first contraction.
Showing off curves has become more acceptable, but women still need to be mindful not to wear overly tight clothing to the office. Stick to tailored dresses and skirts paired with a sweater or a jacket to maintain a professional look. “Oversized clothing is sloppy and messy looking, and it frankly makes [women] look big as opposed to pregnant, which is adorable and celebratory,” says Lange. “Don’t try to hide your pregnancy.”

Finally, when putting together your maternity wardrobe, avoid buying maternity clothes until you actually need them, instead of in one fell swoop. A better bet is to purchase a couple of things here and there throughout your trimesters. It will save money, certainly, but it’s also very difficult to predict how–and where–you will fill out.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/04/maternity-fashion-celebrities-forbes-woman-style-trends.html

Liz Lange is back! The woman who infused chic, form-fitting designs into the wardrobes of pregnant women everywhere is re-launching her high-end maternity collection after a year-long hiatus to re-assess her brand. Here, Lange, a mother of two, talks to the Resident about how her line has changed in the last year and shares her tips for flawless style, before (and after) baby. – Rachel Bowie

New York Resident: What inspired you to launch Liz Lange Maternity?

Liz Lange: It was definitely that time in my life – I was newly married, I was thinking about babies, and my friends were all starting to get pregnant. Back in 1996, I was working with one designer but we weren’t making maternity clothing. My friends used to always come to our showroom and try things on and buy things. I noticed that when they got pregnant, they would still come in. I would say to them, what are you doing here, you should be in a maternity store, this isn’t maternity, and across the board, they would each say, oh, no, you don’t understand, there is nothing out there.  I began to notice that the maternity clothing out there looked so radically different than any non-pregnancy clothing and I didn’t understand the disconnect. My friends would squeeze themselves into things in our showroom – anything that had a little stretch in it. I noticed that they actually looked so much better when they were in something like that. I had this ah-ha moment and I couldn’t get it out of my head.

NYR: How would you describe the Manhattan mom that you’re designing for?

LL: What I love about the Manhattan mom – and so many moms are this way – is that she’s absolutely everything. She’s the ultimate multi-tasker. She’s pregnant, and she might already have little ones at home. She’s everything from a mom who is at the park everyday with her kids trying to manage all that, to a mom who’s a lawyer arguing in front of the Supreme Court. I always call myself an accidental feminist. I didn’t realize it, but I started thinking, gosh, the maternity clothes [available] are so insulting. We’ve come so far as women and the clothing needs to keep pace with that.

NYR: What would you say are the most important factors to consider when shopping for clothes before and after baby?

view larger version

LL: When you’re pregnant, the most important thing is that the clothing is nice and fitted so that everyone can see that, yes, I’m pregnant, it’s not just that I’ve gained a little weight. It is important to invest in a few key pieces. I would try to replace the things that you wear a lot when you’re not pregnant. If you’re someone who lives in a great pair of jeans, then you certainly want a pair of those. If you’re someone who works in an office every day and you always get into a suit or a little dress, you’ve got to make sure you’ve got that. It’s about trying to make the things in your closet work for at least the first trimester. Then, if you buy smartly, these things will take you through your third trimester and, then, into what I like to call the fourth trimester, which is the time after you’ve had the baby.

NYR: Moms are constantly on the go – do you have any time saving fashion tips?

LL: If you have a few pieces that mix and match together, it makes getting dressed in the morning a breeze. One thing I always do, as a busy mom myself, is when I get into bed at night, I glance at my schedule for the next day on my Blackberry. I make a mental note of what I need to do and, in my mind, pick the outfit that I’m going to wear. None of us moms, at this point, can afford those mornings that we all used to have where you’re in your closet, putting things on, throwing them off – you just don’t have the time for that.

New York Resident, March, 2009