We’ve previously marvelled over actress-turned-shabby-chic-pedller Blake Lively’s lifestyle website, Preserve. Not only does it have Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop-levels of twee-yet-exclusive language, but where else can we get tobacco-stained wooden chopping boards in the shape of America, rustic smoked salts and shaving kits and other useless tat that wouldn’t look out of place as props in a Spaghetti Western?
But one thing that we never noticed was absent from the site is maternitywear. No doubt that’s all to change now that Blake is pregnant. The actress announced the impending birth of her first child, with husband Ryan Reynolds, via a post on her site about new arrivals in the form of outfits for expectant mums.
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The post, which was accompanied by a photo of Blake rubbing a baby bump (her own), read: ‘We have something for men, for women, for the old, but we realized, we don’t have anything for the new. With family on our mind, we looked to the origin of it all — to the women in our lives who are right there, at that special moment; at the creation of family.’
‘Today we celebrate them. With food to fill their tummies (as if that needs more filling), presents to soothe their tired (and swollen) soles, toys to warm their baby’s souls, projects to provoke them, and decorations to inspire creativity and merriment in all. Congratulations to all the expecting mothers out there. And thank you for being a part of our Preserve family.’
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So far, so sickeningly sweet, so cynically appealing to all the yummy mummies out there. It seems all very well timed - a ploy to get people to buy maternity wear just because Blake is pregnant. But is it really that bad? Yes, Blake might be selling some very pricey items on a website that is about as pretentious as a man from Scunthorpe affecting a French accent and quoting Sartre at length.
But then again, she’s a celebrity and people are obsessed with her private life (and they must be, just look at all the headlines about how cute her baby will turn out), so it's really her right to announce her pregnancy in whatever way she sees fit. Sure, a lifestyle website is a bit of a weird place to announce a pregnancy, but it’s a bit weird to have to announce your pregnancy in the first place. So more power to her for doing it on her very own website. Maybe that’s the best way of maintaining her, Ryan and the baby to be’s privacy.
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Picture: Eric Lively for Preserve
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.