See How The Most Powerful Fashion Influencers Are Reinventing Pregnancy Fashion

Even the words ‘maternity wear’ sounds frumpy. For most women, it’s the moment in their lives when their personal style is bumped to its limits. They have to contend with not just their life and body transforming, but their wardrobe too.

Luckily, a new school of blooming mommy bloggers have been leading the way in pregnancy fashion. In quick succession, Leandra Medine, Chiara Ferragni, Pandora Sykes, Angela Scanlon and Katherine Ormerod announced their pregnancies late last year. Already hailed for their sense of style these five have been forging a new sartorial path for mothers-to-be.

‘[Being pregnant brings] a very different personal style. It’s a lot of skinny trousers with oversized shirts or big jumpers, bodycon dresses and stretch skirts. I maintain my personal style from before with great coats and big earrings, but otherwise, it’s changed a lot as my body is so different and I don’t want to spend a lot of money or energy on my style!’ Pandora Sykes told Refinery29.

Sykes is not alone in retraining her style formula for pregnancy by making slight tweaks rather than overhauling her whole wardrobe. Leandra Medine, for instance, has sought out the same brands she has always been loyal but now styles them with more boxy jackets and tailored trousers.

Conversely, Katherine Ormerod and Angela Scanlon have found new formulas and stuck to them. Freelance writer Ormerod has introduced tailored maxi dresses and sturdy boots into her roster and balanced them out with statement jackets. While Scanlon has opted for mannish shirts and dungarees that leave room for her bump to grow.

'I’ve also gone a bit nuts on accessories. Lots of giant earrings, hats, scarves etc! If you can’t dress your waist dress your face' explains Scanlon. 'It’s all about the silhouette and that was a challenge but actually a welcome one. I realise I had become really set on how I dressed, I wore a uniform and clothes had become very functional. Being pregnant meant I had to relook at what worked for me because that familiar old style just didn’t make sense anymore. I feel more passionate about fashion now than I have in donkies which is...odd!'

''Id say being pregnant, like most women, has made me shop a lot less, and I’m also much more choosy and price conscious about what I'm buying,' explains Ormerod, 'What I've done is invest in properly fitting body con options from Isabella Oliver - a coupe of tube dresses and turtlenecks which I use as the canvas for accessories and non-pregnancy pieces like oversized coats and jackets. I've bought some fun, inexpensive things along the way from ASOS Maternity (I live in black dungarees) and H&M, and Ive continued to wear a few things from my wardrobe including some Ganni empire line dresses, See by Chloe flow tops and stretch knits.

'By focusing on kimono jackers, ballet style cardigans and roomy coats I've been able to keep that bit of fashion relevance going - but it is NOT easy, especially if you don’t fancy spending hundred of pounds on things that might only fit you for a few weeks.'

‘The end of 2017 and early 2018 is all about the Blogger Baby Boom. It’s no joke,’ said Emilie Tabor, founder and chief marketing officer at IMA, an influencer marketing agency to WWD, ‘These influencers all of a sudden are announcing through their blogs [and social media] that they’re pregnant.’ Cynically Women’s Wear Dail and Tabor are suggesting that this sudden wave of pregnancies will open up new career doors to these influencers. These five have risen to the top of the fashion set, now is their opportunity to conquer the lucrative mommy blogger world too.

‘It’s hard to say what actual motherhood will bring for my trajectory as an influencer so to speak,’ Medine told WWD. ‘And I don’t know how I will or won’t change following birth, but I can’t see myself abandoning a lot of my core interests because I’m a mother.’

Will Medine and her fellow pregnant influencers maximise this growing mommy audience as Tabor predicts, who can say. But, we do know that is that these influencers are shifting the needle of maternity wear