When I was pregnant with our first, whenever I got dressed for work, I never quite felt like Myself. Looking back, I have now realized that it wasn’t because of all the changes my body was going through, but the clothes that I wore. Before being pregnant, I rarely wore pants to work. Then for some reason, I bought maternity pants and oversized sweaters that always made me feel frumpy.
Fast forward to my second pregnancy, and I decided to wear pieces that were more my style (classic, office-chic) and made me feel more confident in myself. Since I knew this would be my last pregnancy, I created a work capsule wardrobe that was curated with just the pieces I knew I would always reach for each time I got dressed for work. The last thing I wanted to do as the pregnancy progressed, and I got more and more tired, was figure out what to wear to work each day.
My work maternity capsule wardrobe mainly consisted of knit dresses and midi skirts, and I kept my accessories simple by wearing a signature initial necklace. Let’s get into it…
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1. Easy Sweater Dresses
Dress | Coat (similar)
I bought a handful of dresses as I was building my work maternity capsule and most of them were either knit sweater dresses or dresses with ruching. The stretchy material and the ruching allowed me to continue wearing my dresses to work as my belly grew. I also found that most of the sweater and knit dresses I had bought during pregnancy retained their original look after each wash. I have been able to wear some of these dresses as part of my current, non pregnant, work capsule wardrobe. As I’ve mentioned before, part of my wardrobe includes thrifted pieces and in the picture above, the coat I am wearing was from a local vintage pop up.
2. Midi Skirts (Preferably Pleated)
Skirt (Similar) | Tank | Jacket
I also embraced my love of skirts, and part of my work maternity capsule consisted of pleated skirts with an elastic waistband that allowed me to wear the skirt comfortably over my belly, as well as knit/sweater skirts. I’d wear them with a lot of tanks under sweaters or blazers because I was always so hot.
For the extremely cold days, I wore these denier maternity tights with my skirts. I was fortunate that at the time, I worked for a company that had an underground walkway from the parking garage to the office building, so I spent less time walking outside during the winter months.
I did occasionally wear maternity pants to work, however, I preferred the ones with a side panel. That style of pant was just more my style as I tried on different types of maternity pants. During my first pregnancy, I also wore the ones with the band that goes over your belly and I just wasn’t a fan. There were times where the band was too big and I would have to pull that constantly throughout the day.
3. Versatile Shirts and Sweaters
Shirt | Sweater
I owned two button-ups a part of my winter maternity work wardrobe, as well as a few sweaters and some knit tanks. I reached for my white button-up as well as my button-up chambray shirt quite a bit. These two pieces were very versatile and made getting dressed easier for office days as well as on the weekends. Part of my capsule also consisted of a few sweaters that I wore to work, with a handful of those being just my regular non-maternity sweaters. Wearing my skirts over my belly allowed me to continue wearing my regular sweaters since they didn’t need to cover my growing belly.
4. A Long Wool Coat
Coat (Similar) | Skirt (Similar)
When it came to coats, most of the ones I wore to work as well as the weekend were my non-maternity coats that I just didn’t button up. If you prefer to be more covered and warm, then there are a handful of stylish maternity coats out there — this one reminds me of one of my old camel coats from J.Crew that I wore during my second pregnancy.
I wore this Eddie Bauer puffer jacket all throughout the winter months of my first pregnancy. We moved from Tennessee to Ohio during the fall, and I needed something warmer for the cold winter months. I bought an extra large, although at the time, my usual size would have been a large. Seven years later, I still own and wear the coat.
Blazers can also be part of your work capsule wardrobe. I wore my non-maternity J.Crew Regent blazer one size bigger which I still do own and wear to work to this day.
5. Comfortable Shoes
Shoes
As I was writing this post, I wasn’t sure if I should include the shoes I wore to work while pregnant, since shoes during pregnancy are so tricky. My feet would swell as the day went on while I was at work. I wore these Sarah Flint suede kitten heels a lot, and there were days that I wore the 3 inch suede perfect pump. Sueded was my go to because it easily stretches and so the shoes stretched as my feet would swell up while I was at work.
Shoes are very personal, especially during pregnancy, so do not feel like you need to keep trying to fit your feet into your pre-pregnancy shoes. Heck, my feet grew half an inch after pregnancy and I have to slowly build my shoe collection. Another thing I also realized was that my boss was a lot more sympathetic and so there were days I could get away with wearing sneakers.
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What other maternity wardrobe essentials have you loved and worn on repeat? Let us know in the comments!
xo,
Bev
Oh hey, Pinners…
