If you were around last year at this time, you might remember I worked with Martine from Martine a La Mode. She’s a professional closet stylist who is passionate about secondhand shopping and sustainable fashion. When she asked if I wanted to do a maternity capsule closet, I jumped at the opportunity!
Martine provides an amazing service I’ve been able to use twice now (for my first experience, check out the article I wrote a year ago: 13 Lessons I Learned from Working with a Capsule Wardrobe Designer. Even better, Martine also takes clients virtually, so there’s your long-distance/COVID-friendly option too! (Psst, follow her on Instagram @martine_alamode for ALL the sustainable fashion styling tips!)
Pregnancy can leave you feeling lost in your closet–stuck with so many clothes that don’t fit, drowning in oversized (or undersized) maternity clothes, and feeling like an overall potato. Not a cute potato either. A couch potato. A sad potato 🙁
I was so lucky to have Martine come over and work on my closet with me to style several outfits that I would NOT have thought of or put together otherwise! I went from a sad potato to feeling like a glowy, beautiful, pregnant goddess! Which is how we all want to feel when we’re pregnant, right?!
All the outfits are made from secondhand clothing I got from the thrift store, friends hand-me downs, or clothes I already have in my closet (that aren’t strictly maternity, but big enough to work for this stage of my pregnancy). There are limitless other ways I could put these clothes together in other combinations (the whole point of a maternity capsule closet, right?!), but these are my favorite ones!
Wasn’t planning to even keep wearing this green shirt in rotation while pregnant, but hey, it fits over the belly or makes corny graphic tees cuter!
Swapping out the sweater for a simple black jacket: relaxed, slouchy vibe vs. getting ish done vibe!
Crossbody bags add some much-needed shape to otherwise formless/baggy shirts. The longer the better/more flattering!
Switch the jean jacket for a baggy maternity shirt (tied up into a crop shirt and pulled off the shoulder!) for a completely different look.
Don’t forget to accessorize! Pairing a brown bag with this sweater and throwing on a pair of earrings makes this outfit go from slouchy and lazy, to cute and put-together.
Wear dresses over jeans for a more casual look– I was previously only wearing these dresses with leggings & boots so not at all using these dresses to their full potential!
The key takeaways from this session with Martine were:
-Accessories are key! Pairing a colorful bag with an otherwise plain outfit dresses it up a LOT. Matching your bag to your outfit pulls your outfit together! Piece of cake!
-Crossbody bags are your best friend, especially if you’re wearing a baggy tee or dress that you want to be fitted a little better.
-Don’t be afraid to dress something up or down instead of using it as is. dresses with jeans?! My new favorite go-to outfit! Comfortable and chic all at once.
-Also, I’ve said this before, but box up clothes that aren’t in season or don’t currently fit! Before this session, I cleaned out my closet of anything that definitely wasn’t going to fit during my pregnancy! No reason for me to keep rifling through it if it’s not going to work. Simple is better. Take out what you don’t need!
I hope reading about this session has inspired you in some way with sustainable fashion, or even just inspired you to clean out your closet so that you only are wearing things that make ya feel like a million bucks!
[…] This is one of the key tenets of having a zero waste baby! Side note, I was actually able to source my entire maternity closet secondhand. Secondhand is the way to go for so many reasons, but especially because it’s both […]