Maternity Dress
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Maternity clothing is worn by women as an adaptation to changes in body size during
pregnancy Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring gestation, gestates inside a woman's uterus. A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Conception (biology), Conception usually occurs ...
. The evolution of maternity clothing began during the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, and became fashionable as women became more selective about style and comfort in the types of maternity clothing they wore. Fashions were constantly changing over time, such as the high-waisted
Empire silhouette Empire silhouette, Empire line, Empire waist or just Empire is a style in clothing in which the dress has a fitted bodice ending just below the bust, giving a high-waisted appearance, and a gathered skirt which is long and loosely fitting but ...
style maternity dress that was fashionable at the turn of the 19th century, and the "wrapper" style dress of the Victorian era that a woman could simply wrap around herself and button up. The commercial production of maternity clothing began at the start of the 20th century, and continued to evolve. During the 1990s in the U.S., relaxed laws such as the
Family and Medical Leave Act The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) is a United States labor law requiring covered employers to provide employees with job-protected, unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons. The FMLA was a major part of President Bill ...
, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, helped to protect the jobs of pregnant women, and served as a form of liberation that afforded women the freedom to wear fashionable maternity styles that emphasised their pregnancy.


History

Dresses did not follow a wearer's body shape until the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
. When western European dresses began to have seams, affluent pregnant women opened the seams to allow for growth. During the
Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
period (roughly 1600s through the 1700s) the ''Adrienne'', a waistless pregnancy gown with many folds, was popular. At that time women wore men's
waistcoats A waistcoat (British English, UK and English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, or ; colloquially called a wikt:weskit#English, weskit) or vest (American English, US and Canadian English, Canada) is a sleeveless upper-body garm ...
. Some styles had laced vents in the back that allowed the wearer to adjust the girth of the coat as needed. From the 1790s through the early 1820s a style well-suited for pregnancy, the
Empire waist Empire silhouette, Empire line, Empire waist or just Empire is a style in clothing in which the dress has a fitted bodice ending just below the bust, giving a high-waisted appearance, and a gathered skirt which is long and loosely fitting but s ...
, was popular. The Empire, a style which has a fitted bodice ending just below the bust and a loosely gathered skirt, was made popular by Napoleon's first wife
Empress Joséphine The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/ grand empress dowager), or a woman who rule ...
. Bibs could be added to permit breastfeeding. The 1960s saw a revival of the Empire waistline which lasted for a few years as a general fashion, but remained popular for many years as pregnancy wear.


Victorian era

During the
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
, women spent more time in pregnancy compared to the 21st century, giving birth to an average of eight children with five making it through infancy. Queen Victoria herself had nine. Pregnancy was considered a private matter not to be discussed in "polite" conversation. A garment called a "wrapper" worn by women at home before they dressed for the day was well-suited for pregnancy as well since it wrapped around and could be worn loosely or more form-fitting as needed. At that time women were used to wearing
corset A corset /ˈkɔːrsɪt/ is a support garment worn to constrict the torso into the desired shape and Posture correction, posture. They are traditionally constructed out of fabric with boning made of Baleen, whalebone or steel, a stiff panel in th ...
s and maternity corsets with laces for adjustment were available. High-waisted gowns remained in style until about 1830 but when waists returned to normal levels maternity wardrobe planning became more difficult. In the 1840s and 1850s a fan pleated bodice was popular. Some styles were gathered at the shoulder with a drawstring at the waist which could be let out as needed. Separates were introduced in the 1860s with boxy jackets and gathered center bodice panels. Some outfits had linings intended to lace over the belly for support. Fashion magazines showed maternity clothing, though the word "pregnancy" or similar was never mentioned, instead wording such as "for the recently married lady", or "for the young matron" was used.


1900 to present

The first commercial
ready-to-wear Ready-to-wear (RTW)also called ''prêt-à-porter'', or off-the-rack or off-the-peg in casual useis the term for garments sold in finished condition in standardized sizes, as distinct from made-to-measure or bespoke clothing tailored to a partic ...
clothing for pregnant women was sold in the US by
Lane Bryant Lane Bryant Inc. is an American women's apparel and intimates specialty retailer focusing on plus-size clothing. The company began in 1904 with maternity designs created by Lena Himmelstein Bryant Malsin. Lane Bryant, Inc., is the largest pl ...
in the 1900s. Lane Bryant offered shirtwaists with an adjustable
drawstring A drawstring (draw string, draw-string) is a string, rope or lace used to " draw" ( gather, or shorten) fabric or other material. Ends of a drawstring are often terminated with a sheath called an aglet. The ends may be tied to hold the drawstr ...
waist, and dresses with an adjustable wrap-around front. The next competitor, Page Boy, offered a
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
ed skirt in 1937. By the 1930s, wrap-around skirts with a series of buttons were available, but the new Page Boy skirt was constructed with a window over the area of the expanding abdomen which allowed the hemline to remain stable rather than to hike up as the woman's abdomen increased in size. In later years when stretch fabric became available it was used to fill in the window. Their clothing, usually a slim skirt with a wide smock top, became fashionable during the 1950s after
Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by ''Time (magazine), Time'' in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for h ...
popularized the style in the first TV episode to show a pregnant woman in 1952. Celebrities such as
Jackie Kennedy Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American writer, book editor, and socialite who served as the first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A popular f ...
and
Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was an English and American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 19 ...
were later known for wearing Page Boy clothes. Slacks with adjustable waists became widely available in the 1950s. An Aldens catalog from 1952 shows a pedal pusher and matching blouse outfit priced at $5.98. Designer blue jeans became available in the '80s. Further developments in maternity clothing styles have meant that many maternity tops are also made to enable discreet nursing, extending the usable life of maternity clothes beyond just the period whilst pregnant.


Cultural trends

Maternity clothes around the world have been undergoing significant changes. In both Eastern and Western cultures, there is greater demand for fashionable maternity clothes. In Western cultures the influence of celebrity culture.Cocozza, Paula,
I still want to be me
', the Guardian, 13 July 2007, retrieved 8 April 2008
means that pregnant women in the public eye are taking the lead in maternity fashion. One such example is
Demi Moore Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After rising to prominence in the early 1980s, she became the world's highest-paid actress by 1995. List of awards and nominations received by Demi Moore, Her acc ...
's 1991 ''Vanity Fair'' cover, which was one of the first instances of a magazine cover depicting an expectant mother. As a result, pregnant women are no longer trying to hide or disguise their "baby bumps", instead choosing to wear garments which closely fit their new shape, often emphasising the bust and abdominal area. Fashion bloggers have caught on to the shift in perception and began to regularly discuss new styles and fabrics designed with the pregnant form in mind. High-tech fabrics such as elastane are the material of choice for maternity wear in Western cultures as they allow garments to be form-fitting while allowing the abdominal area to expand as necessary. Women in Eastern cultures, however, have maintained a much greater sense of modesty when it comes to maternity wear. In both the Islamic and Asian cultures, maternity wear is much less fitted, hemlines are longer and necklines higher. Modern Islamic maternity wear uses fabrics with brighter colours and bolder prints. Aside from cultural modesty, Chinese women have sometimes sought to hide their second pregnancy in less shapely clothes because Chinese policy has dictated that they can only have one child. In Chinese and Japanese cultures, there is a fear of radiation from devices such as computers and mobile phones, especially during pregnancy. Even though there is no evidence to support this (according to WHO), Asian maternity wear is often manufactured from "anti-radiation" fabrics. Culturally in the US today, a few popular clothing brands have made everyday wear for pregnant women both fashionable and accessible. As the body is changing shape and therefore levels of comfort, most maternity clothing is made with Lycra and elastic for stretch and growth. For pants, the waistband is usually a thick layer of stretchy material that can be hidden by a shirt to give the pants a normal look. Depending on style and activity, tops often billow out to leave room for the belly and are made of varying cottons and elastic materials. As more women are pregnant when they marry, some manufacturers of maternity clothing and bridal gowns have begun producing
wedding dresses A wedding dress or bridal gown is the dress worn by the bride during a wedding ceremony. The color, style and ceremonial importance of the gown can depend on the religion and culture of the wedding participants. Wedding dresses hold a significan ...
that fit pregnant women.


Military maternity uniforms

While women were integrated into the U.S. military in 1948, they were automatically discharged if they became pregnant. However, in the late 1970s it was decided that in order to keep women in an all-volunteer armed forces the military needed to change its policy regarding pregnancy. Following complaints that pregnant women dressed in civilian clothing undermined morale, between 1978 and 1980 the armed forces began to issue military maternity outfits. Writing about her experience working on the Armed Forces History Collections at the
Smithsonian National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center is a historical museum in Washington, D.C. It collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and m ...
, museum expert Bethanee Bemis wrote (in 2011): :"In the year since the beginning of the Military History Collections Inventory project, other members of the team and I have seen just about every type of military uniform we could conceive of. We have learned to identify branch, rank, even time period of different uniform pieces with relative ease, which is why we were surprised to come across a uniform unlike any we had seen before. It was a blue smock top paired with a white blouse and blue skirt, and it turned out to be a United States Air Force officer's maternity dress uniform." Bemis wrote in 2011 that of the more than 6,000 military uniforms in their collection only three were maternity uniforms, an Air Force officer's uniform and two Navy Petty Officer Second Class uniforms. The Air Force dress uniform features a blue smock top paired with a white blouse and blue skirt, and the Navy uniforms include a blue coat and slacks with a white blouse for dress and a working uniform with dungaree pants and a
chambray Chambray () is a commune in the Eure department of northern France, 13 km northeast of Évreux on the north bank of the river Eure. The Château de Chambray, in the north of the commune, is the ancestral home of the Marquis de Venevelles ...
shirt. All three uniforms are from the 1980s. Speaking at the
International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on 8 March, commemorating women's fight for equality and liberation along with the women's rights movement. International Women's Day gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive righ ...
celebration in March 2021, President Joe Biden spoke of the progress that the military has taken in recent years to better accommodate women in the military, including creating maternity flight suits and new better fitting body armor.
Tucker Carlson Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American conservative political commentator who hosted the nightly political talk show '' Tucker Carlson Tonight'' on Fox News from 2016 to 2023. Since his contract with Fox News was term ...
, speaking on
Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...
, showed a photo of an Air Force officer wearing an artificial pregnancy bump to demonstrate the design changes that made for the new Maternity Flight Duty Uniform and commented "So, we've got new hairstyles and maternity flight suits. Pregnant women are going to fight our wars. It's a mockery of the U.S. military." The Pentagon's top spokesman and senior generals rebuked Carlson's remarks. His comments also drew numerous social media responses from both male and female enlisted service members, some of whom noted that Tucker has never served. Army veteran Senator
Tammy Duckworth Ladda Tammy Duckworth (born March 12, 1968) is an American politician and retired Army National Guard Lieutenant colonel (United States), lieutenant colonel serving since 2017 as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States ...
, who lost both her legs during a deployment in Iraq and notably the first sitting senator to give birth while in office, responded to Carlson with a tweet referencing his brief appearance on
Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...
: "While he was practicing his two-step, America's female warriors were hunting down Al Qaeda and proving the strength of America's women."


Legislative influences

Pregnancy fashions took a dramatic turn in the 1990s with the introduction of tight-fitted maternity wear intended to emphasize rather than hide a pregnant woman's baby bump. Not coincidentally, this shift occurred during a time of major changes for women in America. In 1993, the
Family and Medical Leave Act The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) is a United States labor law requiring covered employers to provide employees with job-protected, unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons. The FMLA was a major part of President Bill ...
was passed by President Bill Clinton. This act protected women's jobs during pregnancy, giving women more freedom to show off their pregnancies. Until this act was passed, many women were fired as a result of their pregnancies. Following the passage of this legislation women had more job security and government-protected maternity leave. At the same time as these laws were being passed, maternity fashions changed drastically. Many magazine articles began to discuss stylish mothers-to-be wearing figure hugging clothing that emphasized their growing waistline.


Cost and economics

Historically maternity clothing has not generally been considered a potentially profitable area for most major clothing manufacturers due to a belief that many women would not purchase clothes intended for only a few months of wearing. Declining birth rates have also reduced sales. However, with wide media interest in celebrity pregnancies beginning in the late 1990s, the maternity wear market grew 10% between 1998 and 2003. It was also during this time that the term "pregnant chic" was developed in order for companies to market to pregnant women. One clothing source said the demand for maternity clothes was growing because "Nowadays women are working during pregnancy, and travelling, and going to the gym, so their clothing needs are greater and more diverse." In 2015 it was reported that maternity clothes is a $2.4 billion market in the U.S. According to a
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
analysis, in 2014 a pregnant woman spent around $480 on maternity wear. This represents approximately one-sixth of all clothing sales each year. The largest chains, belonging to Destination Maternity, control almost one-fifth of the American market. Other brands are sold through discount stores, department stores, and boutiques. Maternity clothing is generally worn only during the second and third trimesters, and possibly for several weeks or months after the birth of the baby while a woman regains her pre-pregnancy size. If a woman expects to be pregnant only once or twice, buying maternity clothing that will be worn only for about six months, can be considered expensive. Women who cannot afford or don't want to spend large amounts of money on maternity clothing may choose to just wear either larger, looser clothing or buy secondhand maternity clothes via yard sales and also
consignment Consignment is a process whereby a person gives permission to another party to take care of their property while retaining full ownership of the property until the item is sold to the final buyer. It is generally done during auctions, shipping, ...
clothing stores. Also, some products, such as button extenders or Ingrid & Isabel's Bellaband wrap, are intended to work with the woman's non-maternity clothing, to reduce the need for specialized clothing.


References


External links

* {{Clothing Sizes in clothing Clothing by function Human pregnancy