What will 2023 be remembered for in fashion terms? Balenciaga’s baffling £695 towel-skirt (literally a beige towel with a waist band) is certainly hard to forget. But it was also the year “mum style” went haute.
In February, Rihanna covered British Vogue with her then nine-month-old son, dripping in diamonds and wearing a series of high-fashion looks that put my own baby food-splattered leggings to shame. (So chic was the photo shoot that even her baby had a stylist.)
The singer, who is known for her designer maternity wardrobe, was fresh from the Super Bowl half-time show where she announced her second pregnancy to a crowd of 70,000 dressed in a red leather breastplate and matching jumpsuit by Loewe.
Six months later, Sienna Miller demonstrated just how glam a baby bump can be by framing hers in a Schiaparelli couture crop top and skirt on the red carpet.
When Phoebe Philo – the former creative director of Celine and famously the first high-profile designer to take maternity leave – launched her anticipated label at the tail end of the year, it wasn’t the feathered trousers that got the style set talking. Instead, a solid silver necklace that said “mum” over and over again became a cult buy. Yours for £3,000, if only it hadn’t instantly sold out.
While I won’t pretend I’m styling out motherhood with as much va-va-voom as the A-listers – and I’m certainly not in the market for a four-figure piece of jewellery (exorbitant childcare fees have made sure of that) my sense of style has changed since having kids.
Of course there’s the practical stuff. Like most parents I know, I avoid pale colours, darks being much better at hiding toddler-generated stains. My ‘dry clean only’ dresses are gathering dust in my wardrobe. In fact, dresses in general are out – trousers are far easier to schlep around the playground in.
Comfort and ease have become paramount. I no longer have time to figure out chic print clashes or clever layering in the morning – and I can’t look in my underwear drawer without marvelling at how I ever had the energy to find a matching set. Simple pieces in goes-with-everything colours are my go-to; camel jumpers, blue jeans, black boots on repeat.
My husband is the same. After our first child was born, he went into Cos and bulk bought crew-neck cotton T-shirts, which he’s worn with navy trousers ever since.
More unexpected has been the emotional shift in my relationship to clothes. A recent survey by parenting app Peanut found that 62 percent of UK mothers have felt a loss of identity since giving birth. In my experience, clothes play a big part in that. As a former fashion editor, and life-long fashion fan, I’ve always felt confident in my style choices. However, after nine months of wearing maternity clothes and several postpartum weeks of jogging bottoms and milk-soaked T-shirts, there were times when I looked in the mirror and hardly recognised myself.
Even when I could finally start wearing my pre-baby clothes again, both my body and lifestyle had changed, so a lot of pieces didn’t fit how they used to. Breton tops once made me feel like Jane Birkin, but now make me feel matronly. When I put on a blazer it’s like I’m doing boardroom cosplay.
The things that do make me feel like me again have become essential; I don’t go anywhere without wearing gold hoop earrings, even though both my baby and toddler enjoy yanking them out.
What I’m not is frumpy. There’s an assumption when you become a parent – especially a mother – that your style credibility drops off a cliff. Mum style has long been regarded as the antithesis of cool, but that’s simply not the case: consider how many fashion brands have been inspired by Princess Diana’s mum-style, recreated in The Crown this autumn.
Most of the best-dressed women I know are mothers and they’re anything but dowdy. In fact, the other day, a mum friend told me that her taste in clothes has become sexier since she’s had kids; on a recent night out she switched her signature floral frocks for a mini dress.
To that end, I’ve just bought a semi-sheer top to wear to dinner with friends. Mum’s still got it? Absolutely. Just ask Rihanna.
Frankie Graddon is a freelance fashion journalist
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