liberté, égalité, maternité
Oct. 9th, 2008 12:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraOr, one woman's quest for a pair of pants.
Because I'm an anti-American freak, or something, I almost never wear jeans: I wear lighter-weight pants in the hot sticky summer, and warm fuzzy corduroys in the winter. Temperatures have started dropping and alas, none of my corduroys fit at all - not so much because of the meeple but because of the ten pounds I gained last spring while sitting around wishing for it. The answer, though, is clearly maternity pants - in fact the waistbands are starting to feel snug on my three pairs of summer pants that do still fit, and presumably this will only accelerate as my weight gain really gets going.
So where does a tight-fisted shopping-hater find a pair of pants?
And they are glorious. This big soft belly panel thing beats the heck out of a waistband, and they have pockets, a feature which pantsmakers appear to increasingly disdain and which I have missed sorely in two out of three pairs of those summer pants. And I am warm and fuzzy.
(When I mentioned this shopping quest to my mom, she was alarmed and said "oh, no, you don't want to get anything too warm, once you hit six months or so you're going to feel hot all the time." So, what, you're saying I might not wear a scarf indoors this whole winter? That I might feel comfortable in only two layers instead of three plus my emergency sweater as a lap blanket? That I might be able to face those first five minutes in the car before the heat kicks in without longjohns under the corduroys? As dire prophecies of pregnancy misery go, I just can't manage to worry about this one. Y'all can laugh at me later if I turn out to be sweaty and overheated all winter. (Just sweaty doesn't count though.))
Because I'm an anti-American freak, or something, I almost never wear jeans: I wear lighter-weight pants in the hot sticky summer, and warm fuzzy corduroys in the winter. Temperatures have started dropping and alas, none of my corduroys fit at all - not so much because of the meeple but because of the ten pounds I gained last spring while sitting around wishing for it. The answer, though, is clearly maternity pants - in fact the waistbands are starting to feel snug on my three pairs of summer pants that do still fit, and presumably this will only accelerate as my weight gain really gets going.
So where does a tight-fisted shopping-hater find a pair of pants?
- Marshalls - no maternity section
- Kohl's - maternity section consists of one rack, plus some shirts on the wall. The one pair of corduroy pants doesn't fit.
- Old Navy - only jeans (and shirts).
- Target - no corduroy. Major points for classifying maternity as another subspecies of clothes for women.
- Babies R Us - have you lost all sense of adult identity and confused yourself with your baby? This is not Women R Us! There are no clothes for you here unless perhaps you are two feet tall and would like to dress like a turkey! Go away!
- Sears - um, hello, the maternity section is upstairs with infants and children, why are you looking down here in the women's section? Also, yes, the women's department does compose about three-fifths of the ground floor, and the maternity section *would* fit in your bedroom at home. Were you hoping to have options or something? No corduroy.
- Gap - did you know that not every Gap has a maternity section? why don't you try Peabody (15 miles), Natick (21 miles), or Braintree (29 miles)?
- the food court - there are no corduroy pants for sale here either, and yet it is somehow less frustrating.
- Motherhood Maternity - score. Apparently the secret of maternity shopping is "go somewhere where they're going to go out of business if they can't sell stuff to pregnant ladies." We're talking *multiple brands and styles* of maternity corduroys, and by "multiple" I possibly mean "two", but it might even have been three... I was the only person in there and was pretty rattled by having to deal with a constant barrage of helpfulness from the saleslady. But I did manage to emerge victorious with pants.
And they are glorious. This big soft belly panel thing beats the heck out of a waistband, and they have pockets, a feature which pantsmakers appear to increasingly disdain and which I have missed sorely in two out of three pairs of those summer pants. And I am warm and fuzzy.
(When I mentioned this shopping quest to my mom, she was alarmed and said "oh, no, you don't want to get anything too warm, once you hit six months or so you're going to feel hot all the time." So, what, you're saying I might not wear a scarf indoors this whole winter? That I might feel comfortable in only two layers instead of three plus my emergency sweater as a lap blanket? That I might be able to face those first five minutes in the car before the heat kicks in without longjohns under the corduroys? As dire prophecies of pregnancy misery go, I just can't manage to worry about this one. Y'all can laugh at me later if I turn out to be sweaty and overheated all winter. (Just sweaty doesn't count though.))
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Date: 2008-10-12 02:33 am (UTC)Extra points if you find pants you like that are just stretchy and not with the front-panel style, since that opens the possibility of continuing to wear them after the pregnancy. There's a reason some folks don't give up their pregnancy clothes -- some of them are soooo comfy!!!!
If you have a big enough shirt, the waistband can sit as low as it likes. A loose dress eliminates the whole waistband issue altogether.
You may be able to reach your own feet the whole time (bend to the side, then swing over, rather than straight down), or find a friendly coparent who things it's cute to help you out. Steve got very invested in my shoelaces, as I recall.