Maternity fashion advice for Jamie-Lynn

Apparently the doyenne of fashionable American maternity wear, Liz Lange had this to say to People about Jamie Lynn and dressing up her bump:

"She's a young girl, so I would want to keep [her look] innocent."

Um. Right. She's clearly had sex and she's pregnant. What part of 'innocent' should she be trying to pull off?

"I think little cute dresses and jeans with tight-fitting tee shirts. ... She's 16, and I'd like to see her look her age. Britney was into cowboy boots with little dresses. That was her style. I'd like to see Jamie Lynn go a little plainer. [No] belly baring for her!"

I find these comments so bizarre, especially coming from a woman that made the pregnant belly the centrepiece of a maternity outfit. Lange's comments are almost shockingly incongruous with the veritably oppressive cultural enticements for pregnant women to dress like walking sex. I mean pregnancy is the most 'sexed' state of being a woman can embody in her lifetime. A pregnant belly is visible evidence that you have had sex. Just because Jamie Lynn is sixteen why is there still a sentiment that someone should be trying to protect her from the big, bad world of sex when she's already been a happy customer long enough to get knocked up? 'Looking her age' suggests that Jamie Lynn should be trying to re-capture the virginal status that is so often attributed to 'respectable' young women. The comment about 'no belly baring' similarly suggests that the exposure of her sixteen year old body would be too sexual, even though she is telling everyone she has had sex just by virtue of being pregnant!

Source: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20167356,00.html

size zero

You might remember Leah Remini from The King of Queens gained 80lbs during her pregnancy and was slammed in the American media for being too 'fat' because she didn't snap back into shape as quickly as alot of other Hollywood mums. Here is a recent interview where she talks about the post-baby body fiasco:


Q: Since then what has been your biggest life-changing decision?

A: I think my decision to have a baby was the biggest life-altering decision that I've ever made. It just changes your whole life. It just changes everything about you. It changes your goals. It changes the way you think about things, the person you thought you were, you know?

Q: Your body gets as much attention as your work -- good and bad. Did you find it annoying?

A: Well, when you have a baby and you are not blessed with a metabolism [such] that you can get back into your jeans the very next day, it becomes something to focus on. I don't even blame the papers. They are making money from it, but the people who are buying it? I just went on Tyra [Banks Show]. She has a great campaign called "So What?" I think it's fabulous. It's about sending that message -- yeah, I'm fat, or yeah, I'm chubby, or yeah, I have stretch marks: so what! I love that message. So frigging what, men! It seems so silly to me. And nobody was really biting on the fact that I lost the weight [after the birth]. I wanted to tell people how I lost the weight. It was, like, no one wanted to talk about how I actually did lose the weight, just that I got fat.

Q: Being 5-foot-3 is a whole different story from being even 5-foot-6 in terms of weight when you're having a baby.

A: Yeah, and also some are a size zero going into it. I was never a size zero. There are women in this town who are, so their fat day is a size 4. I've always been a little thick, but I don't mind. I like being a little meaty.

You can read the full interview here:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07127/783966-129.stm

Speaking of size zero, this has a been a topic that I've been slightly obsessed with for the past week (is there really such a thing as being slightly obsessed?) and whilst there is seemingly tremendous cultural status for women (mostly celebrities or those who are 'naturally' petite) who can fit into small sizes, I came across an interview with Liz Lange, perhaps the most famous maternity designer in the US, about how she had to start making size zero maternity clothing. Lang says, 'We have, in fact, had to add a smaller size. That size being a zero. A zero isn't a true zero. We have our own size system here. But a very, very, very small size for those skinny-mini women, who are just, you know, skinny, skinny, skinny, with a little belly'.

A recent Johns Hopkins University study says that 1 in 5 pregnant women think it's okay to skip meals...being a size zero when you aren't pregnant is a feat in itself...trying (note: i said trying, not a reference to women who are already tiny) to be a size zero when you are pregnant is just bloody dangerous. On the other hand there are apparently heaps of women out there who are just absolutely tiny and can't find any maternity clothes to fit them

Has anyone actually seen a size zero maternity garment? If you have, let me know!

skinny jean/skinny pregnancy

This is a great view from Liz Lange maternity wear. I posted about LL back in December when I was doing some research in New York. It just so happened that as I was flicking through the channels, I came upon a show about famous American business people and Liz was one of the panelists, revealing the secrets of her multi million dollar maternity fashion house. Now Liz Lange is bringing high fashion to the masses by dressing pregnant women across America in Target stores in a sort of democratisation of maternity wear. Now people that buy LL maternity wear from her stores know that high style does not come cheaply...until now. The pieces produced for Target stores (as you can see in the video) are beautifully presented, clean cut and sold at a much lower price point than in typical LL retail stores. However, in watching the video, I got the sense that although Lange is now dressing a wide range of American women, she still has the middle-upper class mother in mind. I mean Lange says 'Every baby needs to have these cashmere blankets...Hello? I can't afford cashmere for myself. How many women out there are actually splurging on luxury items for babies outside of NYC??

Also, in her ode to the 'skinny jean' at the start of the program, I kept thinking to myself, 'How many women do you see at Target buying skinny jeans even when they are not pregnant?' Surely, it's a good look for a pregnant model and if your legs don't change size because all of your weight gain is concentrated in one area. This just contributes to my theory about the cult of the skinny pregnancy (and this is especially prominent in NY and LA) where women can still be a size 0 even when they're pregnant.* Lange actually mentioned in the TV show I was watching in NY that they had to start making smaller sizes to cater to the 'petite' woman. I've actually been told of similar trends happening here in Melbourne by a few popular designers (such that certain high fashion, high fitness preggos are requiring their size 0s even during the pregnancy and are being forced to have certain items of clothing custom made as a result). Am I crazy? Does anyone think skinny jeans are just the slighest bit ridiculous when you are trying to grow another human being? Who wants to shove their body into denim (that is already uncomfortable when you're not pregnant) albeit 'skinny' leg denim after consistently putting on weight for 9 months?

It's like imprisonment for your bump. Women's bodies are forced to be contained enough just in normal life. Why corral the pregnant body into more restrictive clothing just because the rest of our culture is so freaked out by women taking up space (and that goes for overweight women as well)?

*In saying this, I'm not trying to say that all women need to gain heaps of weight in pregnancy in order to be 'real' pregnant women or to have an 'authentic' experience. Sure, there are women out there who don't gain much weight, are naturally a size 0 and have nothing to be ashamed of. That's fine, more power to them. I'm making a statement about the majority of the women in the world who are on average a size 12-14 even before they are pregnant and who haven't worn skinny jeans since the 7th grade (and even then, it wasn't really a good look).