Three things relating to clothes, in time

Past: when I was a teenager, I went through a typical phase of loving retro clothing. I would often moan at my mum about why she didn’t keep any of her original Biba clothes from the 60’s, which would have been both a) incredibly cool for my 16 year old self and b) have saved me lots of time riffling through second hand shops and markets that smelled like damp and / or mothballs.

Fast forward a couple of years, and a few weeks after finding out I was pregnant I received a parcel in the post. It turns out my mum had kept something after all this time, and I’m now the owner of vintage maternity wear – her favourite top, from Mothercare in the 70’s.

Present: the first and only item of maternity clothing I’ve bought so far is a black dress from Isabella Oliver. I love buying clothes but have not really made a start on pregnancy shopping yet, as I don’t have much of a bump and the vast majority of my wardrobe still fits. I’m also pretty particular about clothes and don’t even want to consider wearing anything I wouldn’t wear normally: so maxi dresses, tops with comedy pregnancy slogans on and anything even remotely practical are all out.

I was actually pleasantly surprised with Isabella Oliver and this dress passed the test (my husband’s reaction: “Don’t you already have one like that?”) I’m also tentatively stalking Topship, H&M and ASOS, and have been told great things about Seraphine – but would love to hear any other recommendations.

Future: My mother-in-law – the original Gill Crawshaw – knits some amazing baby clothes, and has been hard at work already. She sent me a preview via email, and I was nearly in tears with how lovely they all are. And when we were down in Bournemouth a few weeks ago my mum also found a bag of beautiful baby clothes my Gran had made for her future great-grandchildren, before she had to give up knitting a few years ago. So it seems like lucky Baby C’s wardrobe has got off to a great start already.