Thursday, May 2, 2013

Yesterday's Stylish Vintage Maternity Clothing

Retro Flashback:Maternity Clothes For Mothers To Be 

My niece is about to have her first baby. With days before the delivery she is still working and looks simply lovely in a skin tight grey tee shirt and leggings. Well let's flashback 30, 40, 50 years ago.       Like my 1950s mom, I too carried my first child (1970s) wearing a TENT dress and oversized blouses and dresses that looked like tablecloths. I still have the dress that I wore  to the hospital four times for the delivery of each of my children. I keep this dress it in the "costume" box down in the basement.

Pretty Tops For Mother To Be

The dress, actually a loose fitting "shift" from India, was not really a Maternity outfit,  I just used it as such because it was capable of major expansion. The more typical Maternity attire was of course an A-line, pleated, tent style blouse or dress which gathered at the top and widened towards the bottom. And let's not forget the bows on the blouses, a true sign of a woman's entry into motherhood.

Vintage images from Etsy.com

 C. Dianne Zweig is the author of Hot Kitchen & Home Collectibles of the 30s, 40s, 50s and Hot Cottage Collectibles for Vintage Style Homes. She is also the Editor of I Antique Online an actively growing internet based resource community for people who buy, sell or collect antiques, collectibles and art. You can find Dianne’s fabulous retro and vintage k cottage collectibles at The Collinsville Antiques Company of New Hartford, CT, a 22,000 feet antique emporium with an in-house retro café. To read more articles by C. Dianne Zweig click on this link: C. Dianne Zweig’s Blog Kitsch ‘n Stuff Email me at dianne@cdiannezweig.com Visit my website, CDianneZweig.com Dianne is a member of: The American Society of Journalists and Authors The Society of Professional Journalists
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2 comments:

  1. PeggyMay 2, 2013 at 10:31 AM

    As a working woman, I remember how difficult it was to find maternity outfits that were dignified when I was expecting in the 1980s. It seems as though everything had little duckies or chicks on it, or had "Baby on Board" emblazoned down the front. Ugh! On the other hand, finding anything "maternity" that goes back into the early part of the 20th century is difficult because women were supposed to stay out of sight when they were "enceinte."

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  2. BettyMay 3, 2013 at 12:44 PM

    I still remember...just about all my maternity outfits in 1969-1970 had cute little Peter Pan collars. We were on a military base overseas and I ordered my outfits from the Sears and JC Penney catalogs. It was next to impossible to find anything without a Peter Pan collar. I guess we were supposed to look "cute" and innocent?

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