Celebrity pregnancy looks: what to select when you’re expecting

There’s a reason celebrity copycat items are so popular (you know, the “get the look” features). When you have someone whose style you admire and can copy, things are made so much easier. Confused about what to wear to work? Just ask yourself, “What would Jessie J do?” Or, knowing her predilection for skintight catsuits, perhaps use Olivia Palermo for day and Jessie J for night.

When you’re expecting a child, things are made that little bit (or big bit) – well, let’s face it, that big bit – more difficult. For starters, maternity wear can be downright ugly, and if it’s not skintight bodycon, it’s a floor-length muumuu. So when a well-known and much emulated celebrity becomes pregnant, mums-to-be can rejoice and take comfort in the fact that they’ll soon be shown the dos from those in the know.

In Kim Kardashian’s case, however, it’s more a case of learning from someone else’s mistakes than emulating someone else’s victories. Is there something comforting in the fact that, despite having more money than most of us can imagine, and the advice of stylists, image gurus and Kanye West, Kardashian still ends up making epic sartorial slip-ups on a daily basis?

Take the leather dress she wore late last month, designed by none other than West himself, and in a strange sweet potato shade (yes, really). Do the words “pregnancy” and “leather shift dress” really make such easy bedfellows? To the LA opening of Topman, she took tips from, in turn, Big Bird and Halle Berry, mixing the former’s avian plumage with the latter’s skin-baring Oscars style, resulting in a very fluffy, busty look, even by Kardashian standards.

But things are getting better. Perhaps facing facts somewhat, Kardashian was recently photographed seen in a more pregnancy-appropriate dress in a slate grey with stunning embellishment on the chest and arms. It was fitted, with no obvious squashing, went to her knee, and was high-necked, with no sheer panels.

To her credit, there is no harm in experimenting with non-maternity gear, at least in the first flushes of pregnancy. Try shift dresses, draped shirts and stretch knits for cool comfort, and leave the full-on maternity gear for when you can fit into nothing else.