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4:34pm August 27, 2014

karalianne:

I went to Thyme Maternity this morning and came away with two tops and two pairs of jeans (and some underwear). I also signed up for their program so I got a free bottle and some coupons and stuff.

I’m going to post photos of my outfits later, but here I just want to talk about why I think plus-size stores should carry maternity clothes. (Note that all stores mentioned here are Canadian stores. Reitmans is a “regular size” store with a plus size section, Addition Elle and Penningtons are both plus size stores, and Thyme Maternity is… well… a maternity store.)

I normally wear a Reitmans bootcut size 17 tall jean, but I couldn’t wear the XXL Thyme Maternity bootcut jeans as the thighs were too small. So these are “relaxed fit” jeans and they are really comfy and I will get lots of wear out of them I am sure (I got two pairs since denim is on sale right now). But what is someone supposed to do if they have larger thighs than I do? This is a problem, because you can’t just go up a size or three in your usual clothing since you’re gaining inches in the front, not all the way around. Speaking as someone whose waist is normally quite small compared to her thighs (as in, a size 20 from Addition Elle fits really well in the thighs but the waist is ridiculously huge), I know this pain really well.

Basically, Thyme Maternity is awesome and I had a fantastic experience there. The clerk was really attentive and explained all about why the clothes are designed the way they are and told me how to wash the jeans properly and everything. It probably helped that I was the only person in the store for a long time, but still. I really appreciated it. The only problem is that the sizes don’t go high enough, and while I’m okay (though I do wonder if I’ll be able to get slacks for wear at the office since I’ve signed back up with Kelly Services) this isn’t fair for people who are larger than I am.

Everyone deserves to feel that they look their best, and it’s really hard to feel that way if your clothes don’t fit properly.

I honestly wish that maternity clothes were more of a thing in general, because my body build naturally has a lot of fat stuck onto my belly, and the one time I owned a pair of maternity jeans it was the most comfortable pair of pants I ever owned in my life.  Because they were built exactly to how I was built – all the proportions were normal and then there was a cutout in the front with stretchy fabric for my belly.