Addressed is a column about the act of getting dressed. Anything and everything is fair game for discussion, from animal prints and runway styling hacks to how to build the perfect winter shoe wardrobe.
We need to be adaptable like an elastic waist!
I launched a baby out of myself 11 months ago, I know what it’s like to be postpartum and have nothing to wear. At the beginning, I had two delusional thoughts about how I would dress as a new mom: One: I could wear what I thought of generously as a tent-like contraption to shroud my now-alien body. Or two: I could ignore my postpartum silhouette and wriggle into every sassy thing I wore pre-pregnancy. Neither option worked.
Two weeks after giving birth, having tried to fit into a pair of my husband’s Levi’s that felt like a spleen-crunching girdle, soft pants with an elastic waist became my savior. Yes, I understand that the mere mention of an elastic waist unleashes existential dread for many women. It’s as if a pair of pants with even a little bit of give is a death knell to one’s former self and style. Unfortunately, we think of the elastic waist as an extension of our after-birth identities: stretched-out and stretched-thin! But that’s the wrong way to think about it. Like an elastic waist, we must be malleable!
After all, everything can be elevated, yes even an elastic waist. I adore Los Angeles-based designer Brooke Callahan, who churns out really luxe, cool-girl pants with drawstrings in searingly beautiful colors. If you prefer a skirt, CouCou Intimates has a washable slip in a lush pointelle cotton.
My friend Amrit Tietz, who co-founded Spread the Jelly, which is like a cool mom WhatsApp group in the flesh, sent me several links, including a deliciously soft pair of silk pants from CommiSi, a polished leather iteration from La Ligne, and a tried-and-true pair of Leset’s famous Ariel pocket trousers. These are elegant pieces; pieces made to live in and morph to you.
When we were talking pants, Tietz, who is the mother of an almost three-year-old, said something that stuck with me. “I think people have this hesitancy in investing in a postpartum wardrobe. They see the transition as transient, but it’s actually not. It’s so much longer than we expect it to be.”
