From the comments under the summer wedding post: “Is there a dress shape that doesn’t cling to my stomach and still lets me feed?” There are two, and they have been the quiet answer to that question for as long as women have dressed after babies. The empire waist, which sits just under the bust and falls away from everything below it, and the A-line, which skims from the shoulder or the waist outwards and never touches the middle at all.
I wore both through three postpartum summers and most of the christenings in between. This post is why they work, how to find the versions that open at the front, what to wear them with so they look chosen rather than concealing, and the two versions that look right on the hanger and wrong on a feeding day.
Why the empire waist works
The seam sits high, under the bust, which is the narrowest point most of us have in the first year. Everything below it falls in a soft line that does not touch the belly, so the dress reads as a shape rather than a silhouette. The chest is the only fitted part, which is also where the opening is, so the two jobs of the dress live in the same six inches.
Why the A-line works
An A-line flares from wherever it starts, shoulder or waist, and the flare is what keeps it off the middle. On a postpartum body it does what a tent does without looking like one, because the line is clean and the fabric has somewhere to go. A-line skirts with an elastic waist do the same from the waist down, with any top that opens above.
Finding the ones that open
An empire wrap, where the tie sits under the bust and the wrap crosses over the chest. An empire with buttons from neckline to seam. A deep V empire in jersey, pulled aside over a clip-down tank. For the A-line: a shirt dress, a button-front, or a scoop-neck knit with stretch. Any of these opens in a second and closes while the baby is still on you.
From the capsules
The Year Round Capsule
Two hundred nursing-friendly outfits from fifty-six pieces, fifty for every season, laid out and then worn. $29 once, yours to keep.
Free · not a label
Where you are carrying it now, not apple or pear.
The Body Shape Quiz asks where the weight sits this month and tells you which shapes do the work. Come back when that changes; it will.
Free. Two minutes, no photo needed.
The two versions to avoid
The empire dress with a back zip and a fixed bodice, which is the shape most often sold as maternity and which cannot be fed in without undressing. And the stiff A-line in a structured fabric, which stands away from the body like a bell and makes you look smaller inside it in the wrong way. Soft fabrics for both: jersey, crepe, viscose with weight, soft cotton.
Six ways to wear them
The empire wrap dress with flat sandals and a scarf, for the summer christening. The A-line shirt dress with sneakers and a denim jacket, for the Saturday. The empire knit dress with boots and a long cardigan, for winter. The A-line midi skirt with a wrap top, for the lunch. The empire top over soft trousers, for the day you want the shape without the dress. The A-line shirt dress open over a tank and leggings, for home.
Free · eight questions
What to buy first, in the order to buy it.
The Order asks about your feeding, your season and your days, then gives you twelve pieces in the order they earn their place, with a picture and a shop link for each. Nothing you do not need.
Free. The list can be emailed to you so it is there in the shop.
What to wear underneath
A clip tank under anything with a V or a scoop, so the opening is the tank’s job and the dress stays put. A nursing bra that fits at the end of the day. Nothing tight across the middle, because the whole point of these two shapes is that nothing needs to be.
The Nursing Mama Fashion Commandments
Twelve rules I wish someone had told me postpartum. Print them. Screenshot them. Live by them.
- Nursing bra always. Regular bras become instruments of pain the day letdown surprises you.
- Nursing pads on your body + a spare pair in your bag. Every single time you leave the house. No exceptions.
- Extra top in your bag — for YOU, not the baby. Because leaks, spit-up, and coffee-spills don’t care about your outfit plan.
- If it takes more than 5 minutes to figure out how to nurse or pump in it, it’s not the right outfit today. Feeding access is comfort. Comfort is not optional.
- Belt under the bust (empire) or below the belly with drape — never at the belly button. Your postpartum body deserves flattery, not compression.
- Comfortable waistband is non-negotiable. Elastic, wrap, or pull-on. Zippers are a Sunday-only luxury for now.
- Dark tones, prints, or textures — not thin light solids. Because letdown marks are real and you deserve clothes that don’t advertise them.
- Machine-washable everything. Dry-clean is not real-mama fashion. If it can’t survive a spit-up rinse, it’s not in rotation.
- Cross-body bag only. Hands stay free for the carrier, the toddler, the coffee, the door, the meltdown.
- Comfortable shoes always. You’re carrying a car seat and a diaper bag. This is not the season for a heel you can’t run in.
- Get dressed BEFORE the kids see you if you can. It changes the whole day — for them and for you.
- One accessory — earrings, a lip color, a scarf — counts as “put together.” That’s the whole game. You get to feel like yourself again.
Making them look chosen
A belt worn as a tie under the bust, never at the waist. One colour near the face that is kind to it. A structured third piece, a denim jacket or a cardigan, which stops the softness reading as concealment. Earrings. The difference between hiding and dressing is usually one accessory and a straight back.
I have a photograph from my third summer in a dusty-blue empire wrap, baby on my hip, standing straight, and I remember being surprised by how much I liked it. The dress was not hiding anything. It was skimming, which is a different and kinder thing, and it opened in one movement for the feed ten minutes later.
The Year Round Capsule has both shapes in dozens of its two hundred outfits, laid out and then worn, with three pictures of you in them on the house. Breastfeeding-friendly wedding guest dresses has them by season. And First Look will tell you, free, which colour to buy the wrap in.
Skim, do not hold. Open at the front. The focus is on you, mama.
You deserve to be looked after too
A stylist who already knows you, every morning.
The Atelier is Anah every morning, already knowing your season, your shape and your closet. The community, the magazine, the planner, and Dress me for the mornings when choosing is the hard part.
