From the comments, and it could have been me in my first year: “Nursing clothes are so frumpy and expensive, and nothing fits my new body.” I agreed with that for most of my first year, and then I bought one black clip-down nursing tank for under the price of a takeaway and it changed every other piece I owned. Under a shirt, the shirt became a nursing top. Under a knit, the knit lifted and the tank stayed. Worn alone with a skirt, it was simply a black tank, which is to say nobody could tell.

Here are ten outfits built on that one black tank, every one pictured below. The tank is in all ten. What changes around it is what makes it a Tuesday, a dinner, or the first cold morning of autumn.

1. Alone with a cream slip skirt and sneakers

The black tank as the top, a cream satin slip skirt, white sneakers and a black and white printed scarf. Clip down, feed, clip up; nothing else moves. The skirt pulls on over whatever your middle is doing. The warm-evening outfit that looks like a decision and takes one minute.

2. With white linen shorts and a striped scarf

The tank, white linen shorts with a soft waist, tan crossover sandals and an ivory striped scarf. The scarf is the cover on the bench and the colour near your face. White shorts under a baby are brave; the dark tank above them is where the marks go.

3. Under a camel ribbed knit tank with beige trousers

A camel ribbed knit tank layered over the black one, beige tailored trousers and black heeled ankle boots. The knit lifts, the black tank clips. Two tanks is the autumn trick for the day you want to look dressed without a layer that comes off.

4. With a denim jacket, a black pleated midi and chelsea boots

The tank, a black pleated midi skirt, a light denim jacket and black chelsea boots. The jacket comes off with one hand or stays on open; the tank does the rest. Black below the waist, denim above: the school-gate outfit for October.

5. Under a grey turtleneck with grey trousers

A cropped grey turtleneck knit over the tank, grey tailored trousers and white sneakers. A turtleneck is the piece every nursing mama thinks she has lost; a cropped one over a clip tank lifts from the hem and gives it back. Ten stylish ways to wear a nursing-friendly turtleneck if winter is coming.

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From the capsules

The Everyday Motion Capsule

One hundred athleisure outfits for the walk, the school run and the park, every one opening for a feed. $27 once, yours to keep.

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6. Under a white shirt worn open with grey trousers

A white button-down worn open over the tank, grey trousers and ivory sneakers. The shirt is the cover and the layer; the tank is the feed. The most-worn outfit in my own closet, three babies running.

7. With black wide trousers, a denim jacket and heeled boots

The tank, black wide-leg trousers, the denim jacket and black heeled ankle boots. All black with denim is the easiest dressed-up outfit for a mama who leaks, because nothing below the collarbone shows anything. Add the gold earrings if it is dinner.

8. Under a striped shirt with black denim shorts

A grey-striped button-down open over the tank, black denim shorts and black flat sandals. The warm-weekend version of outfit six. The stripe does the work of a colour; the shorts hide the handprints.

9. Under a striped polo knit with black shorts

A black and white striped long-sleeved polo knit over the tank, black shorts and ivory sneakers. The polo placket unbuttons and the knit lifts over the tank, so a fitted knit becomes a nursing top. For the first cool day after summer.

10. Under a sage shirt with sage trousers and loafers

A sage crinkle shirt worn open over the tank, matching sage trousers, brown loafers, a camel scarf, gold earrings, a black watch and a black tote. The matching set reads as effort and feels like pyjamas. The shirt opens; the trousers ask nothing of a scar; the scarf is the cover.

One black tank for under thirty dollars did more for how I felt in the first year than anything else I bought, because it let me wear my own clothes again. Nothing frumpy, nothing with a hidden panel, just the shirts and knits I already had with a way in underneath. Buy two: one black, one ivory, and wash them on rotation.

Every outfit here is in the ordinary shapes of the Everyday Motion Capsule, a hundred outfits for the walk, the school run and the park, every one built over a tank like this and opening for a feed. If you want someone who knows your closet to pick the layer over the tank each morning, that is Anah inside the Atelier. And Will it feed tells you from a photo, free, whether a top in your drawer will work over it.

One tank, ten outfits, nobody can tell. The focus is on you, mama.