From the comments, and I have the same drawer: “I bought a bunch of nursing clothes and I hate all of them. They look like maternity wear.” Every hack on this page exists because of that drawer. They are the fixes I worked out across three babies for the wardrobe problems nobody warned me about: the jumper that has to come off, the dress with no way in, the bench with no cover, the bra that digs. None of them costs more than a takeaway and most of them cost nothing.
Six hacks, each with what it is, how to do it, and why it works. If you only read one, read the first; it is the one that makes all the others possible.
1. The two-layer trick: a clip tank under everything
The hack: a clip-down nursing tank under whatever top you already own. How to do it: clip the tank down with one hand, lift the top from the hem or pull it aside, feed, and the top stays on your shoulders the whole time. Why it works: the tank covers everything above the baby and the top covers everything below, so there is nothing to see and nothing to take off. Every jumper, tee and sweatshirt in your closet becomes a nursing top for the price of two tanks.
2. The three-button shirt
The hack: a button-down shirt in the size your chest is now. How to do it: three buttons from the top is a feed; worn open over the tank it is a layer and a cover; tied at the waist it is a top. Why it works: it opens exactly where you need it and nowhere else, and it is the one piece that does not look like what it is. Ten ways to wear a white shirt while breastfeeding is the shirt doing a fortnight.
3. The dress that opens at the front
The hack: choose every dress by how it opens, not how it looks on the hanger. How to do it: a wrap with a tie, a shirt dress with buttons, or a V-neck deep enough to pull aside over the tank. Why it works: one piece is one decision at six in the morning, the tie fits at six weeks and at six months, and a midi length means you can sit and feed without thinking about your knees. The pretty one with the back zip goes in the box with the date on it.
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 · paste a screenshot
Can you feed in it? Ask before you buy.
Paste a screenshot of any top, dress or jumpsuit from any shop and Will it feed? tells you if you can nurse or pump in it, how, and what to wear instead if not. One free look a day, three more with your email.
Honest and kind. It has looked at thousands of garments.
4. The DIY nursing top
The hack: make a nursing top out of a top you already own. How to do it: take a loose crew-neck tee or a soft jersey top a size up, cut a horizontal slit across each side of the chest just below the bust line, and wear it over the clip tank; the tank covers the slits when closed and the top lifts through them when open. Or simpler, and my preference: take a tight crew you love, size up, and let the hem-lift do the work with no scissors at all. Why it works: the ordinary top was always two layers away from a nursing top.
Free · five emails, five days
Five days, five small changes, and a wardrobe that works with your body as it is now.
One email a day for five days, each with one thing to do that takes less time than a feed. By Friday the closet makes sense again.
Free. Unsubscribe any time, no hard feelings.
5. The scarf that does three jobs
The hack: one large soft scarf in the one colour that lifts your face. How to do it: over the shoulder as the cover on a bench, across the lap as the blanket in a cold car, round the neck as the only colour near a tired face. Why it works: it replaces the nursing cover, the muslin and the necklace in one piece, and it is the cheapest thing in the bag. Ten outfits built around a scarf shows it worn.
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.
6. The bra that does not dig
The hack: fit the bra at the end of the day. How to do it: wireless and soft for the first weeks, then one with more structure for the days out, clips that open with one hand, cups with room for a pad; try it on when you are fullest and buy the second only after a week in the first. Why it works: a bra that fits is the difference between a top that hangs right and a top you keep tugging at, and the clips are what make the tank hack fast.
Six hacks and not one of them is a nursing top. The drawer of maternity-looking clothes was not a taste problem; it was that nobody had told me the ordinary pieces would work, with a tank underneath and a shirt on top. Three babies on, the drawer is still closed and the tank is still the first thing I would hand a new mama.
Every piece in these hacks is one of the ordinary shapes in the Year Round Capsule, two hundred outfits laid out and then worn, with three pictures of you in them on the house. If you want to know whether a top in your drawer will take the two-layer trick, Will it feed tells you from a photo, free. And if you would rather someone who knows your closet applied the hacks for you each morning, that is Anah inside the Atelier.
Two layers, three buttons, one scarf. 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.
