This time last year, my pants still fit. I was about ten weeks pregnant, and while my body didn’t feel the same as it did before, it hadn’t changed shape yet. At that point, I hoped to move through my pregnancy mostly wearing clothes I already owned. I hate the idea of buying something I know I will wear for only a short period of time. I love an oversize sweater, so I thought it would be easy. I could be like one of the cool girls on TikTok who just wear a pair of men’s jeans one size up.
I was wrong. At about 18 weeks pregnant, I went to put on my baggiest jeans, and while they could technically close, I knew I couldn’t wear them. My husband’s jeans were a joke — I’m not even sure they fit me before pregnancy. I made it to 20 weeks, wearing tights with oversize dresses and a pair of drawstring pants from my prepregnancy life. But it was winter, and I was freezing.
Fortunately, the interior designer Madelynn Hudson was a few weeks ahead of me in her pregnancy, and she posted about a pair of pants she was wearing nonstop. I clicked the affiliate link and discovered the Old Navy Maternity Side-Panel Pixie Flares in black. At $35, they were a budget-friendly gamble, so I bought them.
They arrived just in time.
I’m not being hyperbolic: They were the most comfortable pants I had ever worn. The stretchy panel went over my stomach, which I thought would be constricting but actually felt supportive. It held me up and in and covered the consistently increasing gap between the bottoms of my shirts and the end of my torso. The flared bottoms helped balance out the bump. In a moment when I felt weird and lumpy — like I didn’t look like myself, but I also didn’t look like the glowing, obviously pregnant person I would be — they made me feel good, too.
Over the next few months, these were basically the only pants I wore out of the house. I wore them with oversize sweaters, as planned. I wore them with longer tunic tops that I already owned. I wore them with T-shirts long and short. I wore them until I was nine months pregnant and it got so hot outside that I refused to leave the house until I went into labor. (If you’re due over the summer, be warned.)
A quick note on sizing: I am five-foot-five, and the pants have a 32-inch inseam. I wore a size eight and would say they fit true to size. I didn’t wear my highest heels while pregnant, of course, but did wear boots with a low (one- or two-inch-) heel for a perfect fit.
Postpartum, I have been looking for a pair of pants that make me feel as good. I have tried the non-maternity kick flares from Old Navy as well as stretch options from Banana Republic, Quince, J.Crew, and even the budget-busting High Sport. And, honestly, none are as good as the Side-Panel Pixie Flares.
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