There's still very much a 'right' type of pregnant body to have

My Met Gala takeaway

May 11, 2025

Didn't Rihanna look amazing at the Met Gala? The singer announced her third pregnancy on the ~~red~~ blue carpet outside New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday night, wearing a bespoke look by Marc Jacobs. Chiming with the theme ‘tailored to you’ based on the spring exhibition 'Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’, her outfit comprised a cropped tux jacket and pin-striped coat/skirt hybrid that dipped below her cummerbund-clad baby bump.

Earlier that day she soft launched her pregnancy news wearing a midriff-revealing top and skirt set from Miu Miu’s A/W collection (plus knee boots! And fur stole!) as she arrived at The Carlyle hotel, where all the celebs get ready. She closed the evening in a leather front-split top and satin column skirt that laced up the sides to attend the SoHo after-party hosted by her partner A$AP Rocky.

Rihanna wasn't the only expectant celebrity at the Met. Model Karlie Kloss, actor Kiara Advani and producer Zinzi Coogler also attended wearing gowns that clearly displayed their pregnant silhouettes. Advani’s dress even had a golden rendering of an umbilical cord - if anyone's looking for maternity wedding guest dressing ideas…

This year’s bump-skimming outfits are a far cry from the voluminous gown-cum-tents that were once the expected and accepted red carpet maternity solution. Just look at Meryl Streep at the Oscars in 1983…

Or Angelina Jolie in Cannes in 2008…

Or Keira Knightly in 2015…

Clearly we've come a long way in our ideas of what dressing while pregnant looks like. And of course Rihanna has been instrumental in that as the impact of her fashion-forward maternity looks (vintage Chanel! Custom Loewe!) trickles down. When I was pregnant with my son five years ago it would have been conspicuous to wear an outfit that showed my bare bump. Now every pregnant influencer on Instagram - and several mums-to-be in Hackney - is in a cute shrunken top and low slung jeans or slip skirt. I can only imagine how much more fun maternity dressing is AR (After Rihanna) not to mention cooler in the summer heat.

But while the idea of what pregnancy clothes can look like has broadened in scope, the idea of what a pregnant body should look like hasn't.

While reading the coverage of Rihanna et al this week, I couldn't help but think of when a pregnant Kim Kardashian stood on the Met Gala stairs and was likened to a sofa.

Granted her Givenchy floral dress did have a touch of chintzy upholstery about it. But had it been encasing a size-zero body with a neat little bump, à la the Hollywood standard, no one would have batted an eyelid - and the internet’s nasty meme makers wouldn't have gone to town. The problem was, Kardashian looked too pregnant.

Retrospectively speaking to US Vogue she said: “I was very pregnant, very puffy, and bloated and I was like, 'Oh god, of course the first time I go [to the Met Gala] I'm gonna be huge'.”

Huge? Hardly. But yes a bit fuller, a bit rounder than we're used to seeing Kardashian, who famously dieted her way into Marilyn Monroe’s dress for 2022’s Met Gala. Perhaps there were water-retention cankles under that floor-sweeping skirt? At seven months pregnant Kardashian was in her third trimester, so it certainly wouldn't have been unusual.

Except it was - and still is! - unusual to see a full-on pregnant body on the public stage. One with bigger boobs and a less defined jaw line. One that doesn't require a strategic cupped hand to confirm ‘baby’ rather than ‘pasta for lunch’.

In 2019, ASOS was publicly called our for using non-pregnant models wearing fake bumps to model its maternity range. But it's very much this version of a pregnant body, i.e. an otherwise not pregnant-looking body with a beach ball strapped to the front, that is celebrated.

Not just in the celebosphere but in real life, too. Throughout both of my pregnancies I was congratulated for not looking pregnant from the back. At a party six weeks before giving birth to my daughter, much was made about the fact I was wearing strappy heeled sandals, my fellow guests clearly relieved I hadn't presented them with a pair of swollen third trimester feet. Weeks later, having tipped over from politely pregnant to waddling whale, a man on my bus was so alarmed by my fit-to-pop form, he announced I should be at home. The line between glowing goddess and unpalatable realness is very real and just goes to show that women are held to body standards, even when growing another one inside them.

So while I shall look forward to whatever haute maternity outfit Rihanna wears next and cheer every red carpet bump moment, I hope that as well as dismantling the rigid idea of how pregnant people should dress, we can dismantle the rigid idea of how their bodies should look, too.

MUMISH reader recommends

What to wear when it's hot outside, you’re postpartum and none of your summer clothes fit? This dress was recommended by MUMISH reader Jen who is currently 14 weeks postpartum and says: “I tried it on and it transformed how I felt. It manages to give me a lovely shape whilst hiding a lot - the almost impossible balance! Really want to spread the message”. Jen, consider it spread. What a banger.

Cos, £85

One more thing…

At the tail end of last year I was delighted to work on the campaign for iCandy’s new buggy, Pip. As a real-life iCandy fan (I've been using the Lime for about three years - the inbuilt buggy board is so handy if you have two kids and the storage basket is huge) I was excited to see the new model which is geared towards travel and thus super compact and lightweight. Behind the scenes of the campaign shoot I was able to have a good push around and very much liked what I saw. The one-hand fold is a major highlight. AND it’s cabin approved so ideal for upcoming summer holidays. I'm all about the sage colourway. Order now for end of May delivery. £429