In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Jennifer Aniston starred as Rachel Green in the iconic sitcom Friends. At the end of season seven, it was revealed that Rachel is pregnant, and her timeless style shifted from ‘90s chic to the perfect maternity wardrobe. While her influence is still present today, maternity fashion hasn’t always been this expressive; it’s evolved from the 15th-century’s modest dressing gowns designed to hide the baby bump to today’s celebrated and embracing garments.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, maternity wear relied on oversized dresses, smocks, heavy layering, and often included patterns like polka dots or flowers because they were thought to hide or “soften” the body’s changing shape. For example, Princess Diana’s long, formal, flowy, dresses in the early 1980s aimed at concealing her pregnancy bump.
However, the 1990s generated a modern, comfortable approach to pregnancy that wasn’t available before, especially because of the media interest in pregnant celebrities. In 1991, Demi Moore posed nude, pregnant for the Vanity Fair cover. Her decision fundamentally shifted how the media, fashion world, and general public would view women in the pregnant form. Moore described it as “more permission to feel sexy and attractive when you’re pregnant”. Her 1991 cover is now a common trend seen in many pregnancy shoots between celebrities, influencers, and even netizens. Because of this developed casual feeling, as more baby bumps were being pictured with the rise of paparazzi, pregnant bodies began to be embraced. Moore’s impact soon paved the way for Rachel Green’s maternity wardrobe in the early 2000s.
Friends’ costume designer Debra McGuire once said that one of the most iconic dresses she was asked about were the bridesmaid dresses that Phoebe and Rachel wore during Monica’s wedding, where Rachel discovers that she is pregnant. The dress is slim-fitting and accentuates her figure. Despite her pregnancy, her iconic silhouettes aren’t abandoned. Throughout season 8, Rachel does not wear maternity clothing specifically made for pregnant women. Instead, she grabs her everyday clothing and shows off her baby bump in tight tank tops, skirts, and jeans. Green’s iconic red tank top, long black skirt, and her bare baby bump became the blueprint for pregnancy fashion trends. She regularly wore low-rise trousers paired with unbuttoned cardigans, midi skirts, cropped baby tees, and spaghetti-strap tank tops. It’s important to mention that Jennifer Aniston was not actually pregnant; the show used a prosthetic bump, which helped with the tailoring and draping of her outfits. While sitcoms and movies at the time usually put pregnant characters in frumpy oversized dresses or hid real pregnancies, Aniston’s character showed that a fashion-forward woman didn’t have to surrender her identity during pregnancy, and enhanced it instead.
Today, in the Formula 1 paddock, Alexandra Leclerc, wife of Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, takes a page out of the early 2000s book and re-creates Rachel Green’s effortless confidence in maternity fashion. Leclerc’s fashion is typically described as effortless, quiet luxury, and elegant. Recently, she wore a newspaper-print mini-dress from Dior’s Fall 2000 collection with leather kitten heels and black Miu Miu sunglasses. She hasn’t announced her pregnancy directly, but has showcased it on her Instagram: she posed in a green two-piece outfit, showcasing her bump.
Leclerc has now joined a bigger movement with modern women redefining what maternity style is. Rihanna’s game-changing maternity streetwear transformed the baby bump into an iconic artistic part of her outfits. In fact, she deliberately took Moore’s effect into her own hands. On her own 2022 May Vogue cover, she posed in a full red, lacy bodysuit, showcasing her beautiful bump. This is similarly echoed by Anne Hathaway’s red carpet look for The Odyssey and her iconic baby blue crop top paired with low-rise jeans at The End of Oak Street premiere. The seamless confidence that these outfits give demonstrate that modern maternity style is centered on celebrating and embracing the baby bump rather than hiding it.
Ultimately, the significant shift from modest, oversized dresses to casual, high-fashion recognition in maternity dressing showcases a larger conversation around sustainability and consumerism that maternity clothing lines promote. Maternity dressing does not require buying an entirely temporary wardrobe. Instead, it can promote realism and creates the normalcy that women can wear whatever they want without feeling as if they should hide their pregnancy bump or pregnant bodies. This reframes the narrative that maternity bump is something to “cover up” into an expression of body confidence and a fashionable aspect of everyday life.
