FORGET SAFARI JACKETS and peasant skirts, maternity chic is the new black. All the glitterati seem to be with child - Kate Moss, Sarah Jessica Parker, Claudia Schiffer and Elle Macpherson to name but a few - and if you're not sporting a va-voom cleavage and rounded tummy this season, you're just not quite in with the It girls.
While many mums-to-be would probably admit to occasional midriff envy - Pilates-honed stomachs in cropped tops seem to be everywhere when you can't have one yourself - there is something refreshing about having a convex abdomen and being able to let it all hang out. No more sucking in of tummy, endless sit-ups and donning hold-it-all-in granny pants a la Bridget Jones in the quest to replace flab with flat.
Another source of secret satisfaction is glimpsing former twiglets such as Moss on the pages of Hello finally filling out like the rest of us, but here again they have one up on most mere mortals. With best friends such as Stella McCartney, John Galliano and Donatella Versace, they have been able to avoid smock horror and inject some style into sprogging. Moss was spotted stepping out in a barely there semi-bondage creation by Galliano; Victoria 'Posh' Beckham managed to cantilever herself into spray-on leather jeans for a recent party and looked fabulous.
The fact that wearing low-cut tops, revealing dresses and heels when up the duff is no longer frowned upon makes it easier for those of us who shrink from baggy T-shirts, leggings and a pair of Birkenstocks. And harder.
It's okay to walk around in tracksuit bottoms because Liz Hurley did - just make sure they're Juicy Couture or something equally divine from Christy Turlington's yoga range Nuala. Ditto low-rise combats, which look cool and fit perfectly under the bump, as long as they're Balenciaga. And the resurrection of the kaftan couldn't have come at a better time for those currently with child, but to be at one with Kate and S J it really does need to be from Gucci.
News that designer-of-the-minute Marc Jacobs had brought out a pair of maternity jeans was music to my ears. Most pregnancy manuals advise their readers not to spend a fortune on an extensive maternity wardrobe - and they're right unless you're fabulously wealthy - but if this was what I blew my entire budget on and therefore all I would have to wear every day for several months so be it.