An intro to maternity clothing...

Maternity clothes.

It's a benign enough phrase, but it's always recalled photos of my mum, pregnant with me in the late 80s, wearing giant shapeless mumu-like dresses that have always invoked a certain degree of fear. If you've been a reader here since the beginning, you may recall that Nicole Richie used to be my top style role model and when she was pregnant with Harlow, she told a magazine that she didn't want to have to buy any maternity clothing at all, and she ended up looking glamorous and bohemian in pretty much every paparazzi photo and magazine spread I happened to see.

This was inspiring.

Cue college-aged me wearing the most bohemian garments I could track down on my limited budget.

And then I never totally grew out of that phase, which is lucky, because most of what is in my closet is loose and airy and I haven't had to pack most of it away to get me through these last few months. However, since I'm human, I get bored with the pieces that have been hanging in my closet for years and I wanted to spruce things up and keep them interesting.

The catch? I'm on a super budget and don't want to make a negative impact on the planet. Enter swap.com. They are my favorite online thrift store and were kind enough to hook me up with my very first maternity pieces. For $50, I was able to get 2 maternity tops, 2 pairs of maternity jeans, and a cardigan that I just thought was super cute (plus shipping). These pieces have really helped me to ease into the current world of maternity clothing without breaking the bank or putting more demand on the environment to produce new goods.

... and Swap.com doesn't just have maternity clothing. I got these booties from them in our first ever collaboration for Earth Day 2017 and I will wear them until they literally fall apart. They stock items for the whole family and if you'd like to give them a try, I'd love to give you my coupon code: greenchiclife35 so you can save 35% off of your first order!