Most British women are pregnant this summer. Or, at least, most look it, because we are wearing billowing, hugely patterned, multi-coloured smocks. Whether worn over jeans, leggings or footless tights, the smock - with its sweetheart yoke neckline, drop front and optional frilly hem - is cheap, comfortable, louche and faintly hippyish without being sloppy. It says "ingenue" without the embarrassing faux innocence of less flattering summer fads for grown women, such as children's hair slides.
For those who are pregnant, however, smocks are to be studiously avoided. Giant naive-style prints look hideous on pregnant women, because geometric patterns the size of someone's head will elephantise what would otherwise be a pleasing rounded stomach, no matter how tempting or cheap it is to storm Primark.
In the louche, ingenue-ridden 70s, when even the pregnant were rake-thin, printed smocks were the only option in maternity wear. Clingy black jersey has been invented for these bulkier times. It's best to stick to it.
