The changing silhouette of pregnancy

Anne Hathaway on a red carpet... Everyone remain calm!

Anne Hathaway stepped onto the red carpet in low-rise jeans, red heels and a powder-blue top that swept across her bare pregnant belly. She looked radiant, confident and, perhaps most importantly, completely comfortable in the body she’s in.

Naturally, the internet had feelings...

There were opinions about the outfit. Opinions about her body. And eventually, bizarre speculation about whether her bump was even real, prompting Anne to offer the rather brilliant clarification: “Fake hair, real bump.”

Which would all be quite funny if it didn’t point to something we’ve been doing to pregnant women for a very long time.

The moment a woman becomes visibly pregnant, her body somehow becomes public property. Too big. Too small. Carrying high. Carrying low. She should cover up. She should embrace it. She’s glowing. She looks tired. And apparently, now, we’re fact-checking bumps.

All while she is doing the rather extraordinary work of growing an actual human being.

So instead of adding another opinion to the pile, we’d quite like to celebrate Anne.

Not because she has somehow discovered the “right” way to dress while pregnant. Quite the opposite.

There’s something joyful about watching a woman remain completely herself while her body changes so dramatically. Anne hasn’t adopted a new maternity persona. She’s still playful with fashion. Still glamorous. Still taking risks. Sometimes the bump is covered, sometimes it’s very much invited to the party.

Pregnancy hasn't made her style smaller. It's simply become part of it.

And perhaps that feels particularly refreshing because fashion hasn't always afforded pregnant women that freedom.

There was a time when the ultimate maternity styling trick was making the pregnancy itself almost disappear. The 1950s gave us beautifully concealed silhouettes; Princess Diana brought personality and visibility to maternity dressing in the 1980s; Demi Moore famously stripped everything back in the 1990s; and then Rihanna arrived in 2022 and made the bare bump practically an accessory.

Different decades, different rules. Same miracle happening underneath them all.

Today, thankfully, those rules feel a little less relevant.

You can show the bump. Hide the bump. Wear the crop top. Wear something enormous. Buy the maternity jeans. Avoid them entirely. Dress up. Dress down. Feel incredible. Feel like absolutely nothing fits you anymore.

Pregnancy is such a fleeting, transformative chapter. Your body stretches, softens, grows and makes room. It can feel familiar one day and completely foreign the next.

There is something wonderful about seeing women embrace that transformation in whatever way feels like them, and a level of intimacy to the rituals we create around a growing bump. The clothes we choose. The photographs we take. The hand that instinctively rests on our belly. Even the few minutes spent massaging in our Belly & Body Oil.

Small acts, perhaps, but all ways of caring for a body in transformation and feeling a little more confident in the skin you’re in, so you can dress it, show it or celebrate it however feels most like you.

And that's what we see when we look at Anne Hathaway.

Not a controversial outfit. Not a bump requiring public analysis. Just a woman showing up, taking up space and enjoying fashion in the body she has right now.

And really, what could be more beautiful than that?