Maternity style: Tropical edition

By the time I flew home for the holidays, I was tired of piling on ten million layers before going out. So I was looking forward to wearing my “real” clothes (which is how I think of my summer clothes) and feeling like myself again for three weeks.

What I loved about dressing for pregnancy in the tropics:

• Getting to wear sandals. Pretty toes, yay.
• Packing only two pairs of shoes, because staying with my mom and sister means a bottomless shoe and accessory closet—and a trip to Landmark means shopping for cheap flats!
• Putting away my thick, woolly maternity tights and seeing my legs again

What I didn’t love:

• THE HEAT. OMG. Being pregnant, your body temperature is already higher because of increased blood circulation and being plunged into tropical heat does not help. At all. On my last few nights, I couldn’t sleep unless I had both the aircon (set to 21 degrees) and the electric fan on. December showed no mercy to this pregnant mama.
• Bloating and expanding because of said heat. I didn’t go up a shoe size, thank goodness, but I gained FIVE POUNDS of water—which I lost the day I returned to wintry Amsterdam.
• Humidity-triggered frizzies. Good thing there’s The Twist!
• Sweating your way to that dewy (read: oily), no-makeup look. I found myself quite startled to see how much makeup women pile on in Manila (some women really need to lay off the foundation!) until I remembered that it melts off in minutes.
• Being forcibly reminded of how everyone dresses in the same preppy/simple girl uniform. I lost count of the number of neat ponytails, Longchamp Le Pliage bags and round pearl earrings I saw in my two weeks back home!

All that aside, what I loved most about dressing for the heat was getting to dig out some of my favorite outfits from storage—like the printed vintage shirtdress I hadn’t seen since August…

and being able to wear my normal, non-maternity clothes… even in my third trimester.

Manila mamas looking for cool, “non-maternity” maternity wear should hit up Bleach Catastrophe at Greenbelt 5 for their easy silhouettes, awesome prints and comfy t-shirt material. My favorite Bleach buys have served me well throughout my pregnancy. I especially love the pink top on the right, which is from Heather Miss Grey, a special collaboration between Bleach and superblogger Chuvaness.

Uniqlo is another amazing brand that is kind to my pregnant figure—not easy, because I’m no skinny mama. I loved wearing this bump-friendly asymmetrical wonder by Costello & Tagliapetra for Uniqlo.

These pictures (salvaged from Marlon’s camera) feel like ages ago! Now I’m back in my puffy maternity coat, boots and endless layers… but hopefully not for long.