Forget the maternity aisle. The most stylish women carrying a bump this season are simply wearing their own wardrobe, one size up, and letting the silhouette do the talking.

There was a time when pregnancy meant a sudden costume change. Out went the tailoring, the slip dresses and the jeans you loved; in came elasticated panels, tent-like tunics and a colour palette chosen to apologise. That era is over.

Today's mother-to-be is not dressing around her bump. She is dressing with it. The new approach is disarmingly simple: keep your style, buy your usual brands a size or two larger, and choose cuts that already have room built in. The result looks like fashion, because it is fashion, and it carries on working long after the baby arrives.

Case study: Alexandra Leclerc, the paddock's new style authority

If one woman has defined bump dressing in 2026, it is Alexandra Leclerc. The Parisian art history graduate married Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc in February, and the couple are expecting their first child. Across the Formula 1 season she has dressed her pregnancy the way she always dressed: feminine silhouettes, soft colours, fluid fabrics, and almost nothing labelled "maternity".

The reveal, Hungary (July). She arrived at the Hungaroring in a flowing silk Emilio Pucci maxi in baby blue and white, with strappy white sandals, nineties-style sunglasses and an Hermès Kelly Picnic in wicker. A resort dress with natural ease turned out to be the perfect first bump look.

The holiday edit, Sardinia (August). A lavender maxi with a plunging neckline draped over her growing bump. A butter-yellow ruffled maxi and a playful orange mini followed, alongside a green Pain de Sucre two-piece worn with baby-pink heels.

The archive moment, Madrid (September). Her most talked-about look was a vintage piece: John Galliano's newspaper-print mini from Dior's Fall/Winter 2000 collection, the dress Carrie Bradshaw made famous in Sex and the City. Worn with black mules and a powder-blue Mini Lady Dior, it proved that a body-skimming dress, sized generously, can become maternity wear without alteration.

The team-colours look, Monza (September). For the Italian Grand Prix she chose Ferrari's own halter-neck dress with an asymmetric hem in Rosso Magma. It is a regular ready-to-wear piece, not a maternity design, and it worked because the halter neck and flared hem leave room at the waist.

The lesson. Leclerc never hides the bump and never shrinks her style to fit it. She picks cuts with built-in movement (bias silk, halters, A-line hems) and keeps her accessories exactly as polished as before.

The precedent: the women who never went near the maternity aisle

Leclerc is the latest in a line of women who treated pregnancy as a styling challenge, not a reason to stop dressing.

Rihanna rewrote the rules in 2022. Told Vogue she had no intention of shopping the maternity aisle, she wore crop tops, low-slung jeans and sheer designer pieces with her bump on show. She went on to reveal her second pregnancy on the Super Bowl halftime stage in 2023, in a custom red Loewe jumpsuit.

Hailey Bieber carried her off-duty style straight through her 2024 pregnancy. She announced it in a pink butterfly top and low-waisted jeans, then wore a black lace catsuit around New York and a brown Bottega Veneta dress to the Governors Awards. Same wardrobe, more room.

Blake Lively, famous for styling herself, kept her red-carpet looks colourful and sophisticated through each pregnancy, wearing gowns rather than maternity dresses.

Sienna Miller was doing it before it had a name. Low-rise jeans with a long top worn as a tunic, back in 2012. She later announced a pregnancy at Vogue World in a sculptural Schiaparelli two-piece.

Anne Hathaway, expecting her third child this year, moved from Prada empire-line gowns on the press tour to bump-baring looks: a silk halter, black ruffles by Lein, even maternity jeans on the red carpet.

The market has followed. CNN, citing Lyst data, reports that searches for maternity clothing have fallen by as much as 45%. Women are buying the brands they already love, in a bigger size.

The new-age formula: seven rules for dressing the bump

Size up, don't switch over. Buy your usual brands one or two sizes larger in the pieces that need it (knits, shirts, coats) and keep wearing everything that still fits.
Choose cuts with built-in room. Bias-cut slips, wrap dresses, halter necks, A-line and empire-line hems, trapeze shirts and drop-shoulder knits all accommodate a bump without looking like a compromise.
Stretch is your quiet ally. Rib knits and jersey skim the bump and come back into shape afterwards. A fitted knit dress, sized up, often outperforms any maternity equivalent.
Wear jeans lower, not bigger. Low-rise and relaxed denim sits beneath the bump, the trick Sienna Miller and Hailey Bieber both used. A belly band extends a favourite pair for weeks.
Invest in the long coat. An oversized coat bought a size up will button over the bump in winter and remain a wardrobe staple for years.
Keep the accessories exactly as they were. The bag, the sunglasses, the earrings and the shoes carry your signature when your silhouette is changing. Leclerc's Hermès and Dior accessories never changed.
Buy the vintage you've always wanted. Archive and pre-loved pieces in a generous size, like Leclerc's Galliano dress, give a pregnancy wardrobe personality, and resale makes them easy to pass on.