Fashion Week - mother of 2 style

It never quite makes sense to me that I can be awake at 6am yet still struggling to get out the door by 9am. I should be washed, groomed, dressed, caffeinated and fed, with time to spare to read the newspaper. You'd think.

So if getting out the house on any given morning can be a challenge, getting ready to attend the New York fashion trade shows is quite another story. They are attended by some of the most stylish, elegant and well put together women you'll ever meet. A daunting crowd to spend a Sunday with.

Standards have to be set.

I would say that as a rule of thumb, if you can't remember when the last time was you washed your hair - it's time to wash it. Washing, however, is the easy part. What to wear is the big question. When in doubt, I always reach for black. My black skinny pants however are lying beside the bed, where I left them 2 days ago, and our grey & white cat is sleeping on them. A lint brush would be nice but packing tape will have to do. My black cardigan is still smeared in my daughter's dinner. My glasses, which take much frantic searching to locate, have fared just about as well as everything else and are covered in little sticky finger prints.

Yet somehow at 9:10 I am out the door. I turn back to see my blueberry pancake covered children have their faces pressed against the sitting room window, still in their pajamas, waving goodbye frantically and blowing kisses. It makes up for the fact that the brown boots, patchy black pants, shirt and navy blue coat aren't really the outfit I was hoping for.

I always get excited by New York Fashion Week. An occupational hazard I suppose. We always look at the non-maternity styles first for Bump. At the very beginning when we were envisioning Bump we always planned on fusing non-mater nity fashion with maternity styles. During our first pregnancies (pre-Bump) we both wore a lot of contemporary fas hions and believe that our customers would appreciate buying styles from us that cad a wardrobe life that would extend after pregnancy. For us it has become a fundamental component for store.

We saw some absolutely beautiful styles that we're excited to bring in for fall and winter. Exquisite fabrics that drape beautifully - pregnant or not. Soft grey, camel, blue and purple tones. Less bold prints than we've seen this year with the exception of Daughter of the Revolution, a fabulous line from California that we adore (pictured).

Next we will be looking at maternity styles. We will continue to hand pick styles that stay true to next seasons trends while offering the best maternity fit. Our goal, as it has always been is for our customers to be able to give up wine, coffee, sushi - not fashion.

www.bumpbrooklyn.com