Lisbeth Maternity Blazer

This is the odd one out in this list — everything else here is soft, stretchy daywear, and the Lisbeth is a proper tailored blazer with a collar, button fastening and cropped sleeves. It's aimed at maternity workwear rather than lounging, filling a gap none of the dresses, leggings or jeans in this category cover: something to wear over a top for meetings, presentations or any setting where a bump doesn't mean giving up structure.

The stretch comes from 2% elastane worked into a ponte-style Ecovero viscose fabric, with shaped ties at the sides to adjust room as the bump grows rather than a stretch panel doing all the work. That's a different approach to the Purpless and JoJo Maman Bébé pieces here, which lean on jersey and stretch panels throughout — this blazer holds its structure and shape, which is exactly what you want in a jacket but means less give than a dress or leggings if your bump grows quickly.

At £179 it's by far the most expensive item in this category — roughly four to six times the price of the leggings or nursing top — and that's a hard sell if you only need it for a few months of pregnancy. It earns that price back only if you actually wear it regularly for work, and less so if your job doesn't call for tailored layers.

It's also less obviously "maternity" than the rest of the range, which cuts both ways: it reads as a normal blazer that happens to accommodate a bump, useful if you don't want maternity-specific styling, but it won't stretch indefinitely and offers nothing for the sitting-around, high-comfort days the leggings and skater dress are built for.