It Designer Marta Ferri on the Italian Secrets to a Highly Chic Pregnancy

If you’ve ever wondered how to master the art of pregnancy dressing, consider designer Marta Ferri. A recent Instagram shows  the Milanese beauty pausing for a highly glamorous selfie in a blush-color silk evening dress, with a narrow high-contrast belt cinched over her growing baby bump (#AllPinkEverything).

Admittedly, Ferri has an advantage. At her charming Via Sant’Orsola studio in the city’s historic district, she crafts thoughtful ready-to-wear and made-to-measure pieces—which, she’s the first to admit with a laugh, come in handy these days for somewhat selfish purposes. With a new swimwear collection set to debut this spring in collaboration with Yoox—“It’s matching [swimsuits] for mother and baby, and caftans for the beach!”—she has already got a head start on making her future mini-me style look equally effortless.

But Ferri’s skills don’t stop at the neck. Asked how she’s retained her rested and healthy glow in the midst of a whirlwind Milan Fashion Week and the height of a busy bridal season, she discloses what is perhaps the number one unspoken beauty secret of what to expect when you’re expecting, la dolce vita style. “It’s really simple. We just don’t have so many rules,” she says of abiding by a cultural philosophy that’s less about what you can’t do during pregnancy and more about  “everything in moderation.” In other words, she eats well, she exercises just enough, and “when I’m tired, I try to listen to my body.” Already mother to a 14-month-old boy, Cristoforo, Ferri concedes that this may also be somewhat symptomatic of a second pregnancy. “The first time around, I thought ‘I should’ more often,” she says. “Now I’m about the balance.”

To that end, her daily beauty regimen relies on four simple pillars that hinge on a wellness-from-the-inside-out perspective, from the importance of fresh local eating to the most addictive natural body oil for counteracting stretch marks. Here, a guide to pregnancy—the Italian way.

Keep Your Blood Flowing
“The first thing is that you really must keep moving. I don’t do too much, but it’s good to be active. I try to swim twice a week—there is a nice pool in Conca del Naviglio that is close to my studio. And then Milan is a walking city. I live five minutes from the atelier, and I walk everywhere—including back home to have lunch with my son when I can and then I come back to the office. I like to do it, even if it’s just 25 minutes.”

Think of Massage as Mandatory
“The other thing you must get going is having a massage on the legs. It’s very important for the veins. They tend to expand a little when you’re pregnant, especially if you are standing all day long, which I am. I try to do it once a week to balance things. I go to a place where they do massage with agar, a kind of brown algae. You really decompress, and then you have the massage.”

Almond Oil Is the Secret to Stretch Marks
“When I got pregnant, I started mixing a simple hydrating cream with natural almond oil and putting it all over the whole body. I’m actually addicted. Almond oil is specifically for stretch marks. If you look for the drinkable kind, it’s very pure, so there aren’t other [additives or chemicals] in it. The more you do it, the better it is. I had no stretch marks with the first baby. It really helps. Fingers crossed for this time, too!”

Eat Local and Eat Fresh
“You can find really, really healthy food in Italy almost anywhere. We’re lucky with this—everything is ‘zero kilometers,’ meaning it’s grown nearby in the countryside. It’s very controlled, very fresh. Of course, there are real things to think about, like toxoplasmosis—I don’t eat raw fish and meat, and I’m mindful of certain vegetables and salads being washed well. But otherwise, I don’t watch my diet too strictly. I just try to moderate a bit. You don’t do too much sweets or too much cheese, but, of course, that’s not healthy in a normal diet anyway. The most important thing is everything with balance.”

 

Watch Vogue.com’s most popular videos now:

The post It Designer Marta Ferri on the Italian Secrets to a Highly Chic Pregnancy appeared first on Vogue.