About
Annee Matthew is a local brand established in 2001 by Annee Neo, the quirkiest mom I’ve ever met. Then, there weren’t many stylish nursing labels around, so she decided to take things into her own hands and make some. From a small home business, her brand has now made its presence overseas, with distributors from as far as Europe. She also participates regularly in baby fairs.
I’m not cut out to be a fashion blogger (no domestic helper on stand-by to take 100 shots of me posing, no Insta-worthy background), but I am pregnant with a bump, so Annee offered me a pick of three items from her collection to ~model~ in.
Products
There’s sleepwear, maternity/nursing dresses, tops, bottoms, lingerie and a yoga collection. I chose two dresses and a pair of shorts because dresses are the easiest to wear and I happened to need maternity shorts. Too practical. Here’s what I chose:
The model does it better than me so please look at her. I’ve had nursing dresses which had obvious horizontal zips across the bustline and were not suitable for discreet nursing. This dress accommodates my bump and the V-neck opens up for easy, convenient and discreet nursing. I’m okay with nursing in public but only when it’s done in a manner that’s almost unnoticeable, because there’s no need to tell the whole world that your kid is suckling. Anyway… I was rather surprised when I got hold of the actual product because I didn’t realise that the sleeves and nursing panel had animal prints… but it doesn’t show that loudly in photos (thankfully).
Here’s Elise trying to pose together with me. The dress doesn’t hide the bump which is EXCELLENT because I managed to get seats in the subway in Korea even during peak hour. In the subway, there are rows of reserved seats which are almost sacred; NOBODY sits on those seats unless they fall into 1 of the 4 categories: elderly, pregnant, handicapped, parent with infant. If you don’t and you so much as attempt to sit down, you’ll get rebuked by the defenders of the reserved seats, usually an ajumma. They’re very vocal. A woman was talking on the phone a little too loudly and got shushed promptly “EVERYONE CAN HEAR YOU, mind your volume!”.
So with this dress, it became very obvious that I had 1.5 kids with me and it became my claim to the reserved seats. Can’t risk falling down with a bump this huge.
This dress is made from 95% cotton and 5% spandex. Cooling and comfortable, it’s still one of my go-to dresses.
I chose this dress because of its cleverly hidden opening. From the photo, it just looks like a normal dress but it suits moms from the first to third trimester and beyond. I brought this to Korea but didn’t manage to get any decent photos taken. Like the above dress, this also lets you nurse in a non-obvious manner. It’s perfect to get the job done yet not attract unwanted attention. This dress is made of 96% viscose and 4% spandex. Adding spandex allows the dress more elasticity.
Both dresses have no scratchy parts and are very comfortable to wear.
That’s not my tummy in the photo. This pair of shorts is heavier and of a thicker material than most shorts (100% neoprene) but is supportive for the bump and comes with two side pockets to store tiny essentials. I don’t think I’ll see such a tummy even after I give birth so there’s no way I’ll wear it like the first photo. I prefer it pulled all the way up and paired with a loose top to hide the colour of the belly support. It doesn’t feel tight or suffocating at all.
There’s no giveaway currently, but there’s a huge summer sale with almost all the products going for very attractive prices. There’s free shipping for orders above $100, which shouldn’t be too hard to hit (just 3 sale items!) if you haven’t started shopping for maternity and nursing wear!
** I received 2 maternity/nursing dresses and a pair of shorts for the purpose of this review. **
