New York ? Many women spend a good chunk of their 40-week pregnancies in too-big T-shirts trying to hide what we’re all eventually going to see — a bulging belly.

Instead of fighting nature, maternity designer Liz Lange says mothers-to-be can eliminate one stress from their increasingly taxing lives if they’d just embrace their new figures and make the most of them in shapely styles.

“I do like the idea that you shouldn’t hide your body while you’re pregnant: Wear sleeveless, shorter skirts, show off your new cleavage, especially in eveningwear. It’s a fashion philosophy that works whether you’re pregnant or not: Women look better in well-fitted clothes,” says Lange.

That said, Lange also encourages moderation and, of course, good taste. “I’m not a big proponent of showing off your absolute naked belly, either. It’s OK at the beach or the pool, but while people associate me with ‘modern’ maternity, I don’t design cropped tops or something like that.”

In her new book “Liz Lange’s Maternity Style” (Clarkson Potter), Lange offers advice and even suggests head-to-toe outfits for different stages of pregnancies and different occasions.

‘Don’t be embarrassed’

For work, Lange’s favorite looks revolve around a few key pieces: a sleeveless tunic top, a black blazer, a streamlined knit dress, a pencil skirt and black cigarette pants. This can be a five-day wardrobe if all the pieces are in neutral colors so they can be mixed and matched easily, she says.

A zip-up fleece sweatshirt, a man’s-style button-down shirt, a tank top, yoga pants and a pair of jeans are the essentials of a weekend wardrobe.

And for special occasions, which can seem particularly daunting to a pregnant woman, Lange suggests a brightly colored shift dress with a flattering neckline for baby and bridal showers, a feminine print dress with a complementary solid-color cardigan for a graduation, and a just-above-the-knee dress paired with a dress coat for a wedding.

“Social events used to be really hard on pregnant women,” says Sally Singer, fashion news director at Vogue. “Sometimes they just wouldn’t go because they had nothing to wear.”

Vogue recently featured a pregnant woman for the first time on the magazine’s cover: Brooke Shields in a sheer silk Krizia dress.

“It (the cover photo) shows pregnancy is just another time in a woman’s life when you can look good. This was a cover about fashion and it said ‘Don’t be embarrassed about your body,”‘ Singer says.

Singer largely credits Lange, retailer Pea in the Pod, which works with designer labels such as Anne Klein, Diane von Furstenberg and Lilly Pulitzer to adapt current styles for pregnant shapes, and Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Taylor, the founders of Juicy Couture, for putting the “fashion” in maternity fashion.

Skaist-Levy and Taylor, wife of Duran Duran’s John Taylor, “made it OK for rock ‘n’ roll moms to look rock ‘n’ roll,” says Singer, while Lange caters to career women. “Just like Vera Wang saw that niche for a fashionable bride, Liz saw that for professionals. … Pregnant women couldn’t keep doing the jobs they’re doing in an old oversized jumper.”

Lange, a former Vogue staffer herself, adds: “I believed women would spend money on their maternity clothes if there were clothes that they actually liked.”

Just clothes

She approaches each collection as if she’s just making “clothes,” not “maternity clothes.” She also models each outfit herself and asks: “Do I feel cool in this?”

The use of stretch fabrics beginning in the mid-1990s helped bring about the demise of too-cutesy Peter Pan collars, trapeze dresses and unsightly panels covering the bellies of pants and skirts.

(Lange uses stretch in many of the garments in her pricier signature collection, her line for Target and her activewear partnership with Nike.)

Now the mother of two children, Lange wasn’t pregnant yet when she launched her label in 1997, but she says she might not have gotten into the maternity business then if she wasn’t at least thinking about her turn in those dowdy duds.

“I looked at the maternity clothes my friends were wearing and there was nothing about the clothes I found appealing,” she says. “I tried to put together a small line of pieces I liked and would wear pregnant or not pregnant.”

Celebrities also advanced maternity fashion, according to Lange, ranging from Demi Moore’s famous Vanity Fair cover to Catherine Zeta-Jones’ sexy, formfitting gowns on the red carpet.

But despite the stylish maternity clothes now available, Lange cautions women not to start wearing them until it’s absolutely necessary. If a woman’s “bump” isn’t big enough, the maternity clothes won’t hang right and she’ll just look larger than she is.

“Sooner or later, though, your clothes with buttons open or your skirt unzipped will not longer be the most flattering option … that’s what I’m here for,” Lange says.