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LOS
ANGELES — It’s hard to miss those paparazzi shots of
celebrity toddlers being toted around by their famous
parents, kids who are dressed, well, to look just like
mom or dad. Gwen Stefani’s boys sport mohawks, black
rocker T-shirts and baggy cargo pants like their dad
Gavin Rossdale; Jessica Alba’s daughter Honor Warren
mimics her mother’s frilly, feminine style; and little
Suri Cruise seems to love perusing the shoe section at
Barneys New York just as much as does her stylish
mother, Katie Holmes.
The
parade of mini-me’s isn’t relegated to celebrities
and seems to be a trend among many parents who are
buying designer wear for their kids, much to the
delight, no doubt, of luxury houses that have expanded
to include tiny sizes.
Some
companies, such as Ralph Lauren, have offered
children’s fare for years; others, such as Versace and
Lanvin, are releasing their kids’ lines later this
year. In the 12-month period that concluded in May 2011,
sales of children’s clothing in the U.S. reached $32.4
billion, and $800 million of that was spent on designer
lines, according to the NPD Group Inc. Consumer Tracking
Service.
“People
are no longer buying over-the-top homes and cars,”
says Marshal Cohen, chief analyst for NPD. “We did
that, and that kind of backfired, but we will continue
to splurge on our kids. In their minds, the best thing
consumers can do is make sure their kids get all the
right things and dress the part.”
Cohen
adds that this is one reason the children’s clothing
market is being infiltrated by a growing number of
high-end designers and luxury brands and that the area
is generally one of the last to be affected by a
recession and one of the first to recover. In 2008, when
the adult apparel industry dipped 5 percent, the sale of
children’s clothing dropped just 1 percent.
“That
could practically be considered growth in this
market,” Cohen says.
The
wealthy, of course, have always garbed their children in
luxurious fabrics; go to any large museum and check out
paintings from the last several hundred years and
you’ll see infants in lace; toddlers in velvet and
7-year-olds in dresses with embroidered pearls.
Most
families, of course, have never had that option.
Nonetheless, in the last few decades, the sales of
children’s clothing have grown rapidly, as parents in
the U.S. have upped the number of garments in the family
wardrobe. Even parents who might scrimp on clothing for
themselves will buy beautiful dresses and jackets for a
family photo portrait or a special occasion. And options
for the wealthy have multiplied in the last several
years.
Many
luxury fashion houses (think Fendi, Missoni, Prada,
Armani, Gucci, Dior, Burberry, Marc Jacobs and Phillip
Lim) have a children’s division, which generally
includes garments designed to fit a range of ages that
runs from newborn to 12 years old. Some of the designers
churn out mini versions of their men’s and women’s
ready-to-wear lines or logo heavy accessories; others
merely riff on the aesthetic of their already
established brand.
“It
is about picking the most charming and cute items, and
scaling them down,” says Phillip Lim, whose whimsical
children’s line is called Kid. “Nothing is skimped
on. It’s just as you’d get in the adult version —
Italian fabrics, hand embroidery, only smaller. It’s
like ‘Mommy and me.’”
Versace
is just joining the kids’ clothing game, releasing the
Young Versace line this fall. As one might expect, the
style will be slightly over the top and very much in
line with the glitzy look of the luxury house adult fare
— Medusa heads and all. “Nothing is plain; it’s
very rock ‘n’ roll and colorful,” says Gian
Giacomo Ferraris, chief executive of Versace. “This is
the attitude of the house. It expresses our glamorous
DNA.”
Part
of that expression includes limited-edition leather
items and Swarovski-encrusted baby bottles.
“We’re
finding that our customers are looking for very special
emotional pieces with a wow factor,” says Colleen
Sherin, fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue, which
carries a robust selection of designer kids lines,
including Prada, Burberry and Fendi. “There’s an
emotional response to the items and not really any price
resistance.”
Sherin
says footwear (from brands like Prada and Gucci) gets
the biggest response in the children’s category on the
Saks.com website and that the designer children’s wear
category in general is an area of growth for the
retailer.
“These
lines have the same innovative design found in the
brand’s ready-to-wear collections,” she says.
“They’ve translated the look into kid’s clothing,
so the woman who wears these labels is going to find the
children’s line appealing.”
The
price tags ($250 and higher for designer kids’ shoes
and around $350 to $475 for a coat) are about half that
for the grown-up versions and, just as with the adult
lines, the desire for having Burberry check on a collar
or a Gucci horse bit detail on a ballet flat is
appealing to parents with big bank accounts.
“It’s
all about the generation of the mini-me,” says Amy
Tara Koch, style expert and author of “Bump It Up,”
a book about how to have a stylish pregnancy. “They
want their kids to stand out — or in the language of
‘Project Runway’ — to have a point of view. It’s
like the fashion-forward version of playing dress-up
with an American Girl doll.”
“Especially
with the first baby, people go crazy, they have no
limits,” says Rosie Pope, a New York maternity
concierge, designer of a maternity clothing line and
star of the Bravo channel’s “Pregnant in Heels.”
“They justify the purchase in their heads. And since
at 6 months, the babies start to look like little people
and parents can really start to see them as an extension
of themselves, it’s part of the whole process of
becoming a parent. It’s the fun part.”
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