MrsQ
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Member since 6/06 11378 total posts
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Qiana
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Fashion Aims Young
CLOTHES MAKE THE GIRL Carly Gulotta, 4, and some of her outfits (and accessories) at home in New York. Marketers are aiming adults styles at young audiences.
POOR Barbie! Her pneumatic contours and sparkly wardrobe have lost their charm for the average 8-year-old, the attractions of her doll-size jeans and shrunken tanks paling alongside the real thing.
Premium jeans, for instance, an item coveted by Maisy Gellert, a third grader living in Westchester County, N.Y. “I’m very particular,” Maisy said. “Sevens are the only jeans I actually wear.”
Like many girls her age, her fashion antennae are finely tuned, her standards exacting, her desires well defined. “I like the stuff that’s in style, like leggings and shorts, tank tops and flip-flops,” she said, promptly adding to that list: “Gap camisoles that are white, because I can wear them with just anything. Puma sneakers, pink and gray — I’m on my third pair — and ballet slippers, but those are hard to find for my size foot.”
“In general, the awareness of fashion is getting younger and younger,” said Pilar Guzman, the editor of Cookie, a magazine aimed at the parents of children under 12. “Just as we’ve seen in the teen market, the interest in clothes is fashion- and celebrity-driven, and that interest has been trickling down.”
It both feeds on and is reflected in Cookie’s fashion pages, which highlight scaled-down versions of sophisticated looks from Juicy Couture, Calypso, Scoop, Paul & Joe and Sonia Rykiel, top labels in an expanding roster of luxury brands that have lately discovered the children’s market. Much the same can be said of the advertisers — the likes of Burberry, Guess, DKNY, J. Crew and Baby Phat by Kimora Lee Simmons — each making an aggressive bid for the roller-skates-and-jump-rope set. For a mother willing to spend $1,000 on her own handbag, these marketers reason, $154 for a pair of Rock & Republic jeans may not be a stretch.
In the cosmetics world, too, “it’s all about fashion right now,” said Marcy Gonzales, the brand manager of Fing’rs, which sells preglued press-on nails, patterned with stars and kitties, to appeal to girls who, she said, “have the latest ‘it’ bags and rhinestone-covered Sidekicks.” Sales of preglued nails for children are up 13 percent this year, Ms. Gonzales said.
Lisa Strubel, the trend director for the Children’s Place, a retail chain with more than 800 stores across the country, said that the stores cater increasingly to style-fixated little girls, offering of-the-moment items like skinny premium jeans, faux-layered sweaters and graphic T-shirts selling for $10 to $50. “These girls are expressing their views earlier than ever,” Ms. Strubel said.
At Cozy Cuts, a children’s hair salon in Manhattan, it is not uncommon for aspiring glamazons to bring in magazine tear sheets displaying photos of their favorite stars, said Cozy Friedman, the owner.
Adult clients at the Paul Labrecque salon on Madison Avenue frequently bring in their children. “You have to know all about their little celebrity world,” Mr. Labrecque said. Hilary Duff used to come up a lot, but that keeps changing. What remains constant is that “a 6- or 7-year-old is looking up to someone who is 20.” Even Barbie has required a style upgrade to keep pace with the times. Specialty versions of the doll now come boxed with handbags and high heels and wearing full makeup, or tricked out in metallic bras and matching hot pants, flounced denim minis and form-fitting rompers. For the young sophisticate, there is also Project Runway Barbie, poured into a shrill green halter and multitiered skirt.
“We’re living in a child-obsessed culture,” said Vanessa Boz of Kidding Consultants, a firm with children’s-wear clients. Parents, she added, don’t always put their foot down. “Some just want to make their children happy.”
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That's kind of scary! A third grader saying she'll only wear Sevens? 
