A decade ago, who would have been able to predict that at the tender age of 6 months old celebrity offsprings like Harper Beckham, Mason Disick, Suri Cruise, North West, Skylar Berman and the like would be fashion trendsetters, but they were.
That’s the spin on a New York Post piece today highlighting some of the affluent parents who spend loads of money outfitting their children as young as a few months old in super expensive couture and designer kids clothing.
One Brooklyn mom, Priscilla Monteiro, purchased for her 5-month old daughter Yasmine and 4-year old girl Vera outfits that cost over $1400 total each to wear to a swanky industry party on a yacht during the Cannes Films Festival later this May. Another Danielle Fornes, a blogger and former educator, mixes up her high end and affordable pieces but still doesn’t think twice about dressing her daughter Jolie in a $395 Ralph Lauren dress and $75 Nordstrom ballet flats.
But Fornes has figured out how to make a business out of it. The investment banker’s wife is a kid stylist who charges Upper West Side parents $200 per hour and $150 for an additional child to dress their kids for upscale events and parties, and essentially to “keep up with the Joneses.”
“These children on the Upper West Side go to a lot of parties, and though the mothers are friends, it’s embarrassing if their son or daughter is wearing the same outfit as someone else,” Fornes told the New York Post.
It’s a lucrative field and one that many of the top fashion houses aren’t leaving on the table. Roberto Cavalli, Marc Jacobs, Burberry, Chloe and other top designer lines all have children’s lines of clothing launched within the last few years.
Another Brooklyn mom Sharra Dade told the paper she dresses her daughter Alyssa who is a child model and actress in upscale clothing because of all the industry events she attends with celebrities. As the Post noted, Salma Hayek dresses her daughter, Valentina, in Gucci, and Victoria Beckham, dresses Harper, often in Burberry and Stella McCartney.
But Dade isn’t foolish. To offset the costs of the premium clothing, Alyssa’s realtor mom Dade later consigns the clothes that Alyssa wears only once or twice.
And business is booming.
Heidi Lieske of the store Be Mini Couture said “many of our customers are affluent 30- and 40-somethings influenced by mommy blogs and actors who appear with their kids in celebrity magazines.”
Very interesting as Bellyitch Blog has indeed been tracking, and noting the fashionable and posh clothing of celebrity and the Richie Rich’s of the world since it launched in 2007.