Eyeing the spring collections at Barneys, Brooklyn fashionista Priscilla Monteiro picks out a couple of sheer tulle dresses that have just the right amount of sparkle and sophistication.
She is jetting off to the Cannes Film Festival in May to attend a swanky music industry party aboard a luxury yacht on the French Riviera.
But these pieces — each with a price tag of $1,420 — are not for Monteiro to wear herself. A girl’s size 6 and a toddler size 2, the Bonnie Young outfits are for her adorable daughters.
Vera, age 4, and Yasmine, 5 months, are accompanying their label-conscious mom on the upcoming business trip and will be packing dozens of designer clothes from their miniature closets back home in Fort Greene.
“My kids are an extension of me, and if they look good, I feel good,” says Monteiro, 35, a financial analyst-turned-shoe designer. “They’re my priorities in life and it’s nice to splurge.”
The growing propensity for rich moms like Monteiro to “splurge” has led to a boom in sales of luxury kids’ clothing in the US. Analysts predict the annual global market for high-end children’s wear will rise from $21.8 billion in 2012 to $29.6 billion in 2017, as big-spending Americans embrace the European-led trend.
“In Europe, quality in children’s products is held in high regard,” insists Gina Rizzo, co-founder of petitePARADE, a biannual kids’ fashion event in New York. “That movement has now come to the US and parents will pay a premium for a stylish aesthetic and solid construction.”
Top fashion houses such as Lanvin, Roberto Cavalli and Marc Jacobs have all developed children’s lines in the last four years. PetitePARADE has tripled in size since its first season in 2010. And the online service Borrow Mini Couture (a junior version of Rent the Runway) just launched its retail division, Be Mini Couture, with labels like Baby Fendi, Chloé and Versace.
“Many of our customers are affluent 30- and 40-somethings influenced by mommy blogs and actors who appear with their kids in celebrity magazines,” says Be Mini Couture’s Heidi Lieske. Think glamorous stars like Salma Hayek, who dresses her daughter, Valentina, in Gucci, and Victoria Beckham, whose toddler, Harper, frequently wears Burberry and Stella McCartney.
Monteiro and her friend Sharra Dade, 33, of Mill Basin, Brooklyn, couldn’t care less if their spending habits raise eyebrows — high-ticket fashions for Dade’s 4-year-old, Alyssa, a child model and actress, include twice-worn $895 shoes by Baby Fendi and a Calvin Klein shearling jacket for $495.
They recoup a percentage of the cost by taking the clothes to consignment stores such as Clementine and Jane’s Exchange in Manhattan.
“Alyssa definitely doesn’t wear these items to the playground, but we go to a lot of brunches, tea party play dates and art galas,” says Dade, a Realtor. “We bring her to auditions and places where people dress fashionably, like fashion week and Nickelodeon events.
“I dress her how I would have wanted to be dressed as a child. Some moms love it and others gasp, but I can’t please everyone.”
Mom-of-two Danielle Fornes, 41, who runs the blog Mom Who Knows, is another fan of luxury children’s wear. The Jersey City-based former educator mixes everyday brands such as Zara Kids and J.Crew with higher-end pieces from Marie-Chantal, Lisa Perry and Jacadi.
Recent purchases include a $695 Bonnie Young dress for the holidays and a $395 Ralph Lauren frock for daughter Jolie, age 6.
“Many of these items are heirloom pieces, which I can pass on to my grandchildren,” says Fornes, who also trades hand-me-downs with her friends. “I don’t push labels on my kids — Jolie chooses what she wants in a store in an organic way. But, like me, she appreciates quality.”
Such is the demand for top-notch children’s clothing among the 1 percent, Fornes spotted a lucrative business opportunity in 2013. After moms continually sought her advice on how to dress their children, the investment banker’s wife established herself as a kids’ stylist. Referring to herself as a “mommy concierge,” she helps the offspring of upper-class New York parents 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,” explains Fornes, who charges $200 per hour, plus $150 for each additional child.
Any talk of one-upmanship sends shivers down the spines of critics of the haute couture children’s wear trend. They include psychotherapist Dr. Gilda Carle, of the Web site drgilda.com, who believes parents who put too much emphasis on their kids’ image are creating problems for the future. “If these children grow up thinking the most important thing is how you look, how are they going to cope with all the problems they’ll face in life?”
She believes spending thousands on children’s clothing is ostentatious, especially since kids outgrow stuff so quickly. “It’s mostly the moms creating a mini-me,” Carle says. “Heaven forbid the neighbors will think their kids are not fashionable enough. A child who is not even 10 years old doesn’t know about fashion and designers. It’s all about the mothers. The label inside the garment has absolutely nothing to do with who that child is.”
But Monteiro, editor-in-chief of the blog the Fashion Reporter, says it’s nobody else’s business how she spends her cash. “I don’t want ‘average’ for my children,” says Monteiro, who is engaged to Yasmine’s father, Ricardo Dias, 28, a member of the armed forces. “I want things that are beautiful and timeless. I’m from a well-to-do family and my mother always dressed us in the finest garb.
“When we go out as a family, after I’ve had a long week, it makes me feel so recharged and refreshed to see my girls looking good. They’re my little dolls, and it’s good for the heart.”
As for creating issues further down the line when kids get older and feel entitled to the best of the best, she laughingly shakes her head.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Monteiro says. “At the moment, they’ve no idea that this jacket or that skirt cost $500 or whatever. It’s all the same to them.”
Chimes in Dade: “You are creating a monster if you allow your kids to fixate on expensive brands and labels. The most important lesson I’m teaching Alyssa is to be humble, but to wear her clothes with attitude and confidence.”
She feels so strongly on the subject, she is planning to host a series of workshops later this spring aimed at fashion-forward tweens and teens called Couture Confidence Camps.
New York City children’s wear designer Bonnie Young, who launched her own label in 2006, agrees that a balance needs to be struck.
“I don’t think people should buy all luxury for their children. It has to be a mix — something that is happening in fashion in general,” says the mom-of-two.
Young’s fall 2014 designs showcased at petitePARADE earlier this month ranged in price from $336 for a silk T-shirt to $1,896 for a faux-fur mohair dress. The most expensive single outfit shown on the runway was a $6,326 Swarovski crystal-embossed dress by the exclusive Australian label Mischka Aoki.
“Children are different from the time when we were growing up,” concludes Young, whose pieces have been purchased by A-listers including Mariah Carey and Kate Hudson. “Their parents are taking them to parties, galleries, and they’re appearing in the press. Kids are more savvy at a young age and know what’s happening on the adult runways.
“I want my kids to have things that are as fine as the things I have,” says Young. “If I’m wearing cashmere, I don’t want them in wool.”