Kids Spurn Trendiness in Favor of Classics for the Holiday Season
Like many fashion-conscious females, Arielle Lownds would like something new for the holidays. But the Los Angeles 8-year-old doesn’t want a Madonna-inspired dress, fishnet stockings or any of the other rock-star trappings she often craves. Instead, this is what she wants: “a velvet dress. In the color gray. With lace. And that’s all.”
Arielle’s wish is apparently shared by a good many other preteen children at the moment. From just before Thanksgiving right up to Christmas, youngsters, their parents and often their grandparents march into stores in search of all the traditional trimmings: for boys, little velvet jackets and plaid short pants; blue blazers with brass buttons; herringbone jackets with suede elbow patches; gray flannel slacks; button-down shirts; rep ties, belts and suspenders.
For girls, the main look is dresses (frequently drop-waisted to avoid emphasis on round tummies) in prints or scaled-down florals, in rich velvets and velveteens trimmed with satin sashes, huge collars and touches of lace.
Call the dresses what you will--cutesy, frilly, classic or romantic--they make “girls look the way their mothers and grandmothers looked or would have liked to look,” Robert Michelman, a May Co. vice president, claims. “Parents love that kind of thing.”
Apparently they love it enough not to mind that dressing up on a small scale can be expensive and short-term. Michelman explains: “Typically, the clothes are worn to Thanksgiving dinner, some family parties, a Christmas get-together and then the child has outgrown them.”
Judy Eiseman, daughter-in-law of Milwaukee children’s-wear designer Florence Eiseman, says the designer’s dresses come equipped with some growth potential (deep hems help), so “hopefully, they can be worn two seasons.”
Once the seasons are over, garments by Eiseman tend to be passed on from sister to sister, cousin to cousin.
Sometimes they remain in a family for generations. In fact, a 40-year retrospective of her designs was recently held in museums of art in Denver and in Milwaukee. Many clothes in the exhibition were culled from “private collections” across the country, the result of an ad in New Yorker magazine asking for “vintage” Florence Eiseman outfits from consumers’ closets.
As youthful as all the holiday finery looks, much of it is made with adult ingredients. Firms such as Florence Eiseman and Sylvia Whyte, for example, use expensive European fabrics, I. Magnin buyer Anna-Lisa Froman notes.
And designer Jessica McClintock says she is “experimenting” with adult-inspired sweater dressing for children. Her holiday line includes sweaters with lace collars and lace inserts to be worn with fancy pleated skirts.
“It’s very similar to the dressed-down look for evening their mothers are wearing. It’s like putting on a silk-satin skirt with a wonderful sweater and a brooch,” she says.
For her part, Magnin accessory buyer Janet Crane points out that both the “Dynasty” razzle-dazzle and the adult interest in holiday glitter have filtered down to the children’s accessories level. Demand is high for jewel-tone rhinestones, long strands of pearls, lace purses, headbands “with a little glitz” and hair clips, hand painted with gold or silver metallic.
Still popular, however, are little white gloves for girls, ages 2 to 10 years, (cotton lace is preferred for “older” girls, nylon stretch fabric for tiny hands) along with gold chains, lockets and simple cultured-pearl earrings. Black patent bags are another year-after-year accessory, Crane says.
“They’re large enough to house a tissue, a comb, a mirror and a pair of gloves, when the little girl isn’t wearing them,” she explains.
Often the bag, the gloves, the lockets, the dress itself will be the present from a grandmother to her granddaughter.
For young grandsons, ages 2 to 4 years, the outfit might be something new this season--a red blazer and gray flannel British walking shorts--instead of the classic velvet Eton suit.
For an older grandson, the gift might be Ralph Lauren’s double-breasted blazer coordinated with a plaid vest, a pair of gray flannel trousers, a bow tie, a pair of suspenders (which later will look trendy with a pair of jeans)and a white shirt.
Or it might be what Nordstrom’s Cheri Lawell calls the “Miami Vice” look. The ingredients are an oversize, unconstructed cotton blazer in white, light gray, black or khaki worn with a long scarf, a smartly patterned shirt and a pair of casual or semi-dressy trousers.
Starting at age 4, fashion-minded boys are heard as well as being seen, Lawell says. “A mother might come in and look around, but she will ask her son what he likes. And he generally has the last word.”
But the real last word is the outfit itself--captured for posterity on film. The search for picture-perfect clothes is often motivated by the knowledge that the holiday season is also the season for the annual family portrait.
Merrett Smith, the Century City portrait photographer who has shot pictures of presidents (including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan)as well as Hollywood favorites, such as Charlton Heston and Ann-Margret, believes this is the time of year “when people love to see their children all dressed up in the traditional way.”
Smith’s personal preference is something more relaxed--perhaps the whole family in sweaters with the boys wearing neckties. But he acknowledges that “the more dressy portrait fits in with the furniture in so many formal homes. When you have a beautiful family portrait, it can look as fine as an Old Master’s painting.”
The veteran photographer’s only fashion objection is to the color yellow because, he says, it’s not the best shade for a child’s complexion.
From Judy Eiseman comes another piece of advice on the art of dressing children--for portraits or strictly for pleasure. “You should see the child first and the clothes second. We don’t put on a lot of ‘fru-fru’ because we want to let the child’s personality shine.”
If, in the aftermath, all the expense and effort seem a bit much, the words of Jessica McClintock might help: “When you and your children are going somewhere special, like a candlelight dinner, you want them wearing something that looks ‘rich.’ Maybe it is just a one-party shot, but you will look back on it, and it will be worth the extra time and money. For the children, it will be a lesson in beautiful taste and quality.”
