Just Kidding? : Trendy Ideas of Today’s Youngsters Are Often Seen as ‘Serious Stuff’
Who ever heard of a 4-year-old girl wearing marabou slippers to breakfast or rhinestone bracelets to movies? What nursery school classmate of yours kept a Superman cape in his closet or carried a teddy bear knapsack?
Things are different these days. There’s hardly a “nursery school” left anymore, let alone a child to attend it. Now there are “preschools.” And they are for “kids”--hip little people who wear hip, grown-up clothes, cut down to preschool size.
The shift began when children’s basic wardrobes expanded to include stylish jogging suits, weekend wear and French couture designs made to resemble adult clothes.
But it’s become something more. Now there are grown-up accessories too, scaled to kids’ proportions. Some of them are nearly identical to things adults wear. Some are the sort of accessories adults only wish they could wear.
At Kids in Costume on Melrose Avenue, store owner Wanda Fudge says she sells princess tiaras, magic wands and marabou boas as accessories for children’s everyday outfits. Her kind of customer has been known to remove blue jeans and T-shirt to reveal underneath the Superman suit--complete with cape--or pack marabou slippers and a matching robe for a family cruise vacation.
“Kids have no problem with their fantasies,” Fudge finds. “It’s adults who can’t always handle them.”
At the L.A. Kids boutique, West Hollywood, store manager Lee Crowley says he has noticed some parents handle them better than others. “The wilder the parents dress, the more confidence the kids have about dressing,” he says.
Among confident 4- to 6-year-old shoppers at L.A. Kids, favored accessories tend to be very dressy these days. Pop singer Madonna seems to be inspiring a taste for satin headbands with sequined, tulle bows, pink, lace, high-top sneakers and pastel-color pearl jewelry for girls. Boys want zebra- or leopard-print suede neckties like rock guitar players wear.
“The ties are so hot we can’t keep them in the store,” Crowley says. “We’ve even cut them down to fit 6-month-olds.”
Among little shoppers at Les Enfants, on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, store manager Rachel Addy says mini-Madonna, lace leggings and fingerless gloves are popular right now. But no matter what other accessories little girls are collecting, most of them must own at least one charm necklace along with a set of charms.
The charms are large and plastic and available in various shapes. Pianos and teacups are particularly popular at Les Enfants. They clip onto chain-link-style necklaces in plastic or metal. (Boys hook them onto their pockets, Addy reports.) They sell in drugstores and department stores as well as in boutiques. At Les Enfants, most charms cost $1.50 each, necklaces are $8, or $12 for the metal version.
These latest accessory extravaganzas are certainly a change from the classics kids wore 30 years ago. Cowboy hats and heart-shaped lockets look pale in comparison to iridescent metallic hair bows.
Crowley, for one, contends it’s all a result of MTV.
“The look is razzle-dazzle funky, and a lot of it comes from the rock videos even 4-year-olds watch,” he says.
That’s a far cry from “My Friend Flicka.”
