Age No Bar

In another few weeks,the swishy DLF Emporio in New Delhi sees a new addition to its growing list of luxury boutiques: Armani Junior is a 2,000-square feet space that will sell Armani’s lines — right from newborns to teens. The new store is a corporate tie-up with one of India’s most famous designers,Suneet Varma,who,after 25 years of sculpting beautiful couture,has turned entrepreneur with this franchise.

Indian designers,Varma’s contemporaries as well as juniors,are testing the waters of ‘children’s couture’. I call it ‘children’s couture’ because it is still a small and specialised line produced by the designers and not an industry-scale retail effort that can compete with high street prices. Namrata Joshipura,Aneeth Arora,Rocky S,Priyadarshini Rao,Gaurav Gupta,Gauri-Nainika and Nandita Basu are only some names that have brought out small collections of kids’ clothes. Joshipura is honest enough to admit that fashion in India is in a very nascent aspirational stage. “I’ve only made two collections for a company called Kidology on a royalty basis. But children’s clothing is a very good opportunity for Indian designers as the market is hungry for well-made clothes. People are willing to pay any price,since we don’t have available the aesthetic of Petit Bateau or Gymboree,” she offers.

I’ve seen some designs from Aneeth Arora’s kids’ line at Bombay Electric and loved it. Sweet little block-printed shirts and dresses in the softest cotton,until I looked at the swing tag and read ‘Rs 3,000’. I would easily find something similar at Anokhi or Fabindia for Rs 500 or less.

Indian designers make kids’ clothes as special items or occasion wear,or at least they price them as ‘high’. The main reason is that most of these are made by hand and can’t compete with the manufacturing scales of,say,Fendi Kids or DKNY.

Both Joshipura (mother of a four-year-old girl) and I loathe Disney’s princess costumes. We’re also very confused about girls in Burberry dresses and agree that kids clothes should be affordable. There aren’t many Indian designers who will readily acknowledge that they’re competing with Gap Kids and Zara for children’s wear,but middle-class mums will tell you both these high street labels aren’t really inexpensive either,especially when you understand children outgrow their clothes almost every season.

Local Indian stores are useless,unless you don’t mind your kids wearing embroidered jeans. (Try buying anything for a girl that isn’t that hideous Gelusil-pink.)

My American friends (sufficiently well-to-do ones) shop at amazingly low prices. Children’s consignment stores sell Oshkosh and Carter’s items for as little as $2 a pop. Garage sales and Craigslist offer the same rates. Some have had great finds at even Walmart and Costco. London’s Next sales on Oxford Street are steals.The best places to buy kids clothes in India are the outlet stores. Would you believe a girlfriend from California discovered one in Bandra that sells Gap and Old Navy T-shirts (with labels intact) for Rs 250 and bottoms for Rs 350 each?

Now how’s that for cuteness mixed with some common sense?

namratanow@gmail.com