Children's-wear doesn't seem like real
fashion does it?
It's physically small, doesn't last long,
and, as children don't notice what they're wearing until they're around
seven-years-old, we know a lot of it is for `show' - from the parent's
perspective that is.
When we think of fashion collections being
unveiled we don't think of children's-wear, and yet it goes through a
similar designer exhibition route: shown at Pitti Imagine Bimbo in
Florence and Premier Kids at Birmingham. What you'll see in the shops soon
will have been previewed last summer.
Children's-wear designers are under the same
design pressures but face limitations and very strict guidelines to make
clothes attractive, comfortable and safe. Not an easy job at all.
Fashion's undergone a design revolution with
the electronic age and it's affected children's-wear. There used to be an
orderly route with unwritten rules. The catwalk designers in the fashion
capitals Paris, London and Milan, showed twice a year to an invited
audience. We caught a glimpse via the catwalk photographers but we didn't
really grasp the full mood and influences until the full collections
arrived in our stores the next season.
Girls'-wear was influenced by ladies'
collections a season later and boys usually followed sporty rather than
fashion influences, which remains true today.
In a nutshell, children's-wear came at the
bottom of the league when dealing out the major ladies' and men's-wear
influences, and all because of timing.
All that changed with the electronic age,
digital camera and the internet. Catwalk collections can be seen virtually
immediately, in some cases live.
This means collections from couturier
collections downwards can be copied that much quicker.
So big production children's-wear design
speeded up and began to lead as much as follow. Pricing is crucial.
As youngsters grow, clothes don't last and
are seen as 'throw-away', accounting for success of supermarket
collections like Asda. They're able to buy in such vast quantities that it
keeps prices low.
In children's-wear there are rules to be
followed before design. Fabric must withstand wear and tear and constant
washing. There are anti-abrasion and flammability tests.
And of course, nightwear has to be flame
retardant. There's a need for comfort, softness and stretch as well as
safety issues: zips usually appear only in the four-year plus age
group.
Drawstrings must be fixed and Velcro and
poppers provide 'easy release' if clothes get caught.
Of course there are exceptions to the rule.
Character children's-wear appears occasionally. It's in a temporary blip
at present - after the success of animated film Finding Nemo - but that's
only until the next Disney blockbuster or big sporting event.
The best labels follow an age-old concept.
Let children dress as children rather than scaled-down adults, in clean,
fresh colours in natural breathable fabrics and in styles that are
light-hearted and fun.
So children's-wear trends this season are up
there with the same fashion influences as the adults. There's a bright
print look for both boys and girls; a heritage look with smocking, lace
and frills influenced by ballerinas and gymnasts for girls, and a slightly
camouflage military look mixed with ethnic prints influenced by urban
culture for boys.
But one of the strongest stories is Retro
Sport, taking influences from vintage cricket, baseball, golf and tennis
using historical graphic fonts and numbers, and used with fabrics like
cotton pique, cord and denim.
There's a little bit of 50's influence mixed
up in the sport look for girls, just like the mainline ladies collections
with tennis skirts, Capri pants, pleated kilts and hot pants with ruched
tops and rib knits.
Fashion predictors have said that in order
to look forward, one has to look back at least 10 years. Only going back
to the 90s seems far too close for comfort.
How much more sensible to go back that
little bit further, and how nice to take an outdoorsy, healthy, sporty
influence as a major fashion
direction.
