More parents paying the price of designer jeans for toddlers

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
We've all marveled in recent years at the surging prices of jeans. Who would have thought that the work pants beloved by painters, plumbers and college students would morph into high-end designer goods priced in the three-figure stratosphere?
But the saga goes on.
Fashion-minded parents are now springing for pricey jeans for toddlers, the Wall Street Journal says. What 4-year-old could be without distressed jeans with copper rivets, double stitching and the proper label? Last January, a company called Lucy Sykes New York introduced $93 toddler jeans made from vintage wash denim, and this spring it doubled production.
Genius Jones, a Miami boutique, tripled stock of kids' designer jeans this year. Seven for all Mankind is introducing skinny jeans for kids.
Certainly expensive kids' clothes are not new. But parents have always tended to splurge on special-occasion clothes and bought jeans at more traditional sportswear retailers such as the Gap or Gymboree.
Not practical
And it's not always a practical idea. One mother said no more after her daughter twice drew on her $100 jeans with a permanent marker, the WSJ says.
But high-end jeans have helped to pump life into the children's clothing market, where sales dropped 5 percent in 2004 and rose just 2 percent last year. Kids' jeans jumped 5 percent last year, the WSJ reports, and a majority of the growth was in upscale denims.
Marshal Cohen, fashion analyst for sales-tracker NPD, says it's a status thing. People want children to reflect who they are.