While the concept of dressing up even remotely similar to their mothers, led to girls rolling their eyes and proclaiming their moms to be hopelessly fashion challenged in the past, it is not the case today. In fact, many girls today have started looking at their mothers as the strong base of fashion aesthetic, resulting in moms and daughters often wearing same styles. This has led to the increase in the new high street trend of matching ‘Mini-Me’ outfits for mums and daughters, that encourage the same top to toe outfits for both, making this trend of small clothes a big business, especially in the UK market. Many brands and retailers have already started acting upon the opportunity and the style has also been seen at international trade fairs such as Pitti Bimbo in Florence, Playtime in both Pairs and Tokyo as well as Fimi in Valencia and Children’s Club in New York; proving this is a serious style trend to invest in…
With fashion rules being rewritten and the boundaries between the generations overlapping, age divisions are increasingly being blurred, rendering everyone virtually the same age in ‘fashion’ years. This has brought mothers and daughters closer together on the spectrum of fashion trends, clamouring for similar styles. As children are becoming spoilt for choice when it comes to clothing, an increasing number of traditionally adult focused apparel brands are not only entering the childrenswear category, they have extended to give these toddlers a taste of mature fashion and vice versa. Tiny versions of adult clothes may be a rage, but what are not so tiny are the prices, and that hasn’t been enough to deter mothers from spending in the trend though. Fuelling up the trend many retailers also witnessed a growing demand for Mini-Me versions of catwalk favourites by hot designers such as Chloe.
The fact that children of high-powered parents and Hollywood celebrities are constantly under a public microscope, has also added fuel to the “Mini-Me” trend with kids like Harper Beckham becoming a poster child for the Mini-Me fashion phenomenon. But, the Beckhams are not alone in wanting their children to look the part, a survey by Lakeside shopping centre reported that a staggering 94% of mothers spend more on their child’s wardrobe than their own. In 2012, a New York Times editorial noted that sales of children’s clothing from brands like Lanvin, Gucci, Fendi, Burberry and Stella McCartney were making headways in a children’s apparel market estimated at about US $ 32 billion.
What started off with a trickle of posh merchandise from shops like Bon Point and Jacadi on Madison Avenue has now spread to become a deluge, flooding upscale stores like Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue and finally filtering into the mass market with retailers like GAP, Macy’s and others also cashing in on the trend. Even as the trend has been on a constant rise from 2010, it is only in second half of 2012 that a lot of upscale designers began offering layette, a wardrobe for first year babies as well. New moms are stocking up DKNY cashmere cardigans (US $ 60), Baby Dior jumpers (US $ 165), Ralph Lauren velvet frocks (US $ 110), Tommy Hilfiger khakis (US $ 26), Jay Kos cashmere dresses (US $ 395) and booties emblazoned with Gucci double-G’s (US $ 145) for their toddlers as young as one, to match their wardrobes. Mass retailer GAP, pioneer in the concept of adult fashions scaled to infant proportions and retailers like River Island, American Apparel, Ferregamo, Zara, Lanvin, All Saints and Topshop have a complete selection of little and large outfits for mummies and toddlers in their stores. Apparel store Selfridges reported its Back to School period sales of ‘Mini-Me’ fashions rising by an impressive 80% while year-on-year childrenswear sales are up by 25% in 2012. Macy’s stores, which recently expanded its infant and layette department to accommodate an infusion of sportswear by Nautica, Guess, Polo and Tommy Hilfiger, also sells racer-back swimsuits and terry cloth robes scaled to an infant’s proportions.
Even as people have displayed mixed reviews for the Mini-Me fashion, the ‘trend’ is selling really fast especially in the markets of France, Italy and the UK, and looks to be getting stronger for another few seasons, to the advantage of the retailers who just have to scale down similar styles for sales.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
