<div>Dressed in a Versace t-shirt, Armani Junior jeans and Fendi loafers, Anjan Jaipuria fits the description of a man about town. The only difference: he is celebrating his seventh birthday at a farmhouse in Delhi. Giving him company is his five-year old sister, dressed in a Burberry outfit that costs a lot more than the lovely silk saree that her proud grandmother is wearing. <br /><br />A few hundred kilometres away in Chandi-garh, Manjeet Gill is celebrating his daughter Mannat’s first birthday. While Manjeet sports all the elements of a luxury consumer — a Louis Vuitton belt, a Mont Blanc pen and a Rolex, his wife carries a Dior bag — no, not the iconic Lady D bag but the Dior diaper bag — to keep all the essentials that little Mannat will require. Meanwhile, Mannat herself is clad in a Baby Dior dress and sleeps peacefully in her Fendi pram.<br /><br />Say hello to luxury’s youngest consumers — kids. From Gucci booties to Baby Dior onesies, Armani Junior jeans for toddlers to Burberry trench coats for seven-year-olds, from Young Versace jackets to Miss Blumarine dresses, children today are wearing brands even before they can spell or, in some cases, pronounce these names. “As a luxury consumer you are always looking for the next thing. Once parents have spent on themselves, they start looking for the next avenue to spend on and that’s where the kids’ market comes in. Parents today are conscious of luxury brands. They want to buy the best for their children,” says Swati Saraf, president of Les Petits, a multi-brand luxury kidswear store at Delhi’s DLF Emporio. Saraf set up Les Petits three years ago when her sister had a baby and she realised that except for Burberry and Gucci, there were no luxury brands available in India for children.<br /><br />Just a few shops away from Les Petits is Armani Junior, that set up shop in September 2012 and is the only dedicated kidswear luxury brand in India selling apparel, shoes and accessories for children in the zero to 16-year age bracket. Gucci, which launched its kidswear collection globally in 2010, offers it at its Mumbai, Kolkata and Gurgaon stores. Burberry, whose kidswear collection has been a great success globally, contributing 19 per cent to its total revenue in 2012, has been selling it at its flagship store in Delhi since 2010. <br /><br />Globally, the market for children’s wear is projected to reach $156 billion by 2015, according to Global Industry Analysts (GIA), a US-based market research company. While there are no official figures for the luxury baby and kidswear market, industry sources project it to be around $10-11 billion.<br /> </div><table cellspacing="6" cellpadding="6" border="0" align="right" width="300"><tbody><tr><td><img align="middle" width="300" height="409" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=91edec79-3487-40ee-9d77-dacc7dc43508&groupId=520986&t=1416901664579" alt="" /></td></tr><tr><td>GROWTH PANGS: Right now, Indian parents have a long way to go, opting for brands that are loud and bold (Photograph Courtesy: Armani Junior)</td></tr></tbody></table><div>In India, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) estimates the kidswear industry to be worth Rs 38,000 crore and growing at a compound annual rate of about 20 per cent to reach Rs 80,000 crore by 2015. Says P. Rashmi Upadhya, associate director-strategy, PwC India: “The luxury kidswear segment is still at a nascent stage and represents only a fraction of the overall market (less than 1-2 per cent). However, it is growing at a faster clip of 25-30 per cent compared to 20 per cent for the overall category.”<br /><br />Upadhya believes the reason the market is growing is because on the one hand, family sizes are becoming smaller and, on the other, there is an increase in two-income families leading to more disposable income. “Parents are spending more on children aged 0-14.”<br /><br />Saraf agrees and has the bottom line to show for it. For three years, Les Petits, which stocks luxury clothing and accessories in the Rs 7,000 -Rs 1.2 lakh range, has been growing at 25-30 per cent annually. On an average, a customer buys stuff worth Rs 35,000-Rs 40,000 at Les Petits. “Parents are seeing value in luxury apparel.” She cites the example of a couple who bought a Baby Dior dress for Rs 30,000 from her store for their one-year-old. They said they would pass it on to their granddaughter, making it an heirloom. <br /><br />However, she feels that it will take a few years for the market to mature. “At present, parents are extremely brand conscious. Nearly 70-80 per cent of our buyers only purchase products with big logos.” For instance, Young Versace as a brand does well because it’s bold and loud, with every outfit either having the Medusa or the Young Versace logo on it. <br /><br />While globally, the 8-12 years category tends to sell the most, in India the 0-2 category has the maximum takers. That’s because the birth of a baby is a big event in Indian families, involving a lot of gifting. The same is true for the baby’s first birthday. “We see a lot of clothes and accessories like diaper bags being bought as gifts,” says Saraf. The next big category is the 8-12 age group. <br /><br />It’s not only parents who are brand conscious and want their kids to be on the same fashion page as themselves, the latter constitute an independent buyer group too. Influenced by media and peer pressure, kids are better informed and know what they want. “Girls as young as five are selecting their clothes and accessories. In the 8-12 age group, clothes are nearly always selected by the kids themselves,” says Saraf. <br /><br />Experts agree that luxury is percolating to India’s tier-II and -III cities. And, luxury kidswear is no exception. This is not surprising as 45 per cent of ultra high net worth households live in these cities, as per the Kotak Top of the Pyramid Report, 2014. Saraf recently held a trunk show in Ludhiana and was amazed at the brand awareness of her customers. She cites the instance of a grandmother who came to Les Petits from Chandigarh and walked out, a couple of hours later, with stuff worth Rs 3 lakh for her grandchildren. <br /><br />Unique Eye Luxury, the franchise partner of Armani Junior, is seeing a lot of interest from tier-II and -III cities. While many shoppers for Armani Junior are Armani customers themselves, there are some for whom Armani Junior is their first interaction with Brand Armani. <br /><br />One thing’s certain. While they may have had to wait a long time for their first brush with luxury, today’s parents are ensuring that for their kids luxury is just a way of life. <br /><br />smita@businessworld.com <br />Twitter: @smitabw<br /><br />(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 15-12-2014)</div>
