When celebrity babies are photographed wearing animal-print velvet dresses and designer shoes, many parents think perhaps a simple frock and a smile would be more appealing. Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images Visit the Photo Place

Baby fashion goes a wee bit too far

Date published: 5/25/2008

CHICAGO

Flash forward, and there are times that I look at my youngest children, ages 6 and 9, as they head out the door, typically to be barely on time for school, and I have to rationalize that somehow stripes and plaids really do go together. Or that chocolate stain? It will meld into the pattern.

With my 14-year-old son, of course, it's more along the lines of informing him he really can't wear the same exact clothes on two consecutive days. (Though I confess when he says, "Why not? They are clean," I don't have a good answer.) Meanwhile, my almost 12-year-old daughter is convinced that no one in Western civilization makes jeans that look good on her--which she'll think again when she's 40--and everything that I like for her is "so stupid looking," and you get the picture.

But here, it's back to the little ones. "Adriana Serio is into celebrity fashion. She recently got a $28 pair of pink Mary Jane shoes by Robeez after the daughter of actress and former Miss USA Ali Landry was photographed wearing them."

Adriana is 9 months old.

So wrote Rachel Dodes recently in the Wall Street Journal in a piece titled "Dress-up: Moms put their tykes in star's clothes."

Adriana's mom is one of millions who now follow Hollywood baby fashion closely--and shops accordingly, whether they can afford to or not.

One young mom, an administrative assistant in Dayton, Ohio, bought a $25 pack of camouflage-print socks for her 5-month-old Jason after seeing pictures of a celebrity baby "knocking around London in his socks." Dodes writes, "'Now he can be just as hot as any celebrity baby,'his mom said."

This is no strange trend for a few over- (or under-) achieving parents. Celebrity-babies.com, which is all about celebrity baby fashion, "tips," and links to the stores where the clothes adorning the tykes can be bought, gets 10 million page views a month, Dodes reports. It gets half a million dollars a year from major companies eager to reach these acquisitive moms.

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Date published: 5/25/2008