Billion-Dollar Babies
Neal Santelmann
Forbes.com
"Babies cannot be spoiled," claims Your Baby's First Year, the indispensable guide published by the American Society of Pediatrics. Fair enough. But that certainly hasn't stopped a heap of parents from trying.
Inspired by the spending habits of celebrity moms and abetted by upscale children's retailers, parents with boundless budgets and eyes for style are swaddling their little ones in high-end fashions and furnishings.
Forget about cotton onesies, floral-print receiving blankets and natural-finish cribs. We're talking modern-design bassinets, "limited edition" silk-screened T-shirts in the $50-and-up range, and leather-lined strollers for the price of a decent used car.
The U.S. retail market for infant, toddler and preschooler products (known in the industry as ITP) grew at a healthy pace from 2004 to 2005, according to New York City-based market research firm Packaged Facts. For instance, sales of ITP home furnishings and accessories rose 5.2% to more than $8 billion; sales of ITP toys were up 3.5% to $4.6 billion; and sales of ITP clothing and footwear were up 4.5% to nearly $16.8 billion.
Of course, it's the parents, not the children, who are spending all that dough.
"Many of our customers have waited until late in life to have kids, and they have plenty of disposable income," says Andrea Edmunds, co-founder of PoshTots.com, an online store known for its pint-sized luxuries and celebrity clientele. "A lot of them are spending on their first child, and you always go all-out for your first."
PoshTots.com features an endless array of extravagances for the newborn, toddler and junior sets. A canopied crib rings in at $2,760, a cowboy-themed chair is $450 and a Fort Bethesda outdoor playhouse will set you back $47,000. But spend here and you're in good company: Actor Dylan McDermott recently bought a crib set, Gwyneth Paltrow splurged on charmeuse baby blankets and Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise ordered two bassinets.
Cristina Boujnah, a Fashion Institute of Technology alumna who co-founded Yoya, an upscale baby boutique in Manhattan's Meatpacking District, says she and partner Gena Gerbier dreamed it up back in 2002 when, as new mothers, they couldn't find anywhere to shop but Baby Gap.
"We don't target the middle class," she says. "Price is not an issue to our customers, because when you come in, you can tell it's a designer store."
Though Boujnah admits to hearing grumblings about her prices from "local tourists, Long Islanders and grandparents," she says Yoya has been met with open arms by new parents in the decidedly upscale neighborhood.
The store currently carries clothing from 15 designers, as well as baby wares such as streamlined European-style furnishings from the Netto Collection and the nursery essentials of Brooklyn-based Oeuf. Yoya recently introduced the new Calla high chair from Fleurville. It's a brilliantly hued, lily-shaped, $875 fixture by white-hot product designer Yves Béhar.
Uh…$875 for a high chair?
"People have this lingering image of parents as 21-year-olds who are just scraping by, but we've found it's just the opposite," says Steve Granville, co-founder with his wife, Catherine, of Fleurville, based in San Raphael, Calif. "There are a lot of parents out there with dual incomes and a sense of style who are appalled by minivans and T-shirts with Disney characters. There's good traction right now for high-end baby makers."
Still, one can't help wondering whether those parents are shopping for their babies or for themselves. As one purveyor of high-end nursery sets puts it: "Let's face it: Babies are happy sleeping in a drawer."
To help your little ones get started on the road to lavish living, we've compiled a gallimaufry of high-priced baby goods, focusing only on baby's first couple of years. They should keep your children charmed--and you in debt--for a while to come.
