Small sizes become fashionable: more and more clothing brands target the children's market

The campaigns with David Beckham went out of fashion and for a long time the flashes point to the clothes worn by the new generation, like his son Romeo Beckham, who at only twelve years old was hired to be the face of the British brand Burberry. At the local level, the same thing happens with the youngest members of the Tinelli clan or the children of Valeria Mazza who are increasingly sought after by companies that were born aiming at the adult world but are now discovering the potential of the child and adolescent market.

The trend of clothing brands to set foot in the children's market is not new, but in recent years the process has accelerated with the arrival of more players in a market that in the country has already shown evidence of better supporting the fluctuations of the economy. Currently, the children's fashion business in Argentina already moves 120 million garments per year and more than US$ 1,120 million.

"An advantage that attracts the children's market is that there is not so much fashion and the products have a longer life. Today the percentage of turnover of the children's line means 20% of the income of the large one, but for As it has been growing, it can most likely reach 70%," says Emilio Fita, partner of the Wanama brand, who decided to venture into the children's segment with the Wanama Boys and Girls line.

Levi's is another brand that has just set foot in the local kids' business. "The business is similar to that of adults. And although the billing is still lower and the distribution more limited, today the boys' line already represents 15% of the billing within the stores where we sell adult clothing," says Matías Galmarini. , marketing director of Leuru, the local Levi's licensee that for a few months has had an exclusive store for the Levi's Kids line in the Unicenter shopping mall and eight corners in adult stores. In addition, with a view to expanding for the summer season, they are going to add 30 mouths in the multi-brand channel nationwide.

One of the main attractions offered by the clothing business is its higher turnover. "The children's clothing industry has several conveniences, as it tends to be more classic clothing, it does not change much from one season to the next, but at the same time it rotates more because it quickly becomes obsolete: the growth rate of children at these ages makes it clothes have an early expiration date," explains Marcelo Sorzana, director of Surreal Marketing, a consultancy specialized in fashion companies.

A matter of costs

In the sector, they relativize the idea that it is a business with higher profit margins as a result of savings in the cost of fabric, and specify that the cost of renting the premises and in the design of the garments it is the same regardless of the age of its clients.

However, they recognize that the children's clothing market allows a better use of fabrics, which translates into some lower production costs."Diversifying the public not only improves sales volume, materials can also be optimized raw: in the fabrics that are basic, with the ease of laser cutting, children's outfits are assembled and the intrinsic manufacturing costs are lowered," admits Sorzana.

Rapsodia is another of the big brands that is preparing its landing in the new business, within a larger expansion process that includes the launch of a line of underwear (Rapsodia Intimate) and another of products for the home (Rapsodia Home), which will bring together gifts, pillows, mirrors, blankets and small pieces of furniture, "First we didn't get into the women's dressing room and now we're going around the house. And for next year, the idea is to enter the clothing market for girls with Rapsodia Girls", they explain in the brand founded by Josefina Helguera and Sol Acuña

In the list of new players that are entering the business, we must also include Falabella, who has just made a strong commitment to the younger market. The Chilean chain of stores won Coniglio, the brand founded by José Ignacio De Mendiguren, today a national deputy for Sergio Massa's party.

Although Coniglio declared bankruptcy two years ago, as a corollary of a process of decline that had begun when it was acquired by the investment fund The Exxel Group, it is not just another brand in the world of children's fashion In the '90s, Coniglio was the leader in the field, when it had more than 50 stores distributed throughout the country and a turnover of more than US$ 60 million.

Faced with the invasion of adult labels in the children's market, Cheeky is one of the few that went the other way: it started out exclusively as a children's brand and in 2004 expanded into the teen category with the launch How do you want me to love you?

Today, both brands have 220 of their own stores. "When we decided to start As You Want, tweens and teens were an unexplored segment: we saw that girls entering their teens didn't have a brand that represented them. Those consumers were no longer Cheeky's target, and we didn't feel like they were adult enough to wear a women's brand. It had to be a new proposal, with its own identity that spoke directly to them through the looks, the venues and the campaign. For all this, we considered it the best option to start a mark of zero and not add it as one more line within Cheeky", says Hernán Gálvez, Marketing Manager of Grupo Cheeky.

In the company they assure that the arrival of new players is positive for their business. "There are more and more specific labels for boys and this has to do with the growing importance that parents give when it comes to dressing their children. There is also a greater variety in proposals and customers are currently in need of finding styles and brands that represent their tastes to look for the little ones", he says. The brand sells about 8 million units annually and has annual gross sales of $1.8 billion.

A boy's thing

The growing fight for the children's fashion market is not an exclusive phenomenon of the Argentine market. In the United States, the business is one of the most dynamic in the world of fashion, with a turnover that last year exceeded US$ 156,000 million, while in France the average annual expense per baby already exceeds 600 euros per year.

The upward trend responds to both economic and sociological factors. Among the latter, it stands out that as the number of children decreases in more developed societies and couples postpone parenthood for a few years, the amount of money spent on children also increases. In other words, families with fewer members and parents with a more consolidated economic position buy more and more expensive clothes for their children.

Clothing brands began to see where the business was coming from relatively recently. Although some emblematic companies in the world of luxury such as Christian Dior or Ralph Lauren launched their children's lines almost forty years ago, it was in the '90s when there was a massive landing of brands and designers, with the popularization of proposals such as Gap Kids, Little Marc Jacobs or Stella McCartney Kids.

Today, the worldwide business of children's fashion is dominated by brands that were born aiming at children such as Carter's, Mother Care or The Children Place, although each time the success stories of adult companies that dared to take the step of bet on the children's public. Burberry surpassed the US$100 million billing barrier in 2015 with its children's line, while the giant Zara decided to make its children's line independent, under the name Kiddy Class, to better serve the segment.

To this factor is added the increasingly preponderant role that children have when it comes to defining the fate of the family budget. Social networks and the greater connectivity with which the new generations grow up mean that the youngest members of families are more internalized with the new trends, which translates into greater decision-making power in choosing their wardrobe.

"About four years of age, children acquire greater autonomy, so they are more aware of the care of their belongings and their personal image, especially girls begin to define their tastes and choose how to dress", explains Mariela Mociulsky , director of Trendsity, a consultancy specialized in trends in social groups, making it clear why more and more companies are after the children of Kim Kardashian, Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt to be the new image of their brand.

In the sights of the greats

The reasons that explain the interest of new players

Rotation

The obsolescence of children's clothing is greater basically due to the growth of the boys that makes them stop using it faster

Spending on the rise

In developed societies, families spend more and more on their children's clothing as parenthood has been delayed

Autonomy

Kids have more and more decision-making power in family expenses and in the choice of their wardrobe

1120

Millions of dollars

On the rise. It is what moves the children's clothing market in Argentina

156

billions of dollars

No parameter. It is what the same business invoices in the United States, a more extensive market

1200

clothing manufacturersWide offer. They are the manufacturers of clothing for boys that today have operations in the country