Can the Children’s Clothing Industry Survive?

The second largest industry in the United States is retail; this includes both the number of employees and number of establishments. Generating 300 billion in retail sales on an annual basis, with 16.8 billion of this share generated by the girls fashion market, this figure is just for newborn baby girl’s fashion through to toddler girls. This figure equates to 12,500 per capita in the United States.

Inspired by the spending habits of celebrity moms, families where both parents work and have disposable incomes means many families have more to spend on their children than in eras past. Gone are the days when moms sewed children’s clothing at home or used hand-me-downs, today parents purchase designer clothing for their children. Cotton onesies and floral receiving blankets are ‘out’, one-off silk screen printed tees and silk organza dresses are ‘in’. Massed produced girl’s fashion lines are ‘out’, upscale designer girl’s clothing which allow for individual expression and cutting edge style are ‘in’.

Can the ever expanding retail industry survive the economic downturn? Expert analysts of the industry suggest that the children’s’ fashion industry, in particular, the girls fashion industry can survive. The women’s’ fashion sector and girl’s fashion sectors of the industry have been known for resilience during economic downturns.

Typically a period for ‘tightening belts’, it seems that dads follow suit and spend less, but moms do not. When it comes to fashion for themselves and their children, moms are ruled by their emotions, they will keep spending at the same rate on fashion clothing items for themselves and their children.

It is not to say that the women’s’ fashion and girls’ fashion sectors are not affected by the downturn in the economy, they are; however these two buoyant sectors will weather the storm and survive quite well, sales may be down, but not compared to other sectors of the industry.

When it comes to our children, parents, particularly moms love to have that ‘up to the minute’ fashion piece for their little ones. The old adage ‘babies can’t be spoiled’ may be true, but it certainly doesn’t prevent many parents from trying, swaddling our little ones in high end fashion seems to be a given for parents with disposable incomes.

The old lingering image of young parents just scraping by is a thing of the past, the high earning dual income family of today are appalled by Disney characters on their children’s’ t-shirts. Thus, emerges the expanding niche market of high end children’s fashion designers, who may well be able to weather the economic storm and even prosper during poor economic periods.