Description
Every loving parent would like his child to have the best. If within our means, I am sure all our kids would be fl aunting 5+ digit-designer-luxury-brands. But then we think. And try to be more than loving… we try to be “wise/good” parent also. We wonder what message will we be giving the little ones. Will we be spoiling them or inculcating wrong value systems? And then we think some more… we calculate… and we try to be “intelligent” parents too. We wonder if it is worth it? … considering the child will outgrow the dress very soon. So, we ponder on the “wardrobe life.” We look at wiser options. It’s like creating a fund for the next purchase during this very purchase. We look at organic skin-friendly stuff and then we buy “100% cotton.” Budgetary provisioning again.
Further, within our quest for our goodness we then take primary p.o.s. decisions on colours, designs and prints only. Which are, in general, completely disastrous till we chose the next lesser disaster. We do the entire journey from Patch-Land to Graphic World for our boys and from Alice’s Wonderland to Cinderella’s Ball-room for our little girls. That’s how it would have happened and that’s how it happens.
We’ll…we all play this game. But it’s is a short game. It ends as soon as that child of ours begins to express his/her own preferences and taking their own decisions. But it’s a game that parents in India are totally not in control of. And, for guidance there is little to go by. The parenting magazines which are around focus little on fashion. Bloggers are totally womenswear skewed. Media work (fashion mags included) is only for women’s and men’s wear. They dont care about kids wear.
Team BoF was recently at an international exhibition where the Chinese fashion journalists were trying to impress upon European fabric makers to focus on kids wear as they felt it would be big in China soon. Pretty cocky for those who have just got the right to make a second baby, wasn’t it? “Sorry honey…kids wear is going to be biggest in India…” we silently muttered. Our research in this issue shows that kids wear will grow from a market of Rs. 50,120 crores in 2014 to Rs. 1,38,540 crores in 2014. In this issue you will also read about Carter’s—a brand that is Rs. 19,500 crores in size as on date. So Images BofF refuses to believe that kids wear mega brands can’t be made. It is a huge challenge… but it is a huge opportunity too. We hope there are brands around who are looking at an INR 1000 crore turnover in kids wear over the next few years, because the future will belong to them. None else.
he kids wear brands in India indeed do have the huge task of up-sizing fast while managing their huge array of sizes and the best way would be to seize complete leadership in defining the looks within the various sub-segments. And a closer partnership with both Indian parents and kids has to be fostered. There is no other way.
