BOUTIQUE BABIES: Shops offer designer lines that have kids dressing like the stars

Among costly stilettos and designer tops, piles of baby clothes sit on tables inside Couture, a downtown women's boutique. Onesies screened with designer logos, tiny dresses adorned with ruffles, glittery barrettes and socks knitted to look like Mary Janes tempt shoppers to indulge. A Toni Tierney pink ruffled outfit: $50. A Kids Ink onesie: $40.

Or try Shannon Dougherty's Pipsqueak Couture line, with tees for $20.

"She sells everything," Dougherty says, looking at her 14-month-old daughter, Aspen, who is dressed head-to-toe in Couture's baby lines. "People see what she's wearing and they'll want the hair clips and stuff."

Boutique shoppers have been sucking up $100 baby outfits, leaving shops no choice but to respond - and these days, there's hardly a women's or lifestyle boutique that doesn't carry something for the kiddos. Whether it's pricey stuffed animals, high-end onesies or tween hoodies, most boutiques are starting to carry or expand their offerings of kids lines.

"If I was a store owner and I was opening up a boutique and it was women's, I would definitely carry children's," says Jen Bright-Fathi, owner of Bunny & Bee, a children's line based in San Francisco.

So noted: Terra Verde carries toys and Bunnies by the Bay clothing; idorü sells kid-size Paul Frank tees. Colorado Co-Op stocks high-end baby skin-care products and a small selection of gifts, toys and tees; and LuLu, the newest women's boutique on Tejon Street, sectioned off the back end of the store for couture tween clothing.

"We've been selling just tons of it - that's why we're expanding," says Laura Thompson, gift buyer for Terra Verde.

At Couture, baby clothing accounts for a third of sales, Dougherty says; Kelly Martinez, manager at LuLu, reports the same for its kids line.

Though buyers still tend to be friends and family (baby boutiquing is largely a gift market), sales are continuing to grow.

Bright-Fathi says this trend can be partly attributed to an increasing interest in what celebrity babies are wearing.

"Celebrity moms coming out of Starbucks - it's all about what shoes her baby's got on," Bright-Fathi says.

America wants what Shiloh (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's baby) and Suri (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' child) are wearing.

Or in some cases, shoppers want the lines that celebrities themselves have designed. Gwen Stefani's "Harajuku Lovers" line, available at LuLu, sells well because of it's exclusivity, Martinez says.

"The reason why there's so many boutiques is because (shoppers) want something unusual," Martinez says. "If the woman is dressing to the nines and uniquely, of course she wants her children to be dressed that way."

"It doesn't cater to everybody," Martinez says. But, she continues, "I think people know that when they go into a boutique."

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0152 or melissa.cassutt@gazette.com

FEATURED STORES

Not every local boutique that carries baby and kids clothing was used in this article. Please check with your favorite store to inquire about the products it carries. The following stores were featured:

COUTURE

• Carries baby clothing - girls, newborn to Size 4T; boys, newborn to 24 months old 109 N. Tejon St. 633-0363

TERRA VERDE

• Carries baby clothing and kids toys 208 N. Tejon St. 444-8621

LULU

• Carries tween clothing, ages 9 to 12 214 1/2 N. Tejon St. 632-5858

IDORÜ

• Carries kids Paul Frank tees and various toys 218 N. Tejon St., Suite 100 667-0965

COLORADO CO-OP

• Carries Kiehl's skin-care products for babies, various toys and kids tees 325 N. Tejon St. 389-0696