Gypsy Rose Clothing

Lanvin Petite: Are Designer Clothes For Children Really That Nefarious?

Last week, luxury label Lanvin debuted its new line for girls ages 5 to 10. The dresses — all pink ruffles and tiered chiffon and dreamlike confections — were adorable, as were the kiddies modeling them for the company’s lookbook, which featured little girls jumping out of shopping bags and carrying dolls with matching Lanvin outfits.

Still, the idea of Lanvin for kids perturbed some critics. Some groused that spending hundreds of dollars on a silk trench for a 5-year-old is impractical , since she will grow out of it in six months — and probably spill something on it, rip it or destroy it some other way before then. Others saw Lanvin’s foray into childrenswear as downright nefarious. One blogger called it “ unethical “; another, an example of capitalism run amok .

Yet, such outrage is a little … odd. After all, luxury labels have long created and sold clothes for kids.  The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has some Christian Dior children’s pieces dating back to the 1950s. The American couturier Charles James — known for his sexy, structured ballgowns worn by the likes of strip-tease artist Gypsy Rose Lee — also peddled pint-sized fashions during that time. And sportswear designer Claire McCardell made adorable mother-daughter ensembles for her clientele in the ’40s. But it was, ehem, Jeanne Lanvin (the founder of the House of Lanvin) who really revolutionized the idea of high-end children’s clothes with the fashions she made for her daughter Marguerite. Indeed, Lanvin had a childrenswear line before she started selling couture for adults.

Jeanne Lanvin (born 1867) started out as a milliner in Paris during the late 19th and early 20th century. But she was also a skilled dressmaker and made exquisite, ornately detailed clothing for her young daughter. At the time, children essentially dressed like miniature adults, wearing elaborate dresses with corsets and multiple skirts, dainty, lace-up boots and ridiculous hats and lace gloves. Lanvin eschewed the restrictive silhouettes of those clothes and made loose dresses for Marguerite to allow for easy movement, but she used the most luxurious fabrics — silk taffeta, gold-spun lace, diaphanous chiffon — and liberally embellished her designs with intricate folk-inspired embroidery, silk flowers, lace ribbons and lots of ruffles.

Lanvin’s millinery customers went gaga over these whimsical frocks, and they asked the dressmaker to make duplicates of Marguerite’s outfits for their own children, which she did at first on a customer-to-customer basis. In 1908, Lanvin decided to launch her first formal collection of children’s clothes, with 25 pieces. A year later she debuted a line for adults, which also featured soft silhouettes and lots of adornment. For decades, the house’s ads featured a mother and daughter in complimentary outfits. Lanvin’s label to this day features an illustration of a woman holding hands with a little girl, based on a photograph of the designer and her daughter in inky black coats and tall hats, preparing to go to a costume ball.

East Side Story

LIFE

Modernism, gender, and culture, a cultural studies approach

Stripping Gypsy, the life of Gypsy Rose Lee

Pop Culture Florida