North West steps out in $3,500 coat — And the growing business of ‘Kiddie Couture’

 

North West turned eyes when she stepped out in NYC’s chilly weather Wednesday wearing a fur coat that could be worth $3,500, according to Jody Wolfe and Marc Kaufman of Kaufman Furs.

“Swag,” mom Kim Kardashian simply wrote of her 2-year-old daughter, who donned a black faux-fur cape in 2014. Secrets of Stylists authorSasha Charnin Morrison, who believes the new coat is real fur, tells Yahoo Parenting that Kardashian has also worn the same, or similar, fox fur chubbie coat. Kardashian’s publicist tells the New York Post that the jacket — which has drawn ire from PETA — was a gift.

The Instagram photo of little North received more than 1 million likes and plenty of comments, many of them calling the toddler’s outfit “cute.”

But cute doesn’t begin cover it. “Kiddie couture,” as fashion designers’ luxe children’s offerings have been dubbed, is expanding — and exorbitant.

“What you’ll see on the runway, you will see in our children’s area — everything matches down,” luxury London-based retailer Harrods’ managing director Michael Ward recently told the Daily Mail about the increasing number of fashion houses creating clothes for kids, including Christian Dior (above), Karl Lagerfeld (with a just-launched kiddie couture line), Gucci, and Valentino, as well as Lanvin, Roberto Cavalli, and Marc Jacobs, among others. “A lot of the fashion houses have recognized that their best way of developing their customer of the future is to get them early.”

Photo: Karl Lagerfeld Kids

And they’re not getting them for cheap, either. Dior’s silk crepe dress for 8-year-olds, shown at top, retails for about $5,670 at Harrods and Dior boutiques. The brand’s kids’ wool felt coat costs more than $990. Fendi’s wool coat with a removable fur collar for 12-month-olds tops that, at more than $1,000. Gucci has even rolled out a hoodie for the 6- to 9-month set — for $380.