Tweens favour designer fashion

Tweens, an American-coined term meaning children aged 8 to 12 - are expected to contribute to a growing demand for luxury goods this winter. For tweens and their older teenage counterparts, the search is on for expensive, branded accessories, belts, purses and perhaps a pair of shoes as seen in Teen Vogue, other glossies and advertisements fronted by celebrities. Teenagers are buying branded merchandise with allowance money or wages earned from part-time jobs and would rather own a Gucci wallet than a non-branded M&S equivalent.

In today's society, children are 100 per cent more brand conscious than their parents were in their younger years. For example, many children today know what Louis Vuitton or Gucci is. Label conscious parents start when their kids are babies, doting with brands such as Baby Gap, Baby Dior and Marc Jacobs. But once the children grow out of their cashmere baby blankets, they want to wear the same brands through their young adolescence.

In America, designer fashion represents approximately 9 per cent of teenage clothing purchases, a significant increase from a decade ago. Unfortunately, Britain isn't far behind. The British are as much a nation obsessed with celebrity culture and status, and girls as young as 9 years old are demanding Vera Wang dresses, D&G jeans, Diesel trainers and iPod mp3 players. What's next, BMW's for sixteen year-olds and Soho lofts for turning eighteen?