Skinny Jeans For Kids: A Bad Mom’s Confession

Kids fashion is admittedly tricky these days. Back in my parent’s day, kids didn’t really have ‘fashion’ as so much as they had ‘functional fabric coverings’ to keep their bodies modestly covered and insulated against the elements. Kids wore whatever the hell was on the racks that year and the term ‘fashion’ barely entered the picture until the child was old enough to fit into clothes from the ‘Junior Miss’ or, God forbid, the ‘Husky’ section. And even in those cases the term ‘fashion’ still didn’t really apply.

Well, those days are definitely over. These days you can dress up your little mini-me like they are, well a ‘mini-you‘. Almost anything you can purchase for an adult can be found for anyone from preemie-size upward. Is this a good thing?  A few months ago I was floored when The Gap started carrying Boyfriend Jeans for babies because hello? Don’t you need a boyfriend to steal those jeans from in order for them to qualify as ‘boyfriend jeans’?

Jonas Brothers: Are They To Blame For This Skinny Jeans For Kids Issue? Probably.

Anyway. My gut reaction when I saw that The Gap, JCrew, and Old Navy were carrying ‘skinny jeans’ for the ankle-biter set was ‘heck no, not my daughter. It’s only OshKosh knock-offs for my little girl — only the best in imitation wear for my little princess.‘

I mean, seriously? I totally rolled my eyes when I read this description from the JCrew line about the skinny jeans for girls:

‘Her new BFF: A new legging that looks like denim but feels like a knit, for hours of über-comfy wear. (They’re just like Mom’s version, only smaller.) The best part? Those little ankle zippers (they just send us over the edge).’

But then I remembered we had gone shopping for clothing last week and I had purchased some new jeans for my 4 year old. And those jeans had zippers. Had I inadvertently bought my 4yo skinny jeans? So I checked and oh mah gawd (drum roll please): I DID. And this is where I admit that those jeans are pretty much the best fitting jeans I’ve found for my uber skinny, buttless child (sorry kid, you got that buttless thing from me.)

So allow me to eat my words and comments — the comments where I had teased and yellow carded Catherine about putting her kid in skinny jeans — over the whole Boyfriend Jeans debacle and confess that maybe fashion for little kids that imitates adult wear isn’t a bad things. Kids deserve fashion too.

But I draw the line at thongs for children. My little girl can’t wear a thong until she’s 30.

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