FASHION

Designer togs for little ones

Celebrity kids inspiring parents to shop for top labels

When Samantha Meiler shops for her son, she has a very specific look in mind: designer jeans, velour track suits, L.A.M.B. sneakers, a sporty-urban vibe.

“My son’s style is very Kingston,” she says, referring to Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale’s boy. “I make no qualms about it. I see pictures of Kingston and I say, ‘I want that outfit for my son.’ ”

Of course, lil’ Rossdale is still a toddler, and Meiler’s son is just 21 months old. But they’re part of a growing set of pint-size fashion plates, wearing shrunken-down versions of trendy adult clothes.

In the past few years, the obsession with dressing little kids like Dogtown skaters, Malibu moms and even Upper East Side socialites has hit a new, Suri-high level.

More clothing companies than ever are producing what the rag trade refers to as mini-me clothes on every price level. Marquee American designers, such as Phillip Lim and Marc Jacobs, are turning out Lilliputian renditions of clothes that sail down the runway each season.

European design houses that have a long tradition of producing children’s clothes are paying more attention to their kids wear lines. Instead of just churning out jumpers in Burberry checks or Missoni waves, they’re making children’s clothes that look like grown-up togs in teeny-tiny sizes. So naturally, the fast-fashion folk have followed suit: H&M and Zara are turning out mini-me looks for kids of all sizes.

While women’s national apparel sales have followed the economy downward, kids’ clothing sales have dipped less profoundly, according to retail research company NDP Group. And sales for infant-toddler clothes are the only clothing sector that’s significantly up, from $14.7 million in March and April 2007 to $15.3 million in the same period this year.