“Sweet Petites and Fashion Treats”
By Dustin Clendenen

With the explosion of maternity fashion over the last decade, you knew it was only a matter of time before another niche market was tapped. Welcome to the world of baby fashion. These little tykes may still be picking their noses and eating bugs, but at least they look good doing it.

Candy was the name of the game over at the Sweet Petites and Fashion Treats show, part of LA's annual Baby Celebration. The creme-de-la-creme of our city's parents crowded into Social Hollywood in their own glamorous get-ups, cooing voices primed, camera phones poised and ready.

Coordinated by the talented (and surely patient) Joey Gyondla, "Sweet Petites" featured a roster of more than twenty-five designers, all of them specializing in infant and early-childhood fashion.

As the parents settled into their seats, all went silent as Fairy Grandmother took the stage, costumed in a pink glittery gown and topped off with a sparkling tiara. Her wand in one hand and the mic in the other, Fairy Grandmother reminded us how glad she was to see us again - "My how you've grown up." The surrealism continued as she pulled out her bejeweled index cards and began introducing the coming train of airbrushed babies.

The candy-themed show was divided into three treats, each with a cutesy name that hinted at the style to come. Sugar Drops opened with a dazed two-year-old girl being lead out in a Pink Ruffle Butt Onesie diaper by a designer "Kicky Pants," with ruffles enough to look like a stumbling bouquet of roses.
This may have been followed by a gamut of PJs and loungewear, but it ended with a surprisingly coherent little girl strutting calmly out onto the catwalk in what can best be described as a hot Gwen Stefani mess. Armed with a swirling lollipop, Jasmine wandered to the end of the stage and posed before the barrage of flashbulbs in a feathered top hat and a stylish dress of stripes and heavy, crushed velvet textures.

With the advent of the Cotton Candy leg of the show, the quiet techno music transitioned over to some fluffy hip-hop featuring regular intervals of carnival muzak. The tot-aged models waddled out in consistently preppy play clothes, including items not limited to sweater-vests, knee-high socks, button-ups with ties and cardigans. With the diversity of fashion already displayed and what was to come, it became clear: if you want your baby looking up to date in his or her fashion this summer, go with shorts featuring rolled up hems.

Rock Candy was the aptly named and fascinating finale, featuring perhaps the most interesting, if obvious, designs of the entire show. Rock Candy was on the scene to show us that our children are never too young to be emo and live a more hard-core type of life. After a boy in an awkward black onesie by Toy Machine stumbled off the stage, looking very much like a 20's flapper for a day at the beach, the little models after that consistently trotted out in items adorned with skulls, broken hearts and guitars.

The Avril Lavigne flavored garb reached punk crescendo at the finale when little Shane came out wearing a black, gold-trimmed three-piece suit with cowboy boots and a pair of black angel wings strapped to his back.

The highlights of the show were in the little details, particularly in the cartoonish confidence invoked by two of the little girls. One of them exploded out from back of stage with a lampoonish runway strut, shaking her hips widely with each step and waving proudly with an outstretched arm, blowing kisses to the cameras when she reached them at the end of the runway. Another one decided to pause in front of the flashbulbs for nearly a full-clocked minute, moving from side to side and striking poses straight out of the Paris Hilton handbook.

When all was said and done, though, the parents descended upon the stage and withdrew their stylish children. As one mother sighed and confessed, after all this glamour, the next day would just be full of grueling auditions until her son got another gig.