KATHMANDU, March 20: “Romi, do you like this?” Rohin Khadka asks his five year-old son, taking a pair of brown linen trousers from a hanger inside Big Apple, a children’s apparel store, in Durbar Marg, Kathmandu.
The fair, thinly-built boy pores over it for a while and shakes his head. [break]
“I prefer this one,” he says, taking out blue stone-washed jeans with a chunk of creases on the cuffs. It bears a price tag of 1,145 rupees.
The father looks at the pants thoroughly and says, “Okay,” before handing them over to the shop attendant, confirming he wants to purchase them.
He then goes on to look at t-shirts.
“Which one,” Rohin asks his son, taking out brown and black surfing t-shirts from another hanger.
“This,” the smart kid for a five year-old says pointing at the black one. It comes with a price tag of 800-plus rupees.
The father once again endorses his son’s choice and asks the shop attendant to send it to the cash counter.
Drake drops new Nike x NOCTA 8K peaks apparel collection inspir...
Like Rohin, many middle-class parents nowadays let their children do the shopping. All they do is accompany them. On top of that, they do not hesitate to spend quite an amount on what their young ones choose.
Big Apple
Bikash Karki
Big Apple, where the Khadka duo was shopping, is a high-end children’s apparel store by Nepali standards. Jeans bear a price tag of up to 1,300 rupees, t-shirts up to 1,100 rupees, and jackets up to 2,500 rupees.
In a country where per capita income is not even US$400, one may argue those prices to be exorbitant. Others may say investment of a similar amount will fetch adult clothes of similar quality. But many parents, like Romi’s, hardly complain.
“I have been visiting this store since he (Romi) was born and I like the collection here. I don’t mind those prices,” Rohin, who works for a remittance company, says.
Big Apple
Bikash Karki
Two decades ago, many parents would hesitate to enter stores such as the Big Apple. “Children grow so quickly. Why do they need such expensive clothes?” would be their simple answer. And even if they had to buy something costly they would wait until Dashain or another major festival.
That is not the case today. Today, the element of fashion has overshadowed everything.
“Middle-class parents want to see their children better dressed all the time. So the practice of buying something good only during big festivals or special occasions is slowly becoming obsolete,” says Amitam Tuladhar, owner of Big Apple.
Parents now have become so fashionable they even buy special clothes for occasions such as birthday parties or weddings for their children. These dresses usually cost a lot and cannot be worn every day, everywhere.
Bikash Karki
Then there are times when iconic characters of movies such as Superman, Spiderman or Kung-fu Panda jump from theatre screens to children’s clothing. And the well-informed kids of today nag their father or mother to buy them clothes bearing these images. The parents usually fall prey to their demands.
But is the change in trend due to a rise of conspicuous consumption or the rise of fashion-conscious parents? Regardless, one thing is certain; many parents don’t sweat while spending money on their children.
“It’s because both spouses in a family work these days and it leaves them with a greater disposable income. So if the goods meet their expectations they don’t mind paying some extra amount,” says Kamal Keshari Tuladhar, director of Kool Kids, a high-end children’s store in Durbar Marg and Thapathali, where an infant’s dress can cost up to 1,000 rupees.
This change in consumer behavior is changing the landscape of Kathmandu’s children’s apparel market.
Bikash Karki
Although there are no figures on how much the children’s clothing market is worth, Durbar Marg, Kathmandu’s emerging high-end shopping hub, can be used as a yardstick to measure the growth of this sector.
Until two years ago, Durbar Marg had only two children’s clothing stores; Big Apple and Tintin. Today, Hong Kong’s premium children’s brand, Kingkow, has an outlet there. Kool Kids, which also sells Indian brands such as Lilliput and Gini and Jony, also opened its branch there last December. Other international branded wear considered mediocre by western standards but high-end in the Nepali market, such as Bossini, United Colors of Benetton (UCB), Zara and Giordano have also put up a children’s collection in their stores.
Kesang Lama is one who jumped on the bandwagon of opening children’s stores in Kathmandu. She says she took control of the Kingkow franchise some months ago after noticing how branded clothes were becoming popular among Kathmandu’s adults. “My simple assumption was that if the grown-ups have the money to buy Bossini and UCB products then they can also throw some towards quality clothes for their children,” she says. “The response so far is good.”
But the penetration of branded children’s wear hasn’t affected businesses of stores that were earlier dominating Kathmandu’s kids’ apparel market.
“The store has not recorded decline in sales so far,” says Anuttar Shakya, a senior salesman of Peanuts, who’s worked there for 12 years, but declined to give the figures. Big Apple, another store which was dominating the children’s clothing market until two years ago, also says it is doing “a brisk business.”
