By Monica Corcoran
Los Angeles Times
September 25, 2007
LOS ANGELES – Jillian
Hurwitz doesn’t really need to shop for a back-to-school
wardrobe. After all, the stylish 15-year-old attends a
private school where she wears a uniform every day. But
that didn’t stop her from hitting the racks at the Madison
boutique in Brentwood on a recent hot-as-Hades afternoon.
Forget cruising the mall for $39.99 Gap fall sweaters. At
the moment, Jillian is dallying with an armful of designer
jackets and jumpers by Marc Jacobs.
“Chanel is definitely my favorite designer,” she says,
emerging from the dressing room. She adds that her most
prized purse is a black Yves Saint Laurent Muse bag, which
sells for about $1,200. Her best friend, 14-year-old
Jennifer Hourani, prefers her Chloe Paddington bag. But
today, Jennifer is carrying a pristine white leather Dolce
& Gabbana tote (it was shelved after Labor Day).
If this all leaves you aghast, you haven’t spent enough
time at the mall lately. Teens have become a force in the
luxury market. The days of begging parents for a Benetton
rugby or Coach saddle bag are long gone. They don’t just
covet luxury goods, they buy them. A lot of them, in fact.
Designer labels make up about 15.3 percent of purchases by
13- to 17-year-olds, according to a recent study by New
York-based marketing research company NPD Group. Five
years ago, that figure hovered at 9.6 percent.
Increasingly, luxury brands are catering to younger
customers.
There may be no generation as thoroughly saturated in
brand advertising as the one growing up right now. Beyond
the glossy ads in magazines and on television, Marc Jacobs
runs Internet campaigns, celebrities are paid to brandish
luxury goods (and what they wear is dutifully chronicled
in gossip columns and Web sites) and luxury campaigns
feature preteen spokesgirls. Not to mention label names
are actual plot points in TV shows, music and movies.
No wonder teens talk waaaaay more about labels than their
parents. A recent survey of more than 2,000 13- to
17-year-olds by marketing consultants Keller Fay Group
found that kids have 145 conversations about brands per
week. Adults invoke brand names about half as often.
Jillian and Jennifer are more fluent than most. They shop
every weekend and quickly spot the new inventory at Ron
Herman. Last summer, the girls bought purses in France and
Spain – one that they will even share. And Jillian has her
heart set on a quilted red Chanel handbag for her 16th
birthday in February.
Jillian and Jennifer attend the Archer School for Girls,
where the dress code forbids creative ensembles and
excessive jewelry. When it comes to book bags and
handbags, however, the sky is apparently the limit.
“Girls at school have Birkin bags,” says Jillian,
referring to the iconic carryall by Hermes that commands
upward of $10,000 and a two-year wait list. “I don’t know
if I have seen anyone with a crocodile one, though.”
Birkins as book bags?
“The luxury brands are endearing themselves to younger
audiences and making an emotional connection,” says J.
Elias Portnoy, chief strategist at brand marketing agency
the Portnoy Group. “If you develop a relationship early,
you’re likely to have a customer for life.”
Jillian was willing to give up all her other gifts to get
the YSL Muse bag last Christmas, says her mom, Laurie
Feltheimer, who oversees a fashion Web site called “Hot in
Hollywood” on hsn.com. Dad Jon Feltheimer runs Lionsgate.
“Girls today know about the ‘It’ bag before it even comes
out,” Laurie Feltheimer says. “It makes me a little sad.”
Blame Hollywood, too. Two years ago, on the now canceled
“Gilmore Girls,” Rory received a Birkin from her
boyfriend. She promptly responded by saying, “I love you,”
and he replied, “The lady who sold this purse to me said
that was going to happen.”
Now, that’s a romantic spin on young love.
French luxury retailer Hermes doesn’t market to teens, but
other designers have no qualms about courting the
Clearasil set. In this month’s Teen Vogue, glossy ads for
oversize fall handbags by Gucci, Chloe, and Louis Vuitton
can be found in the first 10 pages of the mini-magazine
with a cult following among teenagers.
And that’s just the ads. The women’s media Web site
Jezebel.com recently tallied the prices of the merchandise
featured in the editorial content of the September issue
of Teen Vogue to a total of $74,458. Per their research,
Cosmopolitan – not CosmoGirl, mind you – rang in at just
$27,636.64.
Even Karl Lagerfeld’s recent announcement that he will
design a line of eponymous handbags and luggage that won’t
exceed $1,000 sounds like a way to target his adoring
adolescent Chanelphiles.
“I get it,” says Jillian, over a cup of pea soup at
California Pizza Kitchen. “These designers know that we
like their brands and want to suck up to us.”